Once a month, a group of Cathedral Catholic leaders from all grade levels assemble in the lecture hall to discuss upcoming events. Selected both by teacher recommendations and class votes, two students from each English class sacrifice lunch times to represent their fellow peers. The freshmen and sophomore representatives meet separately from the juniors and seniors. There are approximately 30 students that represent each class.
One of the junior class’s representatives, Frank Fink, said that the meetings are always very productive. “We start with prayer, and then ASB members give us a presentation about upcoming events and other reminders. They answer most of the questions we have during the presentation, but they give a question and answer period and pass out more comment cards. Before we leave, we always get a treat.”
During their next English class, the representatives are supposed to report back to their fellow students. ASB prints an outline of the meeting that is then read to the class. After the readings, the representatives take questions and encourage people to use comment cards with further concerns for ASB.
Another class representative of the junior class, Catherine Hedrick, said that involving the classes is always a very exciting task. “My class is very interactive, and the students care about making sure their voices are heard. They really take to heart making sure they are fairly represented. The goal of these meetings is to make students more interactive with ASB, and I think this has been a success.”
However, some students have found the process to be a little frustrating. Junior Clayton Jackshaw said, “We try to express our opinion, but people aren’t allowed to anonymously do that with the comment cards, so we are afraid of judgment or punishment. As a result, most people tend to hold back.”
These meetings have only been around for a few years, so the program is fairly new. Junior Clare Brodak said, “I haven’t seen any major changes stemming from this new student involvement, which I think is an accurate measurement of the overall effectiveness. Because we haven’t been able to make direct changes, I think we’re only meant to feel like we are involved even though we are really not.”
Not everyone has been as frustrated with the meetings and their effectiveness, and some are awaiting further growth of the program. A student who wished to remain anonymous said, “I think ASB is simply out of ideas of their own, so they’re just trying to get more student input.”
For the representatives, the overall experience is rewarding. As Frank said, “It’s super-duper fun being a representative for my class, and I’m so glad that I’m involved!”