Why Conestoga should follow in Wellesley’s footsteps

Recently, actions taken by students at Wellesley College, a prestigious private school in Massachusetts and part of the Seven Sisters, a group of selective liberal arts colleges that are historically all-women, show that when it comes to eliciting student voices, Conestoga has room to grow.

On March 14, around 90% of the Wellesley student body voted in favor of a gender inclusivity initiative that had previously been unanimously passed through the student government. According to e Wellesley News, this ballot included e orts to make language at the school more inclusive for transgender and nonbinary students. is includes allowing trans men and nonbinary students to apply and be accepted to the school, a shi from its traditionally all-female environment.

e students use the initiative to demonstrate to the administration how important this issue is to them and that, according to statements made by the College Government President in e Wellesley News, how many people believe in the cause. Although Wellesley still continues its e orts to achieve the level of inclusivity that its students desire, the issue o ers a perfect example of why students’ voices are an important part of improving the educational experience. By eliciting student opinions, administrations can do more than just understand a new point of view. As studied by Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty member, Gretchen Brion-Meisles, schools are more likely to create e ective programs and policies when they involve students in the process. Like in the Wellesley case, giving students the tools to express their opinions democratically can uncover areas where schools need to make progress.

At Conestoga, students should be more heavily involved in these decision making processes. While students have the full ability to express any problems they observe, they are just as easily excluded from helping to cra the solutions. Even when students have the opportunity to participate, like in the district’s e ort to engage the community through its Strategic Planning Committees in 2022, meetings were from 7-9 p.m., making them extremely hard for students to commit to and attend. Opportunities may be available, but it’s time to make them more accessible. Critics of further including student voices o en argue that educational decisions are best le to parents and administration due to their experience. However, when it comes to issues of identity or curriculum, no one is more directly a ected than the students themselves. When administration is making decisions, they are not fully informed about an issue before asking students. By no means should students have the nal say, but they should absolutely be more actively involved in the journey along the way.

Conestoga would do well to learn from the example set by Wellesley. Unlike the college, ’Stoga students have no way to e ectively express their views as a collective. While we have strong representative bodies, such as student coun-

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Faculty Advisers : Alison Ferriola, Laura Howard, Nicole Zakorchemny cil and homeroom representatives, there is no voting system by which everyone can express their view points on a speci c issue. As a result, the voice of the entire student body is only represented through a select few individuals instead of the group as a whole. is lack of power leaves us voiceless in the face of the administration’ decisions. e solution, however, is not necessarily a straightforward one. To start, district administrators should more actively engage with students, whether through routine meetings or otherwise. ese forums should be accessible for all students who wish to participate, allowing a truly diverse group of voices to be heard. Surveys can also give students the opportunity to express their voice without any major time commitment. is would allow for a more wide scale understanding of how students view an issue, as seen in Wellesley’s case.

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Ultimately, students and administration have the same goal: to improve our community. It’s time students nally have more of a voice in this process.

Dear readers,

It’s a bittersweet time of year the end of our four-year journey as high school student journalists. It seems like just yesterday that we entered Room 280 as wide-eyed freshmen, unaware of the experiences, challenges and opportunities coming our way.

As co-Editors-in-Chief, we spent much of our time in high school cooped up in the cozy Spoke production room, stressing over Oxford commas and sipping on bubble tea. Despite the countless hours we dedi-