Fairview’s student council is a group whose purpose is known to every Fairview student: to foster school spirit and organize student events, but the culture of STUCO is shrouded in mystery for most students. What’s so special about STUCO? How do they plan so many different events throughout the year? What’s the appeal of being part of STUCO?
When speaking with the leaders of STUCO, the consistent answer was the community and cooperation present in the organization.
“To have the close, like camaraderie that we do have is really helpful because when it comes to doing group projects” said Sawyer Sales (12).
The sentiment of collaborative effort, and camaraderie surrounding that was echoed repeatedly by other leaders.
“I feel like we kind of have some sort of little family because we all bounce ideas off each other. We always collaborate like no one person is in charge of just everything,” said the student body president of Fairview, Rose Maggio (12).
“I was coming from a smaller middle school and like pretty much everyone I knew went to a different school. So, student council, it’s kind of like a safety net or like a way that I can, like, connect with people. Like, I made some friends in this class, which was more like I made friends off of that of, like, mutual friends. So I think it was kind of cool to have the opportunity to meet some new people,” said Caden Israel (9), the freshman class vice president.
The environment of STUCO promotes enjoyment of their work, and students find pride in contributing to Fairview’s events.
“Last year, we made a pretty hefty investment in a 360 [degree] camera,” said Sales. “And it took us a while to kind of get it figured out. But after we set that up and made a big investment, we were a little nervous, but everyone loved the camera and there were videos all over, and then we were able to do it again for homecoming. And yeah, just making a mark on the school is what makes STUCO special.”
The responsibilities of STUCO overlap with a broad spectrum of Fairviews school environment, from small morning bead handouts to large-scale events such as Prom or Homecoming.
“We overlook all of the sporting events and like events in general, we go and help with those. We participate and stuff. And there’s clean up, there’s set up, there’s advertising. There’s Lots more than the events themselves.” said Jimmy Lu (10), the sophomore class president.
Such diversity in responsibility allows students to freely choose what they want to work on, a surprising development for some.
“When I, when I first, you know, signed up for student council, in the back of my mind I thought like, oh, there’s probably not going to be a lot of freedom, you know, you’re just going to get told to do something,” said Santiago Caravia Perry (10) the sophomore class vice president, “But the nice thing is the freedom. You get that with advertising, with themes, and especially with projects. So you can get a lot of freedom in those projects.”
Joining STUCO isn’t only through student elections. STUCO has around 40 members this year, and at times has had 50. Any student can join the class, though it’s a slightly non-standard process.
According to Carder Squirrel (11), the junior class president, “It’s an application-based class. So you kind of fill out an application. And then I believe Miss Bixler and Mr. Sutter and a couple other people kind of decide who gets it.”
This is important because while everything STUCO does has to be communicated with Fairview’s administration, at the end of the day, the Student Council is just that: a council of students, members of the Fairview community, and our peers.
Senior class president Julia Zemmelman put it best: “So we’re just a bunch of 16, 17-year-olds trying to plan out events, And if you want to make some changes, you can join STUCO and make those changes happen.”
