StuCo senior officers left for Washington D.C. last week on Wednesday, Jan. 30 to attend the Leadership Experience and Development (LEAD) Conference and learn the history of the American government.

“We went to [Washington] because it was the national LEAD conference [which] works with both [StuCo] and National Honor Society,” principal Jeffrey Kajs said. “[The conference was] about leadership and moving forward so what a great opportunity to [also] take our students to the country’s capital.”

Given these opportunities, StuCo was able to learn how the government started and survived throughout history. While seeing the White House, students were able to have Congressman Michael Burgess write about the officers visiting in the congressional announcement.

“We wanted [StuCo officers] to see everything and wanted them to understand they are [the] elected officers of the school,” StuCo adviser Allison Stamey said. “They need to know about [their] government and history and how everything runs because several of them want to go into political science [and] StuCo in college so I wanted them to be familiar with everything and the way it works.”

With visiting places like the Washington Monument, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial, StuCo officers enjoyed their free time during the trip despite the weather being under 6 degrees.

“We visited most of the Smithsonian and the national monuments [in] our free time,” senior secretary officer Brooke White said. “My favorite [attraction] was the Lincoln Memorial and I thought it was really fun because it’s the one on the $5 bill.”

Those who attended the trip faced obstacles such as cold weather and walking almost 10 miles every day. Even though it was tiring, Stamey would like to go on the trip again but with a few minor changes.  

“I think I would spend one more day to see the Holocaust Museum, [it’s] just so interesting to see,” Stamey said. “I would break [down the trip] so we won’t walk quite so much because we were all super tired and we could’ve done a lot more.”