As Jenny Johnson ’25, Senior Class Board (SCB) president, concludes her weekly SCB meeting, she takes in the sight with great pride as the members whom she has worked closely with for the past three years plan decorations for their final homecoming.

Student Government at Stevenson consists of class boards for each grade level along with Student Council (StuCo), and Student Congress. Each branch is responsible for their respective activities for their class or the student body. These include Winterfest, assemblies, and lunchtime activities, led by an advisor and a group of students including the executive board and general members. 

At Stevenson, each branch of government plans a given event, or part of an event for the year. For instance, the Student Council creates the primary decorations for Homecoming while the class boards manage each of their respective hallways. According to Johnson, SCB does more than plan activities but rather creates culture around the school.

“Student Government works to create a better sense of school spirit in the building, especially with Stevenson being very academically focused, everyone’s very into the studious aspect of it,” Johnson said. “We are trying to run more activities for seniors to really pump up the spirit before we graduate.”

Along with Student Government, Student Congress serves as an avenue for those who may not be involved in a school-elected position to have their voices heard. According to Molly Sponseller, Student Government Advisor and Student Activities Coordinator, each facet of government is centered around hearing out student voices and different perspectives. 

“In Student Council, we talk a lot about culture, building and sustaining a positive environment for our student body,” Sponseller said.  “What we’re working towards in Student Congress is to offer an opportunity for any student, whether or not you are involved in a class board or in Student Council specifically, to have this opportunity and still have your voice heard.”

Student Council and Class Boards share similar values regarding the atmosphere they hope to create though with a slightly different approach. Grade level class boards follow a structured system with sponsors and students working together to plan events. SCB sponsor, Jane Caballero, believes her role as the sponsor is to help support the students especially when they first enter Stevenson by allowing them to develop leadership and organizational skills.

“When the leaders are freshmen, it’s very sponsor-centered, at least for the first semester,” Caballero said. “Then as they grow, they’re able to organize events and run meetings themselves. As they get older, they understand what it takes to be a leader, and plan things.”

As students progress in government, they assume more leadership. Leaders like StuCo Vice President Abhi Reddeppagari ’26 take command of many school events.

“In StuCo, students are responsible for many school wide events and are encouraged to cover all the ground work from purchasing items to planning the logistics,” Reddeppagari said.

Similarly in Class Board, Caballero hopes students will realize that many of the class specific events along with others throughout the year are put on and created by their year’s class board.  An example of this is Allied for Allies, an event to celebrate all the athletes in Stevenson’s allied sports programs and the senior kick off organized by SCB to celebrate the seniors last first game. 

“I just don’t know that a lot of people know what the class board does,” Caballero said. “Part of the job of these students that are in the class board is branding and getting their name out, and we’ve been working really hard on that.”

With a student population of over 4,800, members of student government believe that connections within the school become a necessity. Student government members are proud of how students of all grades and backgrounds collaborate in raising school spirit, finding ways to improve the shared environment, and making the school seem more approachable.

“We go to a school that’s really big, and it’s been nice to find and foster a sense of community,” Johnson said.