February 28 through March 1 marked the state SGA conference hosted in the Ashore hotel in Ocean City, Mayland. This state convention called the Maryland Association of Student Councils, shortened to “MASC” offers students a chance to nominate state SGA officers, leadership workshops, listen to a motivational speaker and vote on state legislation.
Representatives from high schools from all regions in the state attended the MASC conference “956 from around the state.” attended this conference, “From our school only 5 and we have 8 votes,” says Mrs. Beth Martin, biology teacher and SGA advisor who attended the trip.
There’s a lot of exciting and important things that go into being a delegate. “Being a delegate is exciting since we are the vote of our whole school student body. We vote on the new executive board, and bills going to the senate,” says Martin.
Some of the activities available to the delegates are, “motivational speaker, recreational activities like a dance, karaoke, movie night, watch march madness, photo booths, Jeopardy and Games.”
This conference helps delegates, “grow in confidence, make new friends from around the state that become great resources for school improvement,” says Martin, but this conference also is meant for delegates to “have fun with students from school that they might not normally spend time with. Build relationships, learn about the student government system.”
It doesn’t hurt that, “the food is great, the shirts are cool and it’s nice to feel such a sense of belonging as a group across the state,” says Martin.
The delegates were able to learn a lot over the course of this three day conference, “I learned how the government worked and more about the Legislative process.” says sophomore Ambar Lara Arteaga, one of the delegates who attended the conference from North Harford High School. “I did enjoy the convention, I thought it was really fun, just really busy. I would like to go to the convention next year,” says Lara Arteaga
The state officers for MASC are all students in the Maryland school system. “The inspiring student leaders and energy from the room especially by the end of the convention. These elite students are gems to our school system, state and our future leaders of society,” says Martin.
The ideas and leadership learned at MASC benefits even those who didn’t attend the conference. This conference, “Teaches our students how we can grow, provides new ideas, resources and leadership opportunities both in the school and county,” Martin added. These ideas can be taken back to North Harford High School in order to improve the school’s SGA.
