For 17 years, National Student Council has been recognizing member councils that consistently exemplify the four tenets of Leadership, Service, Engagement, and Student Voice in their quests to make a difference in their schools and communities. More than 250 middle level and high school NatStuCo councils were recently named as 2022 National Councils of Excellence (NCOE), with more than 200 of those earning special honors as National Gold Councils of Excellence. The list of winners is available at natstuco.org/council-recognition/national-councils-of-excellence.
National recognition is only part of the benefit of the NCOE award. Many of the councils working toward it recognize that much of the criteria reflects the operational aspects, activities, and culture already ingrained in their programs and provides them a structure in which to compile and report their efforts. Ultimately, the council activities and events that helped them earn recognition also impact their schools and communities.
Based on data from NCOE applications, here’s a look at the 2022 winners by the numbers:
- Winning councils were from 34 states and Puerto Rico.
- 3,197 council officers led the NCOE winner chapters.
- 18,717 students were members of NCOE winner chapters.
- 424,604 students were impacted by the leadership and service of NCOE winner chapters.
Since 2011, the efforts of NatStuCo National Councils of Excellence have reached more than 4.1 million students in schools.
One principal’s response to an NCOE application question, “How Does the Student Council Program Support or Progress the Educational Mission of Your School?” attests to student councils’ far-reaching impact:
“Members of our Student Council continuously serve as sounding boards, which helps the administration with the governance of the school. Their voices are used to gain valuable perspective on the general culture/climate of the building, and their feedback is invaluable. In high stress and/or impactful situations, like changing our schedule or dealing with the national crisis on school violence, our Student Council quickly assembled our ‘Presidents Council,’ which organized all of the student leaders from the largest student groups in our building to collaboratively work with administration on how our school community would navigate that particular matter.”
—Stephen Brandt, Garnet Valley High School in Glen Mills, PA