By: Misheel Enkhbat

On March 29, members of Dallas’ Highland Park High School Associated Student Body (ASB) leadership class and their advisor arrived to shadow the Student Executive Council (SEC) for a day. The trip was initiated after their ASB advisor contacted Student Activities Director Lisa Hall about setting up a visit. “They have been visiting several other schools around the country in order to learn about different school cultures, as well as ASB activities and practices,” Hall said.

The students arrived at brunch and shadowed SEC students during their classes, met again at lunch and continued shadowing until after school when they met to talk about their experiences with SEC.

Sophomore Micah Bires from Highland Park High School commented positively on the experience. “I liked it a lot—it was different,” Bires said. “We had to do a lot of walking outside, whereas in Texas all our classes are indoors.”

According to Bires, the trips to different schools were successful. “It was cool seeing other schools and how they run their ASB practices compared to how we run ours,” he said. The Texas students also visited Palo Alto High School the day after.

Senior Cat Perez also picked up new ideas. “I like the idea of how their pep rallies are really well-attended,” Perez said. “I think that comes with their love of sports, but I would like to see our rallies better attended.” SEC also found several major differences between the two schools, particularly in Homecoming. “For their Spirit Week, [which is similar to] our Homecoming Week, they do not have games or floats during the week,” Perez said. “They do dress up, but [there is] no sort of competition during the week which I found surprising.”