Mehlville High School recently hosted the annual Missouri Association of Student Councils Convention for STUCO branches and class officers from schools across the state. Nearly 2000 students and advisers attended the event. The convention serves as a way for student leaders all over Missouri to meet each other, share ideas and discuss how other student council branches are running their programs. The convention also features various keynote speakers, breakout sessions, general sessions and other events to discuss and help promote a more positive school atmosphere and environment.

Every year, a theme is chosen as well, with this year’s being “Leadership is in your bones.” Mehlville decided to take this theme a prehistoric route, using cardboard to make various dinosaurs and dinosaur-themed decorations. The process of getting it all together, however, was a hectic process, said Mehlville Junior and Stuco member Meghan Miller.

“I had to take off that entire week of work to be at school to make and set up decorations, and I was at school from 7am until 11 every night,” she said. “But it was really cool to be able to serve our state in that way and help them grow their student leadership.”

Windsor, however, also played a role in helping host this year’s convention, serving the part of the secretary school, which involved setting up the vending fair and hall, and inviting vendors to the convention. Windsor was also in charge of organizing the trivia night, which involved nearly every person in attendance to the convention, which featured dinosaurs, MASC and other fun trivia categories. But most of all, it seems the main purpose and fun of the convention is getting the chance to talk and share ideas with other students from across the state.

“You get a bunch of time to talk round-table with other kids from other schools, and trade ideas like ‘what are you doing during homecoming week, or spirit week, or teacher appreciation week’ for an entire weekend, and learn all these new things to bring back to your school,” junior class president Liska Hromnak said about the event.

Doc Carranza was also recognized at the convention for his achievements and contributions to MASC, with this year being his last year before retirement. Math and Algebra teacher Jamie Kovach, however, will be taking over Carranza’s role as a full time Stuco advisor and has been shadowing him over the year, and would even be interested in hosting the convention at Windsor again at some point.

“Oh absolutely. I think hosting state is – it’s a lot of work,” said Kovach about possibly hosting. “You’ve got to have a good group of kids that are willing to put in a lot of work.”

It may seem unnecessary to already be talking about next year’s convention, with this year’s event just recently wrapping up, but for those involved in putting together the convention it’s a year-round effort, with planning for next year’s convention having already begun. So for those going, the days have already started counting down until next year’s MASC state convention at Lebanon High School.