Maintaining and cultivating Rustler spirit is a top priority for this year’s student government.

“We want to revive old traditions and create new ones,” treasurer Marissa Berryman said.

Berryman is one of three student body officers in charge of organizing events and activities.  The first big project on this year’s agenda is homecoming.

“We’re going to blow every class out of the water.  We’ve had a lot of participation in homecoming this year,” Berryman said.

After homecoming, student government plans to become more involved student life by having better “Theme Thursdays,” green and gold Fridays, installing a light-up board in the commons, holding canned food drives, and revamping pep assemblies.

“I think student government needs to be a bigger part of our school, and I think we need to make some new changes,” Vice President Katie Smith said.

She also stressed the importance of students encouraging one another.

“We all need to support each other and bring each other up – win or lose,” Smith said.

Student body President Cheyann Trueman said that in the past, the “lack of unity, spirit, and participation” have been major problems within student government and the student body as a whole.  This year’s officers hope to turn things around.

“We’re setting the bar this year for other student officers to aspire to be as spirited and as fun and as united as we are,” Berryman said.

This year’s student government hopes to leave a lasting impact.

“We really want people to remember who we are and what we’ve done.  We want to have that feeling of pride that our student government has done a good job.”