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There are many ways students can use use their voices to make a difference in our schools. Here are just a few:
- Start or become active in a Student Advisory Council at your school. You can even make your school an official Student Voice Chapter by registering here.
- The Student Advisory Council is currently accepting applications for the 2019-20 school year. Students will be expected to attend monthly SAC meetings and other events/meetings that come up throughout the year. Students are expected to represent students in their schools and communities and offer student viewpoints accordingly regarding WCSD policies and procedures. To apply, please fill out the Student Advisory Council Application.
- Apply to serve on a WCSD committee! There are many openings for student representatives to serve on committees that make decisions about things like school safety, SHARE curriculum, student wellness, and much more! This is a great opportunity to speak out on behalf of our 64,000 students! For more information or to apply, click here.
- Write a letter to your assigned Board of Trustees representative. You can find out who your neighborhood's representative is and find their contact information here.
- Start a student-led club or campaign at your school. Examples might include things like:
Helpful websites for students:
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Changing the Culture: Ideas for Student Action
The purpose of this document is to provide positive action items that students can take to make their schools and communities healthier places and to challenge meanness and cruelty. It is presented as a list of ideas. While none of these initiatives have been evaluated, they are grounded in a research-driven understanding of interventions, practices, and actions that can be helpful in improving school culture.
Specific Actions outlined in more detail below include:
1. Co-create a Culture-Change Project
2. Establish a Take Back Our School Honor Code
3. Conduct a School Culture Assessment Survey
4. Develop a Surface-the-Wisdom Survey
5. Develop an Action Plan for student response to tragic or violent incidents
6. Advocate for Social-emotional Learning
7. Get involved in Cultural Change at your district’s middle school(s) [For high school students]
8. Create a “Friend Zone”
9. Celebrate “Random Acts of Kindness” (or Respect)
10. Get Student Government involved in Culture Change
11. Develop a Wisdom-Gathering Video Project
12. Dare to be different
February 23, 2012 Anne Collier, Susan Swearer, Mia Doces, and Lisa Jones* The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series (danah boyd and John Palfrey, editors) Brought to you by the Born This Way Foundation & the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and supported by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation *
