Advising the state

Between the joys of graduating from high school and the new adventure of starting at Rose State – where she will be joining the softball team – 17-year-old Meeker student Katy Buxton has big plans for 2021.

Before she leaves high school, however, she will have a chance to share her student experience.

Buxton has been named to Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister’s 2021 Student Advisory Council, along with 96 other Oklahoma teens.

“The Student Advisory Council is an opportunity for students to get their input on how we’re being educated and talk about the problems that we have in the firsthand,” Buxton said. “[…] I think it’s a good opportunity for us to give our two cents about what’s going on, what the real problems are in schools.”

To be selected, she first submitted an essay to her school.

“I kind of took myself out of it, because Katy was wanting to apply for it, so [the students applying] had to write an essay and then turn it in,” Meeker High School Principal, and Katy Buxton’s father, Brad Buxton said. “Their names were kind of scrubbed from the essay, and then they were given to the committee of five teachers and the counselor.”

The committee then selected the winning essay. After Katy Buxton’s essay was selected, her name was then passed to the school superintendent.

“It’s kind of a two-fold. We had kin of our own [process to] just select a student from our school,” Brad Buxton said.

Once her school had selected her, Katy Buxton then had to apply and be selected at the state level. The whole application and selection process took approximately two months.

“I’m proud of Katy,” Brad Buxton said. “You know, she wrote a pretty good essay and had kind of a lot of things that our students are, you know, struggling with and so I think that’s probably why she was chosen.”

Katy Buxton said the most challenging part of the process was the initial essay she wrote for her school’s committee.

“The first essay was about what three issues were going on, were facing Oklahoma’s youth,” she said, “and I wrote about the lack of internet access in rural communities, and then I wrote about underage vaping. And then I wrote about mental health.”

She said he hopes to contribute to the student advisory council in these areas.

“I want to shed light on all these issues and my main issue is mental health,” Katy Buxton said. “I think mental health is a big part of our schooling experience, so I want to bring light to mental health issues in schools and how we can change that for the better.”

A move from Edmond to Meeker helped her chose which areas to focus on in her essay, since the change showed her the challenges of rural internet connections.

“I came from a bigger school and then moving out here in kind of a more rural community,” Katy Buxton said, “and then having to go online due to COVID, I realized that the internet access is a huge issue and that kids aren’t able to access their schoolwork, at home.”

One of the potential benefits of programs like the Student Advisory Council is that it allows people with various perspectives and backgrounds to share their experiences.

“I hope to gain diversity of knowledge,” she said, “if that makes sense? Like I hope to take other people’s ideas and see if that changes my perspective on school and like take their issues and see if I can maybe incorporate that in my personal life.”

The Student Advisory Committee will meet three times between January and May 2021.