Student-Led Meetings: Empowering Student Voice (Transcript)

Alec: When I get in arguments with my peers, it’s really hard for me to like, say I’m wrong or apologize. That’s why I was like, wondering if you guys have any tips, because like, it’s–

Dan St. Louis: Because our students participate in student-led meetings, they have a sense of agency in their own life. They gain the skills to make good decisions in school and outside of school.

Alec: So I think I need to improve in this area.

Lynnel Reed: So often, in anything that you do in education, in life, students always feel like, “Oh, adults are always saying their opinion. I don’t have a voice. I never have any say.” So part of what we do with the student-led meetings is, they get a chance to say what their concerns are, how they see things.

Alec: Welcome, everyone.

Dan St. Louis: Alec led his own meeting today and we bring in all the teachers, me, parents, to say, here are some strengths of mine and here are some challenges that I need help with.

Alec: I’m very happy that they decided to have everybody in the same room, because it allows all of us to get all on the same page.

Like my schoolwork and tests and stuff is pretty good, but when it comes to homework, it’s really bad.

Homework really hurt my grades this quarter, so that’s something I really need to improve.

The second I get home, I don’t feel like doing anything else involving school.

Kaitlin Kelley: They’re not making up what’s going to happen in this meeting on the spot, right. That’s intimidating. Instead, he’s got this structured document, with things he’s proud of, things he needs to work on, specific steps that he’s going to take.

Lynnel Reed: So they come up with their steps and their goals, and what they want to work on and what they may need support with.

Alec: For me, it’s actually being able to sit down and get it done, because once I sit down and get it done, it’s going to get done. Getting started is the hardest part for me, so I could stay after and do my homework before I go home.

Kathy Murphy: For mom and dad, when a student stays with me, I write a note and I say, “Alec stayed today until three thirty. He did a great job working on his PAL.” So that way, there’s good communication back and forth.

Jennifer: I think it’s about him having to set goals for himself and for us to give him the best tools to work with so that he can accomplish those goals.

Chad: And then you’d be able to see yourself in a new light, which only gives you more of that confidence.

The fact that he has, you know, eight or nine, ten adults for these meetings to actually get on the same page and say, “Look, we recognize you’re here. We see where you’ve come from and we want you to tell us where you want to go,” and just having that collaboration, it’s wonderful.

Alec: I just wanted to thank Mr. St. Louis real quick and all of you for being such good teachers. I think I improved more just because I’ve got, like a personal relationship with all of you.

Dan St. Louis: As students get a little older and especially in their junior year, we have these meetings called PEP meetings, which is planning for educational progress.

Kaitlin Kelley: So Jocelyn’s meeting is different. She too will lead hers, but hers is more focused on her future.

Jocelyn: I went to Holy Cross, I’ve been around Clark a lot, but those are the only two colleges I’ve really seen, I guess.

Lynnel Reed: During junior PEPs we like to find out what their future college ideas, goals, aspirations are.

Jocelyn: The medical field, like is very fascinating for me but I haven’t really gone more in depth with it.

This meeting was basically to evaluate where I should be looking for colleges and to see what are my strengths and what I need to work on more.

Lynnel Reed: A lot of our students are the first generation to go to college, so they don’t have any experience in the process and sometimes because they don’t, they think that it’s out of reach. It’s really an opportunity for them to get that support from us.

Dan St. Louis: I wrote my college essay actually around this idea that I had of perhaps being a physical therapist. I know, I know, you look at me now. Then I got to college and I saw, oh, it’s like all science classes all the time, which I hadn’t really realized that. So do you find yourself interested in the sciences like that, like taking that amount on?

Jocelyn: I know that science is not that of my highest strengths but if I apply myself, I think I could.

Lynnel Reed: Student-led meetings allow our students to feel like they have a chance to talk to staff on another level as humans with a life and an experience that can be shared.

Jocelyn: My meeting helped me understand that you don’t really need to know your passion right away, but it’s really good to have an idea of what kind of college is right for me.

Dan St. Louis: At the center of any meeting like this, especially since the students are leading them, is just a baseline of real respect. You’re in the driver’s seat, it’s your life. Love yourself, respect yourself, we’re here to help.

Teacher: You know, be patient with yourself and as you said in the last line, take it a day at a time, right?

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