The Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School student council features a sensational group of youngsters who possess the enthusiasm and determination to really make a difference around the building and in the community.
Camryn Smith (president), Mia Kaufman (vice president) and Isabella Henderson (secretary) comprise the group’s executive board. Teachers Janet Blitz and Patrice Monks are the organization’s faculty advisor.
“Sixth grade students ran for executive board positions in October,” Ms. Blitz explained. “Students wrote and recorded speeches, which were uploaded to the STEM student council Google Classroom. Candidates also created campaign posters to hang in the hallways. Every class viewed the speeches and votes were cast and tabulated.”
Representatives were also elected from each class in the building. The full student council meets twice a month on Monday mornings before classes begin.
“The student council has been working very hard to create a sense of community at the STEM School,” Ms. Monks said. “Student council initiated several spirit days and in conjunction with the school’s new ‘house’ system, students earn house points for participating. Earning points has really encouraged students to participate in spirit days.”
The student leaders helped organize Huntington Pride Day (everyone wore their Huntington blue colored apparel), House Color Day (folks wore their house colors or house t-shirt) and Twin Day (everyone dressed like a friend, a group of friends or even entire classes). “Student council is planning upcoming spirit days, including sports jersey day, crazy hat day and mismatch day,” Ms. Monks said.
The Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School student council recently completed its first school wide community service project. “STEM teamed up with Helping Hands Rescue Mission and had a food drive to collect food for families within the Huntington community,” Ms. Blitz said. “Students earned house points for contributing canned goods for the food drive. Thanks to the very generous students and families, Helping Hands Rescue Mission said it had enough food for 500 families within the community. House Altruismo came in first place and earned its house an additional 100 points.”
The student council members are planning a December visit to Carillon Nursing Home where the group will visit with and perform holiday songs for the residents. Students will also be delivering small gift baskets filled with various treats for the residents.
The STEM student council also intends to team up with Helping Hands Rescue Mission again in January and February. “As excitement for Super Bowl LIV builds, the student council has decided on a ‘Soup-er Bowl’ service project,” Ms. Monks said. “We will be asking students to donate cans of soup for the food pantry. Helping Hands has mentioned that the food pantry supplies are low in the winter months. The canned soup drive will help address this problem. Again, we will be rewarding the house with the most donations with an additional 100 house points to encourage participation in the event.”
The energetic student council members and their faculty advisors are already thinking about several spring initiatives the group is interested in pursuing.
