Golden Apple: Junior at Bemidji’s TrekNorth Elected to State Student Council Board

Students from all over the state are sworn into the Minnesota Association of Student Councils (MASC), but the high schools of rural northern Minnesota are usually less represented than southern, bigger cities. One junior from Bemidji’s TrekNorth Senior High School has set out to change that narrative.

Out of the 5.8 million people who live in Minnesota, only about 10–15% percent live in the northern half of the state. One of those people is Didi Ning Lafleur, and her goal is to become a voice at the state level for small-town, under-represented high school students.

“I was able to really get the voice of us rural divisions out there, because especially a lot of the schools that attend these conferences are more the southern schools in the [Twin] Cities,” said Lafleur.

That’s why she set out to become a part of the Minnesota Association of Student Councils Executive Board. After campaigning for her spot in the Twin Cities, Lafleur was elected as board secretary.

“I just love doing leadership stuff,” she said. “It’s just been something I’ve always been drawn to. And I’ve also just had such a deep connection with others all throughout my life. So it really impacts me to know when other people feel like they’re comfortable and supported and represented.”

On top of it already being a big deal for Lafleur to be elected from such a small, rural school, she is also the first one to ever be elected from TrekNorth.

“For a school our size and being in a rural area in northern Minnesota, it’s a huge deal,” said Amy Frank, TrekNorth High School Student Council Advisor. “Even just for the Northwest Division, for someone from TrekNorth to be elected to something this big is a pretty big deal for us.”

Lafleur added, “I think that really encouraged me to just continue that legacy of just trying at least get that voice out there.”

Lafleur will attend leadership forums and overnight conferences and will work with other student councils from across the whole nation.

“One of the big things I really wanted to cover was representation, and that be representation of all the delegates within the MASC, but then also representation of us up here who often get pushed off to the sidelines at these really big conferences,” she explained.

Besides representation, the other two qualities that Lafleur aims to bring are showing compassion and being a dependable voice.