The following 2023-2024 school year at Smoky is right around the corner with the opportunity to apply to classes and certain clubs. 

Student Government is one of the classes/clubs where students can participate in helping plan homecoming, volunteer around the community, and plan other events such as prom. 

Students currently in Student Government, however, have a different relationship with how they view it.

“StuGo (Student Government) to me is leadership and communication skills, but over the past four years while I’ve learned those skills, more specifically I learned I joined because I wanted to be part of a community,” Rithika Thummalapenta (12) said.

Helping with leadership and communication skills, Student government is also counted as credit for being a long-year class. 

Like other classes at Smoky Hill, those that want to be members of Student Government need to apply to the class.  Having to fill out a form posted on the school’s website, students will be graded on their responses based on how complete their answers are. Students will then need to get three recommendations from staff around the building. Lastly, students will be scheduled for the interview portion of the application process. 

Taking the top 24 scores per grade, the students will be sent an invitation to be in the class. 

“Not everybody will be accepted based on their scores of those three things and actually get into the class. Because of some students’ schedules, they will not be able to attend,” Student Government Advisor Scott Cohen said.

Student Government meets during the third period on red days for freshmen and sophomores, and for juniors and seniors, the third period on green days.

Every year, around 150 students apply and 100 of them get accepted into the class.

“It’s a difficult selection process which is why we’ve gone to more number-based scoring. We want to make sure it’s as fair as possible to all the students,” Cohen said.

Student Government is one of the main event planners for Smoky Hill. In planning almost every event, members need to be attentive to all events.

“The weeks were planning a lot. It does feel very hectic, because of how much we have to run,” Thummalapenta said.

Members during certain weeks such as Wish Week or Homecoming have more on their plate with planning these events. 

“Student government plans and puts it all together. They take the decisions of other people and they make those decisions based on the entire school. Yeah, it may be stressful sometimes but at the end, it reflects on the school and ends up being worth it,” Alyssa Kim (9) said.

Student Government is a class that is taken by students who strive to be in a leadership position and enjoy doing volunteer work.