Student government association officers from four centers gathered at Springdale JCC for the first SGA Summit. Students from Springdale, Tongue Point, Timber Lake, and PIVOT met for workshops and presentations to learn more about the other centers and to brainstorm ways to increase student participation and improve center culture.

The summit was the brainchild of SJCC Center Director Naomi Ulsted. “The Youth2Youth program focuses on communication and building community and what better way to help promote peace and communication on center than through the SGA?”

Each center’s SGA was responsible for presenting a specific topic throughout the day. SJCC presented on establishing SGA presence on center, PIVOT discussed building your team, Tongue Point tackled resolving conflict, and Timber Lake discussed navigating change. Participants also played a game based on the TV show Amazing Race that gave each student an opportunity to highlight their individual strengths.

Springdale SGA Secretary Holly Spencer explained. “There were ten different stations and we had to work together as a team to complete the task at each station. There was also a staff team. It really highlighted our skills and strengths.”

Naomi gave the final presentation on becoming a leader and the final workshop was a strategic planning session where the officers looked at the future of their centers the roles SGA would play in the cultures there. The summit concluded with an ice cream social.

“It was an excellent opportunity to meet the officers from other centers,” Holly continued. “I really got a lot out of it and learned how each center approaches things differently. We all got new ideas from each other.”

We hope to do this again soon!