Powell High School has presidential power in its ranks following junior Emma Johnson’s election as president of the Wyoming Association of Student Councils for the 2022-2023 school year.

The WASC is an organization made up of student councils within the state with the goal of allowing students to collaborate and work on leadership and character development.

Johnson won a competitive race for the position against six other candidates, which was more than she expected based on the previous year’s election. 

“So I think everyone realized that there was only a small amount of people that ran for president last year,” Johnson said. “So they wanted to encourage the next group of people to take that opportunity.”

Johnson went a different direction from the traditional speech given for the election. She said most speeches will focus on the candidates qualifications and personal accomplishments. 

“I wanted to say, ‘Look, I can list off my qualifications, but you guys are going to be hearing from six other kids about why they’re so great,’” Johnson said. “So let’s go about it a different way and say what a good president looks like.’”

Now that Johnson is elected president she hopes to improve communication with student councils across the state. She said most councils only communicate at the state conventions but texting and social media can be leveraged to improve communication. 

“I really want to make sure that we’re allowing everyone to have access to those resources, because coming from a smaller school, we hear what bigger schools in Cheyenne or Casper are doing, and we want to taste that as well,” Johnson said. “So I think that by having my background coming from a smaller school and being able to establish those relationships with bigger schools, we’re going to be able to make a good middle ground for everyone to reach.”

Johnson said she is thankful for special education teacher Steve Whipple, English teacher JoEllen Varian and science teacher Kaitlin Loeffen, as well as her advisers, friends and student council members. 

Johnson’s first meeting will be via Zoom during Christmas break to discuss goals for the 2023 school year.