On Monday Sept.22, the school’s Student Council hosted the 2025 KSHSAA Student Council Regional Conference. This conference is one of many hosted throughout Kansas during late September to early October. 

The goal of the conference is to teach young leaders across Kansas many skills from effective communication to understanding their peers.

During the conference, StuCo members from across Kansas gathered to participate in fun teambuilding activities and to hear an inspirational speech from motivational speaker, Kate Garnes. 

Kate Garnes shared her story of finding herself and her “Battle Cry” to the StuCo members attending, along with some fun musical and dance moments. Garnes enjoyed her experience at the school and students’ response to her story. 

“This was awesome,” Garnes said. “Everybody was so attentive, so responsive, everybody was so kind. If every assembly that I did was like this, my job would be very easy.”

Senior StuCo member Callaway Clifton enjoyed Garnes’ presentation and learned a lot.

“My biggest takeaway was something she talked about a lot: being confident in yourself… and I think that is a very important lesson,” Clifton said. 

This is the second year the event was hosted at the school. According to Clifton, members had to balance organizing and attending the conference. 

“Mill Valley sat in the back of the PAC, and got to sit and listen to most of it, but we had scheduled times to help guide people,” Clifton said. 

Clifton also admitted that this year went a lot smoother than the last.

“We had a better idea of how it was gonna go,” Clifton said.  

Along with event prep, KSHAA had a StuCo merch booth run entirely by Mill Valley students, one of these students being freshman Alberto Anaya who enjoyed seeing the joy other students got from their purchases.

“It’s nice to see others have a smile on their face after they get something from something they like,” Anaya said.