EASTHAMPTON — Easthampton High School senior Iyana Cooper-Baez joined the Student Council in the ninth grade, wanting to make a difference during her first year as an Eagle. Four years later, she’s receiving national recognition for her efforts to make her school a better place.
“My first time starting Student Council my freshman year, anytime there was an activity, I just always wanted to help,” Cooper-Baez said in EHS on Tuesday morning. “I guess I really love the idea of making high school a more fun place because it can be really, really stressful for people and I understand that.”
Cooper-Baez is the first EHS student to complete the National Association of Student Councils (NASC), Distinguished Student Leader Program, which aims to help school leaders sharpen their leadership skills. Through completion of the program, she now is recognized by the NASC as a Distinguished Student Leader, one of dozens from schools across the country.
The NASC is a membership-based organization overseeing hundreds of student councils across the country; EHS hosts one of more than 150 such groups in Massachusetts.
Cooper-Baez explained at their core, student councils act as a form of student government, organizing events and putting students in positions such as president, vice president and treasurer — her role this school year. But she says it’s about much more.
“Student council — people think leadership, because you are in a way representing your school,” she explained. “But I think also, a big part of it is having school spirit, also just having compassion and caring about the people in your school.”
EHS Student Council Advisor David Beauregard first pitched the opportunity to Cooper-Baez last spring. Having mentored her for the past four years, Beauregard knew she had what it takes to earn the achievement.
He explained that while the NASC, under the National Association of Secondary School Principals, provides guidelines for councils, the advisors and students truly control how it is organized.
“There are so many hours that Iyana (Cooper-Baez) has spent over these last three and a half years trying to figure out these little pieces,” Beauregard said.
Beauregard has seen both Cooper-Baez’s successes and failures over the years, noting that even in failure Cooper-Baez has been able to learn and use that as fuel for her next endeavor.
To join the program, NASC member schools can submit an application for a student leader online, as Beauregard did with Cooper-Baez.
Participants must complete a series of leadership tasks and activities to create a portfolio that showcases their journey, not just on a student council but in the community at-large, to show how the student has displayed goal setting, team building and civic engagement.
“I think for Iyana, working through the program was probably easier than other students because for her, it was really an act of reflection on the things that she’s already done,” Beauregard said about her work on the program.
Cooper-Baez explained that much of her work involved writing papers and reflecting on her past experiences to show how they have built her into the leader she is today.
Along with her time on Student Council, Cooper-Baez has worn many different hats at EHS. She’s currently a member of the yearbook club, and has spent time on the diversity and cooking clubs. She is also on the school’s We The People team, contributing to the team’s seventh-straight state championship last year, and has helped organize food drives.
Cooper-Baez is currently working to bring a “mobile polar plunge” to EHS, an event open to the community, slated for Feb. 12. In partnership with the nonprofit, Special Olympics of Massachusetts, Cooper-Baez hopes to raise at least $4,000 for the organization while also spreading awareness for unified sports in school — joining people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team.
“The motivation behind it is supporting unified sports in schools,” Beauregard said.
Cooper-Baez hopes to rally more community members to take the plunge, including the mayor, faculty members and others. One thing is certain: Cooper-Baez and Beauregard will be taking the plunge.
Cooper-Baez pitched the idea to EHS faculty, and in tandem with the plunge, she is organizing the “Spread the Word to End the Word” awareness week in January, to reduce the use of derogatory terms toward people who are disabled.
To hone her skills on student council, Cooper-Baez and joined other leaders at “officer trainings” hosted by the NASC and its subdivision, the Massachusetts Association of Student Councils. These trainings help teach students to manage different committees on the EHS council, such as a school spirit or organization team. Officers serve as a chair for each committee.
Looking back to her first training during her sophomore year, Cooper-Baez said this was a pivotal moment. She said typically there are different workshops that take place involving leadership exercises with council members from schools across the state.
“It was strange because it was only me and one other person (from EHS) and we had to split up,” she said about the workshop. “So that was like really my first test. I like talking to new people, and a lot of the people at the officer workshops are upperclassmen and I was a lower classman. So even being a lower classman, it helped me connect with upperclassmen.”
She has used that experience to visit Mountain View School, along with other council members, to talk about student council with younger students.
“It’s definitely possible for anybody,” Cooper-Baez said about the leadership program. “If I were to tell my freshman self that I’m where I am now, I would be like, ‘Get out of here.'”
After graduation, Cooper-Baez plans on going into pre-law or something related to that field. And she hopes to bring the same mentality she has brought to her high school career — being open to new experiences and bringing the spirit of an EHS Eagle.
“Set a goal and just don’t stop …” she said as a word of advice. “Make a goal that you know you’d love to do and you just don’t stop there, keep going. And that’s what’s gotten me to where I am today.”