Typically, when you are a student at any high school, you feel that everything is left up to the administrators. All of the bell schedules, dress codes, and disciplinary action are all left within the adult hands of the ultimate authority members. What if I told you that this can change? This is the goal of the first “High School Summit”, which will take place on April 21^st, 2015 in the Norristown Area High School gym from 9 AM to 2 PM. The organizers hope this event will have great impact on the school.

The goal of the high school summit is for administration to get information from students in order to enforce change. This will be done through students discussing various topics that impact our school. These topics include discipline, dress code, and day-to-day operations that have an impact on the entire student body. According to Mr. Dinenno, one of the key organizers of the Summit, the teachers involved will categorize all of this information, and will eventually have a faculty summit of their own to present this information that the students have given them to administration. From there, it is their hope that this will lead to positive change in the daily functioning of Norristown Area High School.

The beginnings of this concept were originated with Principal Smith. Principal Smith presented this idea to Mr. Dinenno in January, and the original concept was for Mr. Dinenno to create a Student Leadership Team, which serves the same function as the School Leadership Team (comprised of teachers) whose goal is to discuss and ultimately have an impact on all that happens at Norristown Area High School. The first step of this process is inviting students to this summit, and then creating a Student Leadership Team based on this conference. The basis of this Student Leadership Team is edified by how well the conference goes. Therefore, it is crucial for all student opinion to truly be heard.

As is with any honor, a selection process had to take place. Mr. Dinenno began by asking all faculty members to recommend students who they thought would be suitable for leadership roles. The basis of these roles included students who had an effective voice, and a voice that could impact change. He stated that he was not looking for individuals with the highest GPA, but those that he thought could be positive catalysts for making an impact. Those names were sent over to Mr. Dinenno, and that is how the participants for this summit were eventually chosen. The summit participants will be comprised of students from Norristown Area High School and students from the Roosevelt campus.

The summit itself will be broken into parts. The first activity will include an icebreaker. Like all icebreaker activities, this will be done for all students to get comfortable with each other, and be able to know one another. Second, there will be open Socratic seminar between the students, which will be facilitated by the teachers. Basically, this means the teachers will oversee the discussion, but they are not allowed to insert themselves into the discussion. This is very similar to the discussions that take place in my AP Literature class, where we are given a topic (a book or short story) and it is our responsibility to guide the discussion that takes place. The teacher’s job is to take notes and observe. This method will be great for a summit such as this, because it is solely the student’s responsibility to say whatever they want to. However, it is not all discussion. After this takes place, the students will unwind with a dodgeball tournament in the gym. After that, all of the groups will re-convene and share the best ideas they had heard.

The majority of the summit seems like a nice opportunity, but a student’s voice can only go so far. Mr. DiNenno aims to change this, as the comments made during the summit are supposed to correlate to some change. The kids will work with the teachers and, as mentioned prior, the teachers will act as facilitators to student discussion, and take notes on what occurs. Therefore, all of the comments and suggestions made by students will be presented to administration through the teachers. Mr. Dinenno also stated that all changes that were catalyzed by the students will be made known. For example, if a new policy is made in regards to the technology zone, and it is raised due to student suggestion during the summit, NAHS will make it known that this was a student-produced idea. This is great because the comments made during the summit will not go to waste.

Some of the staff closely intertwined with the project includes Ms. Sommar, Ms. Mitchell, Mr. Paone, Mr. Forrest, Mr. Irvine, Mr. Dinenno, and many others. The School Leadership Team’s responsibility was organizing the event itself, while Mr. Smith provided the resources to make the project happen. All of this turned into the student summit, and the hard work these staff members provided makes for a great time for the students. The hope is that it can induce some change into the day-to-day activities at NAHS. However, the action does not stop at the summit itself.

Mr. DiNenno explains, if the summit is a success, there will be another student summit. Next time, they want to focus on a particular group, or a particular issue. For example, a summit could take place that solely focuses on student-teacher relations. If this positive change is done, it will shed positive light on to what is a typically frowned upon school. Mr. Dinenno believes that if NAHS gets some positive PR on the summit, it can show that students care about what happens during school. He thinks that young people want to make a difference, and this is a way to make things better. He believes that 10 years from now, this summit will allow for students to come back and see a more unified atmosphere that will empower students, and help them see pride in their accomplishments. If students “buy in” to the accomplishment, then big things will happen. Dinenno describes the summit as “Students taking charge and having a say in their own high school experience and education”. As we, as high school students, grow older and strive for autonomy, finally having a voice in what occurs in our lives is a great thing. Our voices will finally be heard.

NAHS HIGH SCHOOL SUMMIT: APRIL 21^ST, 2015 IN THE NAHS GYMNASIUM FROM 9 AM TO 2 PM