StuCo in a Nutshell
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By John R.
Known to most as “Stuco,” the Student Council is responsible for most of the meetings and events you see around Teams and NSA in general. Outside of NSA Connects, which are run by teachers and admin staff, you may have seen other events related to the start of a new school year. These events, for example, the Back to School Bash, are purely student-organized and run. Stuco’s setup is simple; students here on NSA take on various roles and responsibilities, and among the ranks, each member has a specific job while also helping out whenever it is needed. Dorshea, the Stuco Vice President said, “We're all like a big family and we all have our specific roles and jobs to do.” The Stuco has most areas of NSA life covered, from special projects to ads and working with the admin staff.
Some may ask, what’s the purpose of a Student Council? Caleb, the Stuco President, said, “StuCo also helps lead and manage the various Clubs and Ministries around campus...If I were to boil it down to the simplest terms, StuCo events are about connection. They’re a place where you can come and bond with like-minded people and just have a good time!” Giving us a more in-depth look, Stuco’s Special Projects Coordinator, Elena, said, ”Usually, the first steps are having meetings and brainstorming what we want to happen at a specific event...Then we would plan out how to practically make that happen. We also have to consider calls, what we want in those calls, who will enjoy this, how to get everyone involved, the logistics behind the calls, getting advertisements out, hype videos, etc.” Grade representatives reflect the opinion of the people in their specific grade. They organize grade calls, which are live calls for a specific grade to meet together, hang out, and have a good time. In the words of the 10th-grade rep, Jared, “It pretty much is a call with peers, but we usually do games and other fun stuff like that.” They are hosted by your rep, sometimes accompanied by a teacher. Reps also put out monthly newsletters, which contain news, information, and updates for their grade.
The most common events, in terms of most often held, are chapels, headed by teachers and admin staff, and youth groups led by students. Ever wondered how worship is done via Teams? Stuco is hosting another worship event, only this is bigger and better than ever: Spiritual Emphasis Event, or SEE. Esther, the 9th-grade rep said,” The Spiritual Emphasis Event is probably the best event ever. It's an event where people from all over the world come together and worship God and praise Him over a week’s time.” SEE starts on the 18th, and ends on the 22nd, with live calls that happen twice a day. Each day’s call is essentially the same thing, but the morning and evening calls are there so students can attend SEE worldwide. These meetings will be recorded, so if you miss one you can watch the recording. There will be a guest speaker and breakout rooms on certain days to discuss what was learned, and plenty of time to socialize! Olivia, NSA’s Spiritual Life Leader broke it down, “Tuesdays and Thursdays are breakout room sessions where you will talk about what you learned from the previous days and how it’s impacted you. you’ll get a chance to be in smaller groups and get to know some people that are around your age. Friday will be another breakout room session to talk about the week but there will also be live worship led by an NSA student.” SEE will be a great place to learn about God and the Bible, and get to spend time and relate with others!
Elena also said, ”We have a College Fair coming up and I'm super excited about that project. This one is for the High Schoolers to explore colleges that they might want to go to in the future.” The College Fair is another Stuco event that’s being planned for this school year, it's being geared more toward high schoolers looking for colleges they want to apply to, although all grades are welcome. So keep an eye out for that one!
So that's Stuco in a nutshell. You can expect a lot more things from Stuco this school year, so don’t be shy about asking them things, they are happy to answer the best they can. Of course, there are plenty of other things that could be said of Stuco. Hints of an event there, or contest results coming out now, recaps on past parties are all part of NSA. Time flies, it's already October, but think of it this way: that just means a whole lot more fun from Stuco.
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John R. lives in Oregon, in the United States and this is his first year at NSA. He is in 11th grade, and enjoys pastimes such as reading, hanging out with friends, friendly debates, and speaking international affairs. He also loves studying and speaking of U.S. and Military history. Future career goals include engineer, architect, firefighter, or police officer.