Presidents Club: The Road To Involvment
Connor Strange
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Principal Ryan Ricenbaw founded the Presidents Club at the start of this school year, bringing together the heads of all school activities to discuss the future at WHS.
Rather than a group selected by teachers and administrators for the purpose, leaders of the school, established by their own efforts, work in conjunction.
“It’s a natural vehicle to spread a much bigger message through kids who have already earned that title and have already done some good things in the area of leadership,” Ricenbaw said.
Meetings consist of analyzing a “Habitudes” book of the same series utilized in the various leadership clubs at different grade levels. Where others have a large amount of teacher or administrator involvement to help the flow of conversation, Presidents Club meetings are largely dominated by the student leaders.
“Mr. Ricenbaw starts with what he wants to talk about, then we throw ideas around about what we’d like to get done at our school,” StuCo president Jack Kasra said.
The thoughts that club leaders bring to the table are spread throughout the school by the presidents passing the newfound suggestions to their own clubs.
“The leader from each club can bring [ideas] to their separate clubs,” FCCLA president Abriana Campos said. “You’re telling a small group of people who are making it bigger.”
However, those ideas being passed down don’t just come from the same types of club leaders. Different people from very different involvements at the school show an entirely new perspective on problems at WHS.
“Meetings are a good opportunity to see how kids from all different sects from the high school feel about single issues,” drama club president Tucker Flodman said. “You get someone’s opinion that’s in football and someone that’s in drama and FFA and SADD. I’ve never had as in-depth or interesting conversations in any class, just because all of these students are leaders and know how to communicate.”
Even taking the differences of all the leaders into consideration, principal Ricenbaw found they all had a similar goal in mind; every leader looked for ways to more effectively include the whole student body.
“If you’re president of FCCLA, think about what you’d like to do and how to utilize your leadership for your club - the same for FFA and FBLA and so on,” Ricenbaw said. “What’s cool is, as we went around the room, they were stating their goal differently, but what they wanted to achieve is exactly the same: giving kids an experience that allows them to be a bigger part of their school.”
That goal is at the very heart of what the Presidents Club hopes to achieve in its future and the future of the high school.
“My goal is to get everyone connected and to feel like this is their school,” Ricenbaw said. “We’ve got to find a way that everyone feels that they have a role. People look at visible characteristics of leadership and say they could never do that. Defining who you are and focusing on having a positive impact can play a huge role in your high school experience.”
