The JSEC student body began itś creation of a JSEC Student Council in January 2026 with a school-wide election that resulted in key grade level leaders stepping up to lead. In class advisory periods students voted on class leaders which led to the official election of official Student Council Members. The group met at least 1-2 times weekly and the meetings consisted of valuable dialogue between student leaders, students, teachers, and administration. The elected leaders for this year were:
Student Council Elected Leaders:
Lois Soe (9th)
Ashley Estevez & Natasha Lopez (10th)
Rose Guzman & Esmerlyn Paulino Vargas (11th).
Student Council Members:
Prosper Richardson, Darrous Togba, Elian Vasquez, Annalise Lora, Glemin Sanchez, Juan Castillo Frias, & Ashley Perez.
Student Council Advisors:
Ms. Garland, Mr. Moreau, Mr. Barao, Ms. Nicynski, Ms. Paniccia, Ms. Schmidt, Ms. Crum, & Ms. Bacarri.
12th Grade ran it’s own version of class leaders who shared with the organization of many senior related events while the 9th-11th Team united to initiate, implement, and integrate numerous school wide events. Before we get to those we wanted to share a couple of quotes from a those on our Student Council Leadership Team:
We received a few quotes from the Leadership Team on the Student Council who stated:
“I enjoyed how each meeting we had something different- whether it be a different topic, problem, or solution, we will still discuss it. As students apart of this school and community we will run into problems or situations that we may not be able to handle or fix right away, which is why I believe being part of student council has been making improvements in the short time frame we’ve been together. I believe our most successful project is the Golden Ticket as we’ve seen the improvement within the school with students wanting to participate and do more than before, especially with differentiating behaviors and attitudes as time went by. We definitely improved by speaking out and planning to do more for the next year.”-Ashley Estevez
“Young voices are often ignored and being a part of this was able to change that. Not only were we able to amplify our voices we were also able to make positive changes within our school. Our student council committee was able to change important student participation like attendance through our Golden ticket program. We personally helped students by setting up the food pantry. This year was beyond successful and we plan to have many more successes next year. -Lois Soe
JSEC had a Student Council Celebration the last week of school which included awards, Domino’s Pizza, snacks, and prizes. It was a great way to celebrate all that was accomplished this year. Here are some photos:
JSEC is so fortunate to have partnered with the Feinstein Foundation this past year to curb food insecurities for our JSEC Families. Some have said we have made some great lemonade from the ingredients that we had including a generous donation from the Feinstein Foundation in Providence. With the donation to JSEC we have been able to do the following:
*Set up a Food Pantry
*Give away thousands in Gift Cards to provide food from JSEC Families
*Work with Sodexo to provide Food Backpacks
*Create our own JSEC Golden Ticket Program
The JSEC Kindness Crew and 10th Grade Leadership Team also collaborated together for March’s Feinstein Golden Ticket initiative. Throughout March, the JSEC focused on good deeds/kindness in the community with our target organization being Providence’s Ronald Mc’Donald House (RMDH). We asked students to collect soda can tabs (which RMDH uses to raise money) and for every 10 soda can tabs donated, students received a Golden Ticket that was entered into the monthly Golden Ticket raffle at the end of the month for a chance to win one of eight $50 gift cards. In order to roll out this initiative, a short video was sent out to be viewed by all students during Advisory to inform the JSEC student body of the contest and what the Ronald Mc’Donald House was all about which also included their mission and vision to server the Providence Community. Teaming up made a huge difference and sizeable donation to this organization. Ms. Kahulunian, one of our school’s social workers, worked with the Student Council to make this happen.
The Student Council realizes lot’s of people like numbers so we thought to include some pretty fair estimates of the numbers that matter.
BY THE NUMBERS:
*1250 Golden Ticket Raffle Tickets Awarded
*60 Golden Ticket $50 Gift Cards Awarded
*15,000 Soda Tabs Collected for Ronald Mc’Donald House
*20,000 Food Items Distributed to Families
*50,000 Smiles That Resulted in These Numbers (we made this one up but really feel we there were thousands-hehe)
BY GOALS SET:
The themes of the Student Council in relation to the Golden ticket contest included:
- Increased Attendance
- Improve Grades
- Increase of Food Security for the JSEC Community
- Increased Student Involvement
- Increased Student/Administration Team Building
- Incentivizing Student Performance
In sum, this year was beyond successful. All goals were met and a firm foundation was set this year for 2026-2027’s Student Council. The Student Council will be taking a much needed Summer Break but all looking forward to starting strong in September 2026. Any student looking to join the Student Council should become involved. We will be having key leadership positions again and also membership positions where any student may attend. All input is valuable and we welcomed.
We want to send out a special thanks to the Feinstein Foundation for making these opportunities possible. The Feinstein Foundation has been serving the children of this community for decades. The Alan Shawn Feinstein Foundation was founded in 1992 by educator and philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein. It’s mission is to inspire young people to help others, embrace kindness, and make our world a better place. Thanks to Leila Feinstein, who is the President of the Feinstein Foundation, more than 1 million students have participated in Junior Scholar Programs. JSEC happens to be one of the newest High Schools that they are working with and one of the key missions has been to reduce food insecurities in our communities. Through the Golden Ticket Program, Food Backpack, and Food Pantry Program, are just a few of the ways JSECs Student Council has spearheaded ways families can receive gift cards for food in addition to gaining free access to our food pantry. Lastly students are able to participate in our Food Packpack Program where students can all bring home backpacks filled with food for the weekend while the Food Pantry will allow for students and families to take home items. Feinstein has enabled JSEC Student Council with the funds needed to have this program and potentially continue in September.
