Over the weekend of March 24 through March 26, Rochester High School’s student government attended the Michigan Student Leadership State Conference in Grand Rapids, MI.

“Basically what States is is all student councils in Michigan meet, and we give presentations on the events that we put on, and then [other schools] tell us what they put on,” sophomore Anna Nickel said. “We went to States to exchange ideas with other schools around the state.”

The weekend consisted of presentations from different speakers, a dance, an awards ceremony and council bonding.

“My favorite part of States is probably bonding with our council because we get so close every year, and we do everything together that weekend,” said Nickel. “I [also] met a lot of new people.”

This year’s featured charity was NAMI, a mental illness organization. Three speakers presented at the conference, and Nickel was particularly moved by one of them.

“Although it didn’t really have to do with mental illness, this one guy said he put all of his happiness into one person, and then when that one person was gone, he had no source of happiness anymore,” said Nickel. “I realized I need to find happiness in other places and other things. I didn’t realize how much we did for other people with student council, so I was really appreciative of what I have.”

RHS StuGo walked away with several awards from the conference, such as State Charity and Award of Excellence.

“We won State Charity, which is just donating to the NAMI organization,” Nickel said. “We won Award of Excellence which means that our student council is really active and in the top percentage of student councils in the state.”

Nickel herself was even recognized with an award, Exceptional Service Project, for her work organizing the hurricane fundraiser back in September.

“Oh my gosh, I was so happy,” said Nickel. “I got to go up on stage in front of two thousand people. It was so exciting.”

Moving forward, Rochester’s student council is hoping to use what they learned at States to improve how charity week is run at RHS.

“We watched a presentation on other schools’ charity weeks and how they raise money for their school and other organizations,” said Nickel. “This upcoming school year we’re going to try to get more corporate donations for our charity week so we can raise even more money.”

Overall, Nickel really enjoyed her weekend at states and loved being in a welcoming atmosphere with other high school student council members.

“States is my favorite place to be,” Nickel said. “It’s just fun, and everyone is so energetic and so positive. I’ve never been in a place so positive and with so much spirit, so for me it’s my favorite weekend of the whole year.”