Student delegates Tyson Van Ham and Andrea Perez with the Medicine Hat Public School division board of trustees and leadership team before the final meeting of the 2022-23 school year on June 29.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Public School Division began a student senate in the fall of 2022 where two or three representatives have attended each of the monthly board meetings. Grade 11 student delegates Tyson Van Ham and Andrea Perez both attended the final board meeting on June 29 to represent the senate.
Van Ham said he’d had a good year with his best subject being math. Currently, he’s not set on any post-secondary goals yet, but is thinking about engineering, possibly medical school, or a very slim chance of pursuing law. For the summer he plans to hang out with family and friends and also has a job in a pharmacy, where he does whatever is required, either answering phones, filling prescriptions, inventory and once in a while working in the lab.
“It’s really good experience in the lab for things like math and sciences,” said Van Ham.
This past academic year, Van Ham has attended five board meetings. Additionally, the senate meets in the morning biweekly to discuss items from the board meeting.
“It is set up differently than I thought it would be,” stated Van Ham. “There was lots more open discussion than I figured, although I had no idea, it was a pure guess of what my expectations were. We ended up participating more than I thought. Pretty much on every topic that comes up, we’ve been in the conversation.”
With the senate still being new, both the board and the senate are still working through how to bring board items to the general student population.
“Lots of problems and questions that have been posed have been just for our group,” explained Van Ham. “There has been one or two things that have moved passed that to the student body. It’s still a new idea, but we put up student voting where they could vote on options or express ideas. Other than that, we go to classes and ask around.”
Andrea Perez has attended four board meetings since September last year. Her best subject is chemistry, both organic and inorganic and she is enrolled in summer school for math and biology. Perez plans to pursue astronomy as a post-secondary goal.
“It’s genuinely been fun,” Perez said of being part of the senate and attending board meetings. “I like how they incorporate us in their discussions. I think we are still trying to figure out how we can influence this and bring it back.”
Both Perez and Van Ham plan to continue being part of the student senate in the 2023-24 school year as it’s important for students to have a voice.
“For the most part they (students) want their voice heard and to have input into the school district,” stated Perez. “Whatever this group of people (the board) does impacts us and we want to be the change and if we don’t like something we want to be able to voice our opinion.”
