March 2021 Update
Dear BUA Community,
As you may recall, we sent our first monthly Student Council report in December. In this email you will be able to find the January and February edition of our newsletter. If you are interested in learning more about any particular project, please reach out to the respective committee heads, your class representatives, or the officers of Student Council. As always, you are welcome to join our general meeting every Tuesday at 4:30p or subcommittee meetings. You can find all the times and links at buacademy.org/stuco.
Sincerely,
Student Council
January and February Initiatives
Policy Committee
Head: Mell Aguiar (aguiarm@bu.edu)
Meeting Time: Wednesdays at 5pm
Little Free Library
This past month the Policy committee has been discussing how to build a little free library at BUA, which can be found in the gym this year. The goal of this library is to make books more accessible for students. Feel free to take or give a book!
BUA Textbooks
Buying textbooks year after year gets expensive, and though the book swap StuCo implemented a couple of years ago definitely helps, there is still the burden of not being able to annotate the borrowed books. So, Policy has been talking about how we could approach this problem by either providing free online or physical resources.
Student Council Elections
Believe it or not, Student Council elections are coming up very soon. To make the process smoother and more efficient, the committee has been brainstorming ways to organize the election where all students, both remote and in-person, can participate easily. The committee has decided to use Flipgrid for spring elections. Dates TBD.
Outdoor Social Space
The committee has also been thinking about the possibility of an outdoor, recreational, social space at BUA. The area between the gym wall and parking lot is empty and could be a feasible place to implement this, but it would take some cleaning up, approval, and logistical planning.
Please join their weekly meetings if you have any thoughts or suggestions!
Resources
Head: Lizzie Seward (easeward@bu.edu)
Meeting Time: Tuesday at 6pm
Wellness Survey
For the past couple of months, the Resources committee has been diligently finding ways to improve mental health resources for students at BUA. To do this, they first spoke with our school counselor, Ms. Weiskopf. With her help, the committee created a survey to collect feedback and suggestions from the student body. In the last week of January, a “Wellness Survey” was sent out to the entire student body. The carefully curated questions covered a wide range of topics including causes of stress, mental health resources at BUA, and proposed solutions. A good portion of the student body responded to the survey and the Resources committee is currently looking through the responses. Later this semester, the committee plans to present these overarching themes and suggestions to the BUA administration.
Events
Head: Mia Shapoval (shapoval@bu.edu)
Meeting Time: Friday at 4:30pm
Trivia Night
Back by popular demand, this committee hosted its second Trivia Night competition in early February. This time, we invited teachers to join! The winners of February Trivia Night were Vika Maslova, Michelle Lisak, Nadia Chitkushev, Kealan Biebesheimer, James West, and Kieran Barrett. Congratulations to them!
Spring Olympics
The committee has also been working with Mr. Stone to organize a Spring Olympics event. This event will include a variety of activities, both remote and in-person, for students to partake in. While the specific activities have not yet been finalized, more information will be sent out closer to the date of the events. If you have any suggestions, please contact Mia or any other student council representative.
Spring Break
We are hoping to hold some smaller events and competitions over spring break, such as a crossword puzzle competition, and a march madness tournament! Let us know if you have any ideas or would like to host one!
Survivor Field Day
Based on the hit TV show, Events will be hosting their own (Covid-friendly) version of Survivor. This event will be held later this spring. Teams (or “tribes) of 6-10 people will compete in a series of challenges. Teams will compete to have the fastest times for each challenge, and the winning team will be the team with the total fastest time for all three challenges. The winning team will receive a Grubhub discount, so come to win!
Public Relations
Head: Shizhong Xu (sxu6@bu.edu)
Meeting Time: Thursday at 4:45 pm
Chocolate Distribution
This year PR offered free chocolates to the student body to send to friends and teachers! This was a demanding task as the committee needed to handle logistics for students both remote and in-person. In the future, student council plans to return to the normal rose selling event provided that the pandemic won’t affect the process in any way.
StuCo Website
As most of you may know, the BUA Instagram (@bua_stuco) has been a successful method of communication from us to the student body. However, we also have a website where students can access important student council related information. The PR committee will be working to make the Student Council website more lively and accessible. You can always check out our site using this link: buacademy.org/stuco.
Officers
Senior Spotlight
A tradition started last year, the Senior Spotlight is a way for BUA’s graduating class to show our appreciation for their fellow seniors. Students will write about their friends’ accomplishments, achievements, and fun stories, which can be represented through various photographs and written excerpts on our Student Council Instagram page. If you are a senior, please fill out the Senior Spotlight Google Form for the person whom you have volunteered to write for by March 15th. If you don’t remember, please reach out to one of the Officers and they will happily assist you. Let’s keep this tradition going!
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