The Student Council Association (SCA) is a time-honored group that is present in many schools and plays a prominent role in the Woodgrove community. One teacher advisor and student leaders run the association with their respective school’s best interest at heart. From pep rallies to coordinating spirit weeks, the SCA is continuing old Woodgrove traditions while introducing recently developed school events. The student council “class” has been held as a study hall block this year, but the course is being adjusted and will be called “Student Leadership” from now on, a title that multiple schools in Loudoun County have already placed on their councils. Some schools even have multiple classes due to the large group of students wanting to be involved.
Mr. Thomas Scott, the student council advisor at Woodgrove, supports the students’ ambitions and helps carry out their new ideas. Scott shared that his favorite part of being the SCA advisor is “getting to help facilitate their ideas.” He elaborated, “The best is when the students have crazy ideas, like for the hundredth day of school, one of the juniors had an idea for having a parade through the school. We started investigating that and talking, and I encouraged them to talk to Dr. Shipp.” While pursuing the student’s wishes to the best of his abilities, Scott creates an easygoing and organized council that sparks school spirit and optimism. The advancement of the course allows for increased opportunity and encourages students to select the class as an elective during their high school career.
Between planning, coordinating, and “hyping up Woodgrove,” the SCA faces challenges in boosting school spirit and student involvement. Vice President of Student Council, senior Rory Schriver, places emphasis on the hardships surrounding student participation. “Student involvement is really hard, because a lot of people don’t want to do it, for example with spirit days. If it’s not pajama day, you won’t see a lot of people dressing up,” she stated. Within the student council room, there is an overwhelming number of seniors and not enough underclassmen to participate in the following years. Schriver expressed her hope for a new wave of underclassmen. “I would say we need more underclassmen because we have our juniors, but there’s only around five of them. Everybody is a senior, so everybody’s graduating,” she explained. Moving forward into the 2025-2026 school year with Scott’s leadership, the “Student Leadership” class will be a highly recognized and well-known association. Students can get involved and experience new levels of leadership while having an enjoyable time.