Rarely do we think about planning necessary to produce the countless school dances, spirit weeks, and rallies we attend each year.
It is the students and faculty of ASB behind it all: “We play a crucial role in keeping our school spirit alive, uniting our student body, and ensuring that everybody in our school environment feels included,” Senior and ASB President Bridget Stuebner said.
Stuebner said that she joined ASB with the intention of making the MVHS campus a more welcoming place for students. She has since learned much more: “I have met lots of great people and learned important life skills, like management and collaboration,” Stuebner said.
Stuebner oversees every aspect of day-to-day operations, such as event planning, and committee leadership.
“I plan events that appeal to different groups on campus and share stories of the underrepresented, currently I’m working with them to plan, Candidly Speaking, to have difficult conversations about a variety of issues like racism and gender inequality,” Stuebner said.
Junior Precious Nyarko, a member of the Diversity Committee within ASB, shares Stuebner’s sentiment about ASB. Nyarko focuses on building our school community, school spirit, and representing the student body. Nyarko and her committee achieve this by creating spirit days, where students dress up: In the past Nyarko has planned space/cowboy day, pink out day, and pajama day.
“I joined ASB to help build my school’s community, and make everybody feel welcome and included. School spirit is important to create school spirit and unity, plus it’s fun and there are no negatives to taking part in spirit days,” Nyarko said.
The students who are unable to find costume items can still participate in spirit days, through the Diversity Committee, by finding free spirit items in the library.
“The Diversity committee brings different supplies and costumes to provide for people that don’t have access to it to make sure everyone can participate.” says Stuebner. Despite the fact that you need to buy tickets to go to events, there is financial aid for those who cannot afford it, and the diversity committee is constantly looking for new solutions to include everybody.
“Many people have taken advantage of spirit day clothes, [which is] exactly what we’re trying to do and it looks like it’s making a difference. It brings the student body together and creates an inclusive environment. The whole point is to bring everyone together and get people excited to attend events” Stuebner said.
Their efforts don’t stop at the door either; they make sure that during events every student wants to be there. “We plan events that include the whole student body to make it more fun for people that dont like to dance by providing games and hosting a variety of events, like spikeball, dodgeball,” Stuebner said. “We are planning on a diversity rally to showcase different groups on campus.”