By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“ASB, are you ready?”

That was the opening question as high-school ASB (Associated Student Body) leaders from around the city gathered today for their first-ever Seattle ASB Leadership Summit, hosted by West Seattle High School, where the idea originated (as we reported earlier this week).

As the summit opened, the energy was drummed up, literally, by performers in the gym, including the WSHS Drumline:

The WSHS Cheer Team:

Across 35th, a band of WSHS-student musicians:

In classic pep-assembly style, a few games were interspersed. And then, the speeches – co-lead Lizzy Greene and summit creator Jim Guevara, WSHS seniors, segued into Mayor Katie Wilson:

Lizzy talked about dealing with the “fear of complacency”; Jim talked about the summit potentially connecting tens of thousands of students around the city, and the hope it’ll become an annual event. He urged attendees to remember, “We are young leaders” but will soon enough be in charge.

Mayor Wilson described them as “community organizers” like her. And she lauded the work of other students who were part of her transition team, which met for the last time this week. She implored attendees to “hold us accountable” for working to make Seattle “a place where you can build a future.”

Final speaker was Seattle Public Schools‘ new Superintendent Ben Shuldiner.

He noted that he was a high-school teacher for 10 years, and that his last name translates to “school server.” But he said his main interest was in telling the participants “thank you.”

After the performances and speeches, the ~100 participants settled into a day of sessions on topics including:

-ASB Events, from Idea to Execution
-Sustainable Leadership and Wellness
-Leading the Crowd
-Public Speaking
-Partnering with Your Community
-Unified 101
-Mastering Assemblies
-ASB Law – Finances
-Building a Connected Campus
-ASB on Your FYP
-Spirit Week Spotlight
-Supporting Girls in Athletics
-NAACP Youth Council
-‘Super’ Senior Year
-Diversity and Equity

They were spread between three time periods, so each participant got to decide which three they wanted to attend.

To ensure the first SALS won’t be the last, co-leads Jim and Lizzy convened “SALS Charter Development” in the library; we sat in on that one, and discovered the superintendent was there too. This one quickly broke into small groups, with the intent, as Jim said, to “make (the summit) more of a real thing … self-sustaining,” with its own mission statement. Some of the differences between schools arose in the subsequent discussion (we were within earshot of several small groups) – some ASBs operate with strong committees, some don’t have the same clubs and groups as other schools. There was talk of regional collaboration between summits.

They also talked about how to collaborate on solutions after problems that might include multiple schools, such as a fight at a sports event.

When a voice on the PA system announced that Session 1 was over and it was time to rotate to Session 2, the charter group was just hitting its stride, so many of the participants stayed in place and continued their work. The plan was to present and sign the charter at day’s end, and to “pass torch to the next SALS host.” We followed up with Jim tonight to see who that’ll be; Ingraham High School, he replied. Asked for a comment on how today went, he said, “I think the summit went even better than expected. Seeing the joy and genuine interest on the representatives’ and ASBs’ faces, and the way they connect with one another, is truly inspiring.”