Westminster Christian Academy has many positions for student leadership in the Upper School, including our Student Council (STUCO), student run coffee shop (Pawprint), and group of Student Ambassadors. However, there’s also a lesser known leadership opportunity–the Middle School Leadership Team.

The Middle School Leadership Team has had many stages throughout the years with different leaders and names, having been run by Allison Pautler, Ashley Woodall, Ken Wolfe, and Steve Ottolini, and going by the name of SANFAN (See A Need, Fill A Need) for multiple years.

Ashley Woodall, Director of Student Life and both current and past co-leader of the leadership team, explains how it has “always been very similar to STUCO but focused mainly on service, and in the beginning was way more service minded.”

In the past, the Middle School leadership team has helped with many of our school’s traditions, including ITSOG, Carnival, and Spirit Week. Elsie Brink, eighth grade student and member of the leadership team, mentions how the group “ran a carnival booth to help support our school, and we all took turns running the Bomb’s Away game booth.”

Now the students are focused on community driven activities to bring the students together. For example, the students are hosting a Knock-Out tournament the week of November 18-22 for a fee of $5. Since ITSOG is not a continuing tradition, the group wanted to raise money to put together personal hygiene kits for the homeless, and decided that they could kill two birds with one stone by hosting a community event for the younger grades.

Woodall expresses that “most of the time the focus is on the upper school, so having Middle School leadership is a chance to feed back into the Middle School and have opportunities for the younger grades as well.”

The Upper School tends to dominate Westminster’s focus, so having a group of students who are solely dedicated to the younger students has been a great opportunity for both the Middle School in general and the specific students on the team who hope to someday join STUCO.

Woodall describes it as basically doing “what STUCO does but not actually being a part of STUCO,” which gives the group good preparation and experience to run for the older leadership team going into their Freshman year. While the group is similar to STUCO, one major difference is that the students are not elected, but simply volunteer for the position.

The current group meets every other Tuesday during Middle School Lunch and is led by Woodall and Ottolini. At the meetings, the team discusses things they’ve heard their classmates mention in the hallways, plans activities for their grades, and talks through any problems they encounter, which prepares them for future leadership opportunities.