Photo courtesy of Jessica Bordelon

Student Council Members Enjoy District Rally

Members of the St. Joseph’s Academy Student Council participated in the Louisiana Association of Student Councils (LASC) District III Rally, held February 4 at St. Michael’s. This year’s rally theme was Leadership: Climbing the Ladder of Success. All SJA Student Council members attended dressed in construction gear.

“It was great to see so many student leaders come together to share ideas and have a good time.” Elizabeth Dunlap '11

The students, along with more than 300 council members from area middle and high schools, enjoyed several workshops and heard from guest speaker Dr. Melanie Verges, superintendent of Catholic schools, who spoke about the importance of leadership.

As District III secretary, senior Laura Fontenot helped plan the event. Four of the rally workshops were led by SJA council members: Seniors Katie Fredieu and Alex Francis led the session on fundraising; seniors Mary Kathryn Romero and Lucie Calderon discussed the Class Cup competition; sophomore Mathilde Silverberg and junior Elizabeth Dunlap hosted the LASC summer workshop session; and Fontenot, along with Ben Jumonville from Catholic High School, led the Challenge Day workshop.

“As a member school of LASC, SJA’s Student Council members are afforded many opportunities to enhance their leadership skills,” said council co-moderator Amanda Hebert. “Our participation in District Rally was a great way to showcase the work our Student Council has done for SJA students as well as get new ideas from other area councils.”

Fontenot said she and other rally organizers have been meeting monthly since October to plan the workshops and activities. She said she especially enjoyed presenting the Challenge Day workshop. “Ben and I showed a power point explaining all of the games and showed both schools’ pump-up Challenge Day videos,” she said. “The other schools seemed really interested, and it was exciting for us to be able to tell other schools about our favorite day of the year. I’m sad that this was my last workshop, but I was excited to be able to be a part of the planning, and the end result was phenomenal. It was a great rally.”

Calderon said the rally was a great example of collaboration. “It was a great way for the schools in our area to learn from each other,” she said. “Mary Kathryn and I presented SJA's Class Cup program and talked about increasing school involvement in creative ways through incentives and competition, and we spiced up the presentation with a little bit of Harry Potter music to give a small idea of our inspiration for the program. It was nice to be able to share a little bit about our school with the other student councils in the district.”

Dunlap said she enjoyed speaking about the LASC summer workshop. She also appreciated sharing the evening with other council members from across the district. “It was great to see so many student leaders come together to share ideas and have a good time,” she said. “I think everyone truly benefitted from the experience, and it’s great that every year the council can attend this event together to get a fresh start on the rest of the year.”

Tori McRoberts is council co-moderator.


Mindy Brodhead Averitt
Communications Director