Heading into spring, student leaders with the National Student Council (NSC) partnered with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) in early March for a multi-day session of advocacy education that culminated with the students speaking with Congressional representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
The students were part of a group of 450 people that lobbied for issues ranging from support for grants assisting students in poverty to mental health resources and continued funding for disability programs as Congress engages in budget negotiations.
Student representatives came from across the country to participate in this event and give valuable insight to members of Congress, including students from in and around the DMV.
“[The NASSP] do this every year, and this year they asked the student leaders from the NSC to get involved with them, because at the end of the day, it is all about the students. And they wanted us students to share our firsthand experiences and represent our students from our states,” says Fariza Samadova, 18, an NSC member and senior at Western School of Technology in Catonsville, Maryland, who participated in this year’s advocacy day.
Samadova says the student leaders got to D.C. and had two days of training with Jennifer Silva, the director of external communications for NASSP. They researched the different bills NASSP is in support of, got tips on advocacy, practiced what they would say and discussed who should focus on what topic.
Then the day came for the students to meet with representatives, and the consensus was that it was a cool experience—if not a bit intimidating at first.
“I’m not going to lie, it was kind of nerve- wracking, because I’ve never done this on such a big level. With my experience as a regional representative on the Baltimore County Student Council level, we do have an advocacy day ourselves, but that’s usually at the Maryland State House in Annapolis. It’s not Capitol Hill,” Samadova says.
For Paige Goble, 16, the vice president of membership for the NSC and a junior at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, it was a bit hard to wrap her head around going as a teenager to speak with such powerful figures, but she stressed the importance of hearing about students’ lives directly from the source.
Paige says students are the “topmost experts on education” but don’t have a seat at the table to discuss any of the potential policies that will directly impact them on an everyday basis.
“Having students talk, it really puts a face to who needs these resources, because [hearing from a] big organization, it’s not the same as hearing from people who it really impacts,” says Paige.
Her focus topic was student mental health, as it’s something that has had an impact on her and other students in her area, while others in her group focused on Title I funding for students going to schools in high-poverty areas, and one student from Puerto Rico spoke about emergency relief funding from hurricane damage.
Samadova took a slightly different focus, speaking about the importance of Career and Technical Education (CTE) grants, as she could speak from experience about Western Tech’s 10 CTE magnet programs.
Samadova says the experience is one she would share with her peers to stress the importance of having their voices heard and prove that taking leadership positions and advocating are something achievable.
“If any students are interested in any leadership—like policy, any student council type of extracurriculars—just to go for it. Just apply; just see what happens. Because honestly, anything could happen, and you won’t get to where you want to go unless you take that first step,” she says.
Paige says that with the rapidly changing landscape of American education and people struggling, this event shows how students need to make themselves heard and are just as capable of advocating as adults.
She adds that it was a life-changing experience speaking for people that don’t have a voice at advocacy day and is something she hopes to continue in her community.
“It amplifies how much we need that advocacy right now, and how important it is on a small scale and a large scale to be speaking up about problems that we see and issues that we want changed,” Paige says.
