The Texas Association of Student Councils has the largest non-profit student led conference in the world. This year, Texas High will be the host for over 5,000 students and teachers from all over the state of Texas.

From Nov. 10-11, the mid-level conference was held in San Marcos with around 500 attendees. Senior Claire Doan was one of the lead speakers along with her fellow state officers. Seniors Cameron Tarpley and Jay Williamson led their own break out sessions and table talks on the fundamentals of leadership, as well as how to “Deepen Your Heart” in relation to community service.

“We were able to work on a service project for four hours, that involved middle schoolers writing what’s on their hearts that we are going to be able to turn into a wreath for some patients at a hospital in Dallas,” senior Cameron Tarpley said.

Doan also served as one of the members of the TASC board, in which they made a variety of decisions this past weekend in regards to upcoming high school campuses, as well as over the duties of each of the state officers for the high school convention.

“Being on the board is always very fulfilling, as it has really helped my organizational skills, and we go over such important materials,” senior Claire Doan said.

These meetings and conferences serve as a trial run for the high school conference in April and allow the state officers the ability to have extra practice speaking as a group.

“Claire and I got to sing on stage to close the last general session, and it is always fun being able to hear 400 middle schoolers sing ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas,’” senior Cameron Tarpley said.

The board members are made up of the student and advisor from each of the five state officer schools as well as five elected advisors from a variety of high schools and middles schools. They also coincide with the president and director of the Texas Association of Secondary School principals and another TASSP representative principals. This group is responsible for delegating a 2.5 million dollar budget that is part of the production of both conferences as well as helping set the state theme for each year.

“It was a really awesome opportunity for us to be able to plan for state and coordinate with a bunch of other student council on fundraising,” senior Claire Doan said.