For the first time in over a decade, the student body elected an all-female executive board to the 2019-20 school year student council. The council is decidedly led by Annie Maskill, who steps up to her position as school president after winning the approval of her peers in a June campaign effort.

“Annie brings a great communicable and approachable personality to the table that wouldn’t leave anyone at Summit in the dark,” fellow candidate Nick Brees said.

As a Muse club and National Honors Society member as well as a captain of the lacrosse team, Maskill adds “School President” to a busy schedule.

“Running for president took a lot of thought because I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I truly see all the potential with this school and I knew that I could make that happen,” Maskill said.

She uses her experience in a wide range of activities to bring energy to all aspects of high school.

“Annie is an awesome president. I’m really impressed with her so far,” said activities coordinator Sarah Warsaw. “She’s energetic, she’s really smart, she’s organized, she motivates the student council really well and she’s a good public speaker. She has overall great qualities.”

The Maskill name isn’t completely new to Warsaw. Maskill’s brother, Will, participated in student council as the 2018 spirit commissioner during his time with the Storm.

“Will loved Summit so much and he wanted so badly for everyone else to love it. He poured his heart into this school. I loved that about him and I want to do the same,” Maskill said.

Now attending Boston College, Will was the runner up in his campaign against 2018 school president Niko Smiley.

“Will losing actually made me question whether I should run. I was like, ‘It’s the Maskill curse, I don’t know if I’m going to win,’” Maskill said.

Maskill turned her brief doubt on itself, using it as inspiration to campaign for a refreshed school culture.

“Winning is one of the values of Summit’s history. I think one thing I can work on for Summit is valuing support instead of just winning.”

Maskill’s policy is timely–our school’s sports teams are adjusting to their 2018 transition from 5A and are finding more competition in the bigger 6A classification.

“6A not only has bigger and better sports competition but the student sections are bigger too, so it’s a step up the whole school needs to make,” Maskill said.

Motivating students to go to games is a top down effect, Maskill said. If the senior class shows enthusiasm for supporting our teams, juniors will attend games and sophomores and freshmen will follow.

“The best part of Summit is the school spirit and you can tell people like to be here,” Maskill said. “It’s very community oriented and even though we’re still working on improving that, everyone is here for each other to support.”

Freshman Barrett Justema can attest to that. “I think Annie is going to be a great president–and most of all, role model–to us all. As president, she’ll continue to do a great job of making the community very friendly and welcoming,” Justema said.

The Storm’s presidential position involves having a strong sense of the student body’s preferences, then using student council as a platform to make changes, if need be.

Thanks to our new president, “The hype is there, the excitement is there and the motivation is really great in student council,” Warsaw said.

Student council is well on its way to making the 2019-20 school year the best yet for the Storm student body.