On Monday, October 27th, Santa Fe High School hosted the Missouri Association of Student Councils (MASC) Trails West District Meeting. MASC is divided into 7 districts, of which Santa Fe is a member of the Trail’s West District. The district is made up of junior high and high schools in the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Each fall every district meets to elect the officer schools for the following year.
At last year’s meeting, the Santa Fe Student Council ran for, and won, the role of Trail’s West District President for the 2025-2026 school year. The role of the president school is to host the annual meeting. This entails planning the schedule, providing meals for both attendees and advisors, and inviting a motivational speaker, planning breakout sessions, and a myriad of other logistics for upwards of 900 people.
The day began with an opening session where the officer schools were recognized for their contributions to the meeting, presentations from Jennie Randolph of Missouri Special Olympics (SOMO) and Chad Rizner, the MASC Executive Director, and videos from schools who are running for offices for next year. After a short break, students were treated to an upbeat talk from A’ric Jackson. A’ric spoke to the students about being their authentic selves and challenged them to be true to themselves.
After the opening session and the guest speaker, students went into their “rotations.” One rotation was a presentation by students about the events that MASC puts on throughout the year. Those events include the district meetings, the MASC State Convention, and the Summer Leadership Workshop - aka “Fulton”, which is a week-long camp where students learn leadership lessons and skills. Another rotation featured Lexi Johnson of Lexi J Wellness. She provided a session where students participated in movement activities. Lexi, a 2015 Santa Fe graduate, also spoke about her entrepreneurial journey in the fitness industry. The next rotation were the “Flock Talks,” short presentations by students about events they host at their schools. These presentations could be about fundraising, school spirit, service activities, or anything else. (They are called “Flock Talks” because the MASC mascot is a duck.) The final rotation was lunch; which was interesting because each rotation had more students in one lunch shift than Santa Fe has in our entire building (7th-12th grade students).
The students then returned for a final session, where the current officer schools were thanked and received their officer plaques, the Trail’s West Administrator and Advisor of the Year were announced, and the winners of the election for next year’s officers were announced.
Overall, it was an incredible experience! Our Student Council students displayed leadership, were organized, built relationships, and developed skills they will carry with them throughout their lives. This event was a true testament that even small schools can do BIG things!