Students in the News

Photo courtesy of Danait Kidane

Danait Kidane is this years student adviser for Mountlake Terrace High School.

By Sara Bruestle

The Beacon

Mountlake Terraces Danait Kidane wants the Edmonds School District to know the effect its budgeting has on students in Edmonds schools.

There are a lot of problems, she said. And only students know 100 percent the problems that students have to deal with.

Kidane, a senior, is the Mountlake Terrace High School student adviser on the Edmonds school board for the 2009-2010 school year. Shes working with the school board to address the problems students are having with the districts budget.

I try to bring the issues up so the school board is aware of what is going on at our school, because they can only know so much in the district, she said.

She sees the effects of the districts budgeting every day at Mountlake Terrace:

Because of increased school lunch prices, students are opting to eat something from the vending machines for lunch. Athletics fees are so high that sometimes even fundraising isnt enough. And with the loss of an afterschool bus, many students cant be in clubs or sports because they no longer have a ride home.

As a student adviser, Kidane wants to help fix those problems and more not just at Mountlake Terrace but at all the schools in the district.

The administrators, the principals, the teachers all try their best to fix these issues, but only the students really know and can really address how they feel about whats going on at our schools, she said.

Kidane is confident in her ability to serve as student adviser for Mountlake Terrace because of her leadership skills and her involvement in a variety of programs at her high school.

I feel like I relate to the students very well, because first I am a student, [and] then Im a student adviser for the school board, she said.

In addition to being a student adviser, Kidane is an ASB class representative at Mountlake Terrace; vice president of DECA, the high schools marketing club; and a member of MTHSs Link Crew, a mentoring club that offers support to incoming freshmen.

Shes also a member of Invisible Children, a volunteer club at Mountlake Terrace that supports the non-profit organization of the same name, which works to aid children living in the war-ravaged communities of Uganda. School board President Ann McMurray said Kidane is a wonderful addition to the school board because she is able to represent the wide interests of the Mountlake Terrace student body. She is very involved at her local high school, so she is aware of the student culture there, she is aware of student issues there, and she can bring not only her own perspective to the board, she can bring a wider student perspective, McMurray said.

MTHS Principal Greg Schwab said Kidanes connection to her high school will help her be a good student adviser. [She has] a good understanding of student life, what its like to be a student, and what are the things that the school board needs to be aware of as they make decisions that affect the lives of our students, he said.

Outside of school, Kidane is busy preparing for college. Shes currently enrolled in the Young Executives of Color program at the University of Washington, a series of business exploration workshops for high school students. With YEOC, Kidane meets monthly with a student mentor to learn the ins and outs of the UW business school.Kidane is thinking of majoring in business or international studies at the UW, SU or Macalester College in Minnesota.

Even if its business, I know that I want to do something that allows me to travel or at least allows me to work with different countries, she said. So maybe international business or trading anything that has a global focus.