My Journey: How I Spent 7 Years In Student Council

by Vitaly Stolyarchuk

I can't believe it… It's my last year at this school…in the Student Council. In previous issues I talked about my presidency: Why I wanted to do it, what I did, and what I learned from that experience. In this article, I want to share with you my journey in the Student Council from a 12 year old boy to this day.

2014

My first year of Student Council was in 2014. Back then the Student Council was very different. First of all, the person who ran the Student Council wasn't Mrs Anna Mara, it was our lovely Mrs Irene Korovina. Secondly, although the Student Council did organize such events as Teacher’s Day and 8th of March, that’s pretty much all it did. 

Till this day I remember my first day as a Student Council member. It was such an honor and such a prestige, because as a kid I used to watch the senior students gather to discuss something, and I wanted to be a part of that. And now it came to pass. I was part of the group and I was on cloud nine. So in the first meeting, the President of the SC informed us of the strict committee rules—that if we do not come to meetings, we would get kicked out, and if we misbehave, we would also be out. I thought to myself, “Wow, wow, this is more serious than I thought...” Then we were asked to choose a committee. And because I thought that the Sports Committee was the easiest, I picked it. After that we received our Student Council Member badges, and we went back to our classes to do our regular work. Unfortunately, that was the end of  my first year of being a member. I didn't do much, so the year went by quickly. The fact that I didn't do anything didn't discourage me because I knew that if I worked diligently, I would reap the benefits.

2015

In my second year I was a bit more involved. The Student Council organized a teachers’ cafe in the rally hall. Although I didn't participate in the organizational part of the event, I helped by being one of the servers. What made this experience most memorable is the ridiculous story that came from the event. The servers were delivering food to the teachers from a food station that was behind a curtain. To be fair, it was quite challenging to serve all this food because most of us, the servers, did not have any food that day and we were starving to death. So one of the girls who was a server could not hold any longer and decided to start munching on the food. At first all of us were telling her, “Stop, you can't do that! What if the teachers see you?” but at that point she already had bitten the forbidden fruit (in this case it was a piece of salami) and she carried on munching away. The rest of us servers couldn’t resist and we joined in the feast. After like 10 minutes of glutinous indulgence, I noticed that one of the tables was looking for a server. As I was greedily chewing and swallowing my last piece of salami, I ran to the table and the teacher gestured me to lower down and she said, “I see that you are all hungry back there, but could we also have some of that food...” It was so embarrassing that a server was eating the food of the teachers. I quickly ran to the servers to tell them we’ve been busted and to stop eating.

Although that year I wasn't part of many other projects or meetings, I was trying to the best of my abilities to complete the tasks that were assigned to me.

2016

In my third year, the President of the Student Council offered me the opportunity to be the head of a Committee, but not just any Committee—The Finance Committee. Of course it was a big honor for me, yet to be honest with you I was petrified. I didn't think that I was qualified for the job, but I still decided to take the opportunity and give it my best shot. Despite me making some rookie mistakes, it was real fun being the head of a committee. There was a price to pay, though—I needed to be more active, spend more time in different meetings, and have more brainstorming sessions. At first it was a bit scary because most of the heads of other Committees were a year or two from graduation, and being just a kid made me feel intimidated, but later on that fear faded away. With each meeting you could feel how you're getting closer to each other and if a problem occurred, you as a whole team would put your heads together to figure it out. And that feeling alone is what kept me going year after year. That feeling of a team that is doing something good for the students, the teachers, the school.

2017

The following year I expected to become the Head of the Finance Committee again, but the SC decided to give that opportunity to someone else. I didn't let that upset me and I just carried on with helping wherever I could.  Surprisingly, that year the Student Council was more ambitious and daring than any other years. Besides organizing the traditional Teachers’ Day and 8th of March celebration, the Student Council decided to take responsibility of organizing such events like Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Valentine's Day. Not only that, but the Student Council also decided to make our own school newspaper and the famous Asian Snack Bazaar! It was a historical moment for Student Council and I was not even taking active part in it! So I decided for myself that I should get involved and help as much as I could. At first it started with as simple as a favor to help collect some paper turkeys for Thanksgiving, then it was coming to meetings to help out, then I went to extremes such as jumping in to help and sell bubble tea even though it was none of my business. And because of helping in those little things even though I wasn't officially an Executive, I was considered a part of the team because I would help however and whenever I could.

2018

Then came the year when I decided to run for president just like my older brother Alex did when he was in 10th grade. I was very uncertain... there were times when I would come to Mrs Anna and say “I can't do it! I won't run for President,” and she would calm me down and tell me that I can do it. I was up against two strong candidates that had a good following. I always thought that if you want to be a leader you need to be the smartest, the wisest, the most talented person, and I knew that I was far from all of that. But despite me being really uncertain I just thought why not shoot my shot and see what happens. On the day we were presenting our speeches, my clicker was not functioning properly and my presentation was completely ruined. I kept on going despite that and was already convinced that I was out of the race. It was very close, but I won. 

Then came the bigger challenge—the Presidency itself. At first it seemed like all fun and games until I realized the huge burden that I needed to carry for my team and what they produce. Everything that we decided to do—an event, a project, a sale—all lay on the President’s shoulders, and if someone didn’t complete something on time, it was the responsibility of the President. I'm glad that I had that experience. It taught me a lot about how to think critically and analyze what the best solution to a problem is. Another big challenge was learning how to work with people. I found it to be quite challenging because you have to find this balance of being a friend and a coworker. So I needed to find time for jokes, but I also needed to be serious during working hours. I did make the mistake of being too serious, but luckily with the help of Mrs. Anna and my friends I learned how to find that balance.

2019

Then came my final year. Now this time it was tougher than any other year, the reason being that besides trying to actively participate in the Student Council, I needed to make sure that I find the time to finish my honor roll, prepare for SATs, my Final Project, our TED-Ed Talks, Russian Exams, IELTS. It was quite challenging, but the only thing that kept me going was knowing that I had friends that were in the same situation as me, and yet they were still doing their job as Student Council members and as regular students. I didn't want to let anyone down there, so gave it all I got to make the year worth remembering!

In conclusion I want to say don't be afraid to start somewhere. You don't have to immediately start with something grand and big to be recognized and given a high position. Trust me, even doing a simple job such as cutting out hearts for Valentine's Day and doing it well is more than enough to be seen by people in charge and know that you are dependable. And who knows where that might get you in the future.