The 2017 Spring Wesco Associated Student Body (ASB) Conference was held in the Terraceum on Friday, May 12. Representatives of high school ASBs from around the area met to learn about leadership strategies, the meaning of leadership and general ways to improve every school’s ASB. The conference provided a time for the MTHS ASB members to bond with each other and meet ASB officers from other schools.
While other high schools from the Edmonds School District, such as Edmonds-Woodway and Lynnwood, were present at the conference, other high schools from around the area were also at the event, including Henry M. Jackson, Mount Vernon, Marysville-Pilchuck and Lake Stevens.
The conference is held annually and this year it was MTHS’ turn to host the conference. The ASB and their advisors planned out activities for the conference and the founder of the MTHS Link Crew, Phil Boyte, acted as the keynote speaker at the conference and directed the activities as well. The MTHS ASB was also in charge of providing the food, making the posters, setting up the conference and cleaning up afterward.
Boyte spoke of his experiences in leadership and encouraged the ASB members from the different schools to become active leaders in their school communities. He also directed the ASB members through bonding activities with the purpose of developing team building and social leadership skills. Boyte used his leadership development program to show the ASB members their true leadership capabilities and how they can be leaders in all aspects of their lives, both in and outside of school.
The ASB members participated in a variety of these bonding activities, ranging from games of “Ninja” to games of “Duck, Duck, Goose”. These activities helped the ASB members become comfortable around each other and get to know each other. This helped to build unity and trust both within the MTHS ASB and with members of ASBs from the other high schools.
All ASB members participated in the “Mad Scramble”, where they had to move around the floor of the gym and meet strangers from other schools, who they then partnered up with. The partners had to introduce themselves to and provide personal information to, such as where they are from, what position they held in their ASB and different ideas that they have about leadership. This activity was conducted to provide the ASB members with experience in meeting new people and demonstrating leadership skills with them.
After this, a bonding exercise was conducted where all of the ASB members gathered together and shared some of the hardships they had been through in their lives. Different life challenges, such as experiences with cancer, were called out by Boyte and ASB members who had been through these challenge raised their hands. The goal of this activity was to show how serious issues have affected many of the people in ASB and provide an opportunity for the ASB members to bond closer together by learning about what their fellow ASB members have gone through and how they can turn those experiences into strengths of the organization.
ASB Big 5 Secretary Samantha Garcia Perez believes that the conference was an extremely beneficial experience for the MTHS ASB.
“I always leave these conferences feeling really inspired and motivated with new ideas for the ASB and the conferences always help everyone see why the leadership of ASB is important for the school,” Garcia Perez said.
Garcia Perez also learned about ways to encourage leadership throughout the ASB and throughout the school in general.
“Today, I really learned about how to take initiative in leadership and take the lead in life, not just in big things like assemblies, but also in the little things throughout life. I also learned to step back sometimes and encourage others to take the initiative and become leaders and to give other people the recognition they deserve for their leadership,” Garcia Perez said.
Updated: May 23, 2017, 11:25 a.m.
