By Catherine Jou ‘15

SGA representatives (from left) seniors Katarina Stephanos, Annie Rafferty, Nikolas Kreiger and Hunter Moore speak during the homecoming pep-rally on October 30th.

Throughout the year the Student Government Association works with the school coordinating and attending activities, promoting school spirit and connecting to the community. Many of these functions are unknown to students or go unnoticed.

Representing Student Interests

Once a month the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association holds a countywide General Assembly Meeting which hosts a number of representatives and SGA members from different schools that “talk about various problems within the county and transmit the information from the Board to the school’s SGA,” said MCR liaison, junior Doron Tadmor.

On October 14 Sherwood hosted the first annual MCR General Assembly Meeting. SGA and class officers helped welcome students from other schools.

Sherwood’s SGA held its first General Assembly in the cafeteria on November 11. There are representatives from each Advisory period who attend the meetings. Before the General Assembly an agenda and a colored notecard specific to the grade were distributed. Students were encouraged to take notes to report back to their individual Advisories. The notecards are collected at the end to serve as feedback for what the representatives of each advisory period would like to see happen.

The SGA believes that the weekly advisory periods allow students to communicate better with teachers and provides students with a more intimate setting. “[Advisory] takes a big school and makes it small,” said SGA supervisor Catina Wist.

“The general assembly is a vehicle to communicate to the whole student body. So it makes the student body into several smaller groups. We have advisory time so kids feel more connected to their high school. We can hear what they want and listen to what they want to say so we can be proactive and inclusive in our efforts,” said Wist.

Planning Spirit Events

In addition to being a bridge for communication, SGA Treasurer, senior Nikolas Krieger noted Advisory is a great avenue of school spirit. A little over a month ago SGA planned and helped out with many homecoming festivities, which include spirit week, pep rally and dance. “We come up with the ideas for spirit week by having a meeting with all the class officers and then throwing out different ideas and having the class officers and SGA officers vote,” explained SGA Secretary, senior Hunter Moore.

“We tweet at all activities, we organize school spirit days that aren’t just homecoming focused but we do it seasonally in conjunction with the class officers so we’re all on the same page and everyone is promoting school spirit,” said Wist.

Although SGA is planning on having a Sadie Hawkins dance, many obstacles must be resolved in order for it to happen. “You have to get pricing for DJ’s, pricing for security after hours, you have to talk to administrators to see if we’re even allowed to have a dance. Decide how many tickets are going to be sold and the price of tickets,” said SGA President, senior Katarina Stephanos.

Giving Back to the Community

The SGA also works with local charities. Last year the SGA donated the proceeds made from Mr. Sherwood to the Wounded Warrior Project and Lily’s Hope. “As events happen we take action to help other charities,” said Wist. SGA has worked on the can food drive in association with Olney Help and will be assisting the Doctors of Tomorrow with the blood drive on December 19.

“We are just trying to bring the Sherwood cluster together. We try our hardest to organize and keep the school running,” said SGA liaison, senior Chis Chiogioji.