New West Side Leaders Just Getting Started

About 25 students were the start of something big and exciting at Lakota West High School this year. And after a year of planning and building, advisor Jennifer Parrett said the West Side Leaders are prime to “hit the ground running” next year in pursuit of their goal to continue building community and celebrating what exactly it means to be a Firebird.

“You don’t have to be a student athlete to be a good example of what it means to be a Lakota West student,” said sophomore Amira Scherzinger, who worked alongside her fellow West Side Leaders to introduce a non-traditional student recognition program to their peers this year. 

A new quarterly lunch was designed to recognize “things that go unnoticed and wouldn’t normally get recognized,” Amira shared. Recognition didn’t necessarily require academic or athletic achievement, but instead required that a student display one of the AIR pillars visible in every classroom this year. AIR stands for three defining Firebird characteristics: Authenticity, Investments and Relationships. Students and staff, alike, could nominate a deserving recipient, who was invited to attend the lunch with one guest. 

The lunch was one of the group’s responses to a challenge from Lakota West administration to build and implement a unique program for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. PBIS is a framework all Lakota schools use to create a safe and positive learning environment for all students. It focuses on proactively teaching and reinforcing positive behaviors. 

As such, the West Side Leaders also introduced a new tradition of visiting West’s freshman campus once a quarter. Every freshman had some level interaction with the student leadership group during their visit. The idea was to be more proactive in acclimating freshmen to main campus culture and making them feel part of the Firebird community. 

“We wanted to make West feel a little smaller and a little less intimidating,” said West sophomore Jordan Fiasco. She shared that the group focused a lot of their interactions on exposing freshmen to all that West has to offer in an effort to get them involved earlier. 

The group made a big effort to build community at the main campus too, officially introducing themselves to the student body with a spirited game of Family Feud, Firebird style. The friendly competition brought sophomores and juniors together in the gymnasium to learn more about the group’s mission and then team up against the opposing team of select West staff. 

“The whole idea was to get students more engaged and involved and getting to know more of the students they pass in the halls each day,” said West junior and Family Feud host Au’Brillen Million. 
The West Side Leaders group is a success story itself in terms of the new and unexpected friendships it’s forged. “I would never have known any of these people,” said West sophomore Lydia Miller, who now considers many of them close friends. 

But beyond the friendships, the real drive to stay involved and invest in the group seems to be the mission behind it. “It’s another chance to do more and give back and make even stronger connections,” Amira said. 

“It’s exciting to be here at the start,” Jordan added.