Student Council’s annual regional conference convened at Winfield High School on Sept. 20.

The conference opened with Winfield’s orchestra performing a rock medley, ‘A Tale As Old As Time’ from Beauty and the Beast, and a Star Wars medley.

Two students dressed as Beauty and Beast and then ballroom danced around the auditorium. Afterward, students wearing Star Wars costumes had an epic battle.

A battle between feuding Star Wars characters ensues onstage.

To say that this put the StuCo students in an energetic mood is an understatement.

After the impressive opening, David Cherry — a national Student Council representative who is an assistant executive director with the Kansas State High School Activities Association — was brought onstage to talk briefly about StuCo and introduce the keynote speaker, Adrienne Bulinski.

Bulinski spoke about her four steps to achieving goals. She described stories about her childhood dream of being a Broadway dancer, and how it was shattered in less than a second when she got in a horse-riding accident that left her in recovery for years.

The first step in Bulinski’s method is saying the dream out loud. She made the point that in order for the goal to become a reality, it has to be put into the world.

The second step is dedication. People must spend time and hard work in order to reach the dreams they have. Bulinski recommended devoting five minutes per day to work on the goal. It doesn’t matter what is done within those five minutes, as long as it’s something that can help.

The third step is having the right attitude.

“It doesn’t matter what challenge comes in your path. You have the attitude to step beyond it,” Bulinski says.

The fourth and final step is perseverance. The only way the goal can be completed is if it’s stuck with through thick and thin.

The conference ended, like it does every year, with a slideshow of photographs taken at that summer’s StuCo camp. Cherry emphasized that the camp is a great way to challenge people to become a better leaders and to bring back creative and fun ways to get students involved in and feeling more positive about school.