Before Jefferson Elementary capped off its school year, a small group of students gathered outside on the Jefferson campus for a small recognition ceremony honoring their involvement in the school’s student council.
Jefferson’s 11-person student council helped plan the school’s spirit days, its end of the year “Wild Wild West” dance, as well as the decorations in front of Jefferson meant to send off the school’s principal, Susan Yakich, who’s starting work as a principal in Windsor in July.
Members of Jefferson’s 2021 student council include Casey Rose, Preston Fraser, Alexis Silva, Rosemary Galvez Dolores, Giovanni Calderon-Sanchez, Cooper Tapparo, Jessa Jackson, Wyatt Plum, Emiliano Lopez Galvan, Kaely Orosco and Mira Chesters-Szach.
“I’m so happy and so grateful that I got to be the advisor here at Jefferson Elementary. You’re all hard-working students and you have a lot of leadership qualities and I really appreciate all that you’ve done,” said Mariya Cree, a Jefferson counselor and the student council advisor, during the June 8 recognition ceremony.
According to Cree, members of the elementary school’s student council gathered together to meet every Wednesday since January to plan various events for the school. At their meetings, the council also got to hear presentations from local leaders around them, like Yakich and Cloverdale Superintendent Betha MacClain.
“Leadership looks a lot of different ways, and there are a couple of things about being a leader that I think are really important to me that I wanted to share with you, because you have all taken a step to be leaders by participating in student council,” MacClain said during the recognition ceremony. “One of those things really is being courageous. That means, for instance, doing the right thing when nobody is watching, doing the right thing for other people, not just yourself … that to me is a sign of leadership, even if you do it in a way that nobody notices.”
While Cree, Yakich, MacClain and Robin Murdoch, Jefferson’s dean of students, all recognized the students for their work on the council, students themselves thanked Cree and the school for giving them the opportunity to be on the council.
“Thank you for making student council because everyone can be together and get ideas for the school and think about other things we can make to help the school,” said one student before the group dispersed.
At the ceremony, students each received a certificate for their participation, as well as a grouping of gift cards from local businesses.
Another student echoed those thoughts, “I want to say thank you to all the students and all the teachers because I learned a lot and it’s helping me.”
