From Feb. 28 to March 2, Associated Students of Mililani High School attended the National Leadership, Experience and Development Conference in Chicago, IL., which was hosted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Students from across the U.S., Mexico, Saipan and the U.S. Virgin Islands attended this event. ASMHS had the opportunity to attend numerous sessions hosted by other students as well as present their own ideas to others.

      “It was about how we’re going to use what we learned to influence the rest of the school, and I think that’s a really big message to think about. The bigger picture, that what I do, isn’t just for me and being in ASMHS isn’t just a line for my resume. It’s because I want to help and I want to serve the people in my school,” said ASMHS president and senior Sasha Nicole Arreola.

      Arreola presented her own session, titled “To Lead is to Inspire.” Her session covered the importance of inspiring and motivating other people as a leader. In another session, all of the ASMHS members worked together to present, “Exploring Your Leadership Mindset.”

     “Through (this) ASMHS presentation, we were able to share and teach other leaders about exploring your leadership mindset. To us, that means lead with purpose, lead with passion, lead with an optimistic mindset and lead with a growth mindset,” said ASMHS vice president and senior Nolan Acosta. 

     One session the members attended was “Operation Beautiful,” which was a week-long event to support the idea of spreading positivity throughout the school. Another session that was presented was the “emotional toolkit,” which contained a few ideas on how to raise your spirits and handle tough situations. 

     “Nolan — he’s the MICC president — we wanted him to kind of introduce that idea to the club officers because we knew that they also plan a lot of events throughout the school year, and so we wanted them to also have a feeling of what that meant,” said Arreola.

     Currently, ASMHS is planning out how to bring some of the ideas from sessions they attended back to MHS to improve the school environment. They are also preparing for events such as the spring pep rally, Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accreditation Week and Librarian Appreciation Day.