Senior Mikayla St. Germain is actively creating a legacy at Cape Coral High School. Her position as Student Government Association’s [SGA] Executive Board President is just one of the ways St. Germain positively influences the student body and culture of Cape High.
Currently, St. Germain’s main focus regarding SGA is the upcoming Homecoming dance. As Executive President, she is the student most involved with the planning and execution of the event.
“It’s a very important role and a very special role to me,” St Germain stated. Although having been in SGA for four years, this is St Germain’s first year running for and holding a spot on the Executive Board.
St. Germain was Vice President of her freshman class, then moved up to President for her sophomore and junior year. The Class of 2024 sponsor, Jaclyn Schroder, has been able to watch St. Germain grow as a leader and person since freshman year.
“She is always somebody who has a smile and will call people in and makes it a welcoming place for people and helps to keep the group on track,” stated Schroder.
Another leadership role St. Germain has obtained is the founder and President of Black Union Society. “The whole mission of the club is to create a smart, efficient, and reliable platform that provides a judgment-free space and protective environment for students of African descent,” said St. Germain.
“Her leadership during prom as the 2024 Class President proves how she really cares about doing well in all she does, as well as her ability to work with all of the other officers,” stated senior Jaelle Rodriguez.
Rodriguez has been Executive Board Secretary since her junior year and has had experience planning homecomings. “She has a lot of great ideas,” stated Rodriguez, “This has worked really well for planning homecoming because she heavily takes into consideration what the classes want.”
With this homecoming theme being ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ St Germain is excited to get especially creative with the decorations. “I never had an Alice in Wonderland [theme] so I’m really excited to see how that comes out and how that is portrayed,” she stated.
Adding different events within Homecoming such as more interactions with the DJ and mini competitions are just a few of the ideas St Germain brought up while discussing Homecoming, as well as decorations that fit the ‘Wonderland’ theme.
“I’m really working on getting a Mad Hatter’s hat,” St. Germain stated, as well as having the iconic Queen of Hearts’ deck of card army featured as characters within the decorations of the dance.
These events and interactive features at Homecoming are just part of St Germain’s school spirit initiative, to bring back the school spirit in Cape High to be higher than ever.
Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, school spirit and SGA events have struggled due to COVID-19 restrictions and the slow adjustment back to ‘normal’ school functions. However even after the restrictions were gone, officers of SGA noticed student enthusiasm was nowhere near where it was before the 2020 COVID lockdown.
However, COVID restrictions and major hurricanes never slowed St. Germain down in terms of support and passion for her work within SGA.
“I always think about Powderpuff throughout the years, just the sheer amount of energy she would bring to our team like she would have chants for us and would yell across the field to motivate people,” stated Schroder.
Rodriguez also believes that St. Germain’s school spirit is what makes her stand out so much as a leader. “She cares a lot about the experience of our students here and works hard to try and make events teenager friendly and get everyone involved.”
St. Germain is also involved in the Cape High’s Step Team and POD (Place of Discipleship), where she advocates for involvement and teamwork throughout the school. She hopes to inspire increased student involvement in, not only SGA, but other school- wide events and clubs.
It’s hard not to see St. Germain around the school. Between leading SGA meetings, her involvement in school extracurriculars, and her announcements in the school cafeteria during lunch, St. Germain strives to keep students involved and in-the-know.
Additionally, she believes a more empathetic style of leadership will make this happen, in order to get everyone more involved.
“I personally take people’s opinions to heart about everything I love, making people feel heard. I love to make people feel seen and I think that’s what really helped me across like my four years now and coming into Executive president,” St. Germain stated.
Service activities are also an important value to St. Germain when it comes to leadership. She has volunteered through SGA and her church, as well as tutoring students K-12 since her sophomore year. It was also in St. Germain’s sophomore year she began taking Dual Enrollment at Florida South Western College.
St. Germain calls upon all students to start volunteering in SGA operations more often, to generate more initiative and school spirit in the student body.
“I’m a representative for the student body,” St. Germain said, “I’m here to just help to get students involved in school activities.”
