At the beginning of this year, I was selected to be one of the grade representatives for OSC’s Student Government Association (SGA), a role which I have had since 9th grade. The SGA, which meets every week, is made up of two parts: the Exco, including the president, treasurer, and spirit coordinator, and the grade representatives, elected by your grade to create a line of communication from the students of your grade to the SGA. The SGA then communicates the students’ point of view to the administration and school board.
At the beginning of the year, we met for a leadership retreat as our first official meeting as the SGA. During this meeting, we worked through the calendar of the year, SGA protocol, practiced teamwork and leadership skills, set goals for the year, and discussed the role of everyone to help with the SGA. This was a beneficial meeting to meet all of the members, organize what we wanted to accomplish and how we were going to do it.
A decoration I put up for the haunted house.
Our first event that we hosted was a Halloween spirit day and a haunted house. We spent weeks collecting the materials and props to use to decorate and then spent multiple lunch and break times to set up the haunted house. Some of the decorations we brought from home or borrowed from the school’s costume room. During our weekly meetings, the roles for the haunted house was delegated, I volunteered with Sheruni to organize the ticket selling and the entrance of the haunted house, a surprisingly demanding job.
Sheruni and I as Luna Lovegood and Buttercup the Powerpuff Girl at the door of the haunted house. (Ms. Gamage)
The event began 5 minutes after school ended in order to allow students to visit the haunted house before getting picked up or their after school activities start. Sheruni and I ran from our classes right after school ended to the entrance of the PMPR with a crowd of impatient primary kids itching to get in, we had to organize them into a line, separate them into small groups to go through the haunted house together, explain the rules and what to do if they get too scared, collect their money, and send them through. The haunted house turned out to be an enormous success and we were able to raise more money than we were expecting to go into the SGA fund to use for future events such as the OSCars, OSC’s Prom. I think the main reason this event was a success was because we kept the price very low so many primary students went through again and again and again.
The next event we organized was the Gecko Factor, OSC’s talent show. This took a lot of planning to organize, we had to set up audition times where the act was screened, design a poster and tickets, ask teachers to act as the judges of the event, organize the setlist with all of the equipment used for each act, and sell tickets. My main job prior to the show was selling the tickets during break times and afterschool. Then during the show, I worked front of house, checking tickets and letting people in as well as selling tickets. Many people arrived to the show late so I stood by the entrance watching the show for the first half of the show.
An example of one of the table centerpieces.
The main event that we used the money raised from events like the Gecko Factor and the Haunted House is put towards OSCars, the school dance. However this year due to COVID-19, it as canceled two days before the event was meant to happen. For this event, I volunteered to sell tickets, organizes the “Oscars” (the superlatives), and create decorations for the event. Afterschool and during lunchtimes I met with a few other SGA members to create the decorations. My individual task was to create the centerpieces for the tables: small black boards with a constellation and the name of the constellation painted with white paint on the back (as shown in the photo to the right). The decorations were chosen because the theme, which was voted on by the students, was Night in the Cosmos.
This year I feel that the SGA was quite well organized and we collaborated well together. Through being a part in the SGA, I have improved my planning skills the most, this year I took initiative to be an active part in planning the events, figuring out the details, and making sure we have everything covered. An example of this is when we were very busy with organizing OSCars because it was fast approaching and I realized that we hadn’t started planning the SGA’s beverage stand at the Food and Fun Fair which was happening a couple weeks after OSCars. Though this also was canceled later on, I took it on myself to find out what kinds of beverages we needed and how many.