ALTOONA, Pa – This past weekend, North Penn High School’s SGA attended the 75th annual Pennsylvania Association of Students Council’s state conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
PASC, the overarching organization for Pennsylvania’s middle and high school student councils, hosts this annual conference for teenage leaders to develop and apply leadership and life skills to their clubs at home.
During the conference, the student delegates attended workshops in areas such as fundraising, event planning, and community service. Along with the workshops, there were guest speakers, special dinners, and a dance that the student delegates had the opportunity to enjoy with new and old friends.
Mrs. Summer Sieller, who was the SGA advisor last school year, won the District 11 Advisor of the Year Award. With all the new ideas and tips they learned, North Penn’s delegates are sure to make SGA even better.
SGA cabinet members Kathleen Escarcha, Matthew Kim, Katie Marino, Kush Jituri, Jeanne Shi, Vivian Nguyen, Jonah Kim, Pat Zancolli, and Brooke Prestia represented North Penn during this exciting weekend of learning tips to improve the already well-organized SGA.
Escarcha and Marino presented a workshop called Fantastic Fundraising Fundamental Forum.
“It was really fun to present a workshop this year,” said Escarcha. “At some points it was stressful, but I think people learned a lot from what Katie and I presented.”
Marino, who attended a summer workshop this past year, won the Dale Hawley Award. This award is given each year to one delegate from the PASC Gold summer workshop who they feel demonstrated strong leadership skills and who they feel deserves to be recognized as an outstanding delegate.
“I was completely shocked when my name was announced and I was called to the stage,” exclaimed Marino. “I was not expecting it at all, but it is a huge honor and I’m so grateful to have been the person they chose!”
For Marino, PASC has exposed her to many new people while helping her grow into a stronger leader.
“PASC is such a good experience. I never would have imagined I would be a part of something like it. All of the other delegates from across the state are such good people and the atmosphere is so friendly. Every single person there is so welcoming and it is the perfect opportunity to gather beneficial ideas for our school and to meet other people who are there just to share ideas and help each other out,” Marino said. “It was such a great opportunity for me to be able to attend because I learned so much that will benefit not only SGA here at North Penn, but also the school as a whole. In my opinion, PASC is definitely life changing!”
Overall, North Penn’s representatives at PASC had an amazing weekend that will not only be one of their favorite memories from high school, but also help the rest of the student body create memorable moments through SGA sponsored events.