Student council leaders from 14 Southeast Minnesota school districts exchange ideas

Jordan Shearer, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Nov. 4—PINE ISLAND, Minn. — Mayo High School has almost the same number of students as the entire population of Blooming Prairie.

Students at Albert Lea High SChool live almost 100 miles away from those in Red Wing.

In spite of coming from an array of circumstances and backgrounds, representatives from 14 student council bodies gathered Friday in Pine Island to exchange ideas, collaborate and learn from one another.

"Your role as a leader is to enrich the lives of the people who have voted for you to be a leader," Pine Island Superintendent Tonya Constantine told the room of more than 300 students.

Known simply as South Eastern Division, the multi-school student body is part of the larger Minnesota Association of Student Councils. SED serves as an executive board for more than 40 student government bodies in southeast Minnesota.

Pine Island student council advisor Kylie Stai joked the event was essentially doubling the number of students in the building for the day.

In addition to the keynote address, students from each school gave an update on some of the accomplishments their council had achieved or projects they were working on.

They played a massive version of true or false, talked about fundraising, and danced to Taylor Swift while moving from one agenda item to the next.

Later in the day, the students broke into smaller round table discussions to talk about everything from issues around mental health to how to address cell phone issues in class.

"We almost always get some of our best ideas from this round table session," said Garett Sperber, president of Pine Island Student Council. "It generates a lot of the ideas that bring our school closer together."

Aside from sharing ideas from one school to the next, SED General Secretary Elena Meves and President Sabrina Cook said the gathering serves as an outlet for students to grow as leaders.

"It's to amplify the youth voice," Meves said about being involved in SED. "There's no way you can't learn something out of the experience."