by Logan Gruber
operations@thenewsleaders.com
A Sauk Rapids teacher was recently honored as the Minnesota Student Council Adviser of the Year, as well as Student Council Adviser of the Year for Region 4, which includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming.
As a result, she is headed to the National Association of Student Councils Conference to compete for the title of National Student Council Adviser of the Year. The Warren E. Shull Award will be presented to the winner at the conference Saturday, June 27 in Albuquerque, N.M.
Trisha Bemboom grew up in Gilman and attended high school in Foley. She has been at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School as a special-education teacher for 16 years, and this is her 15th year as an adviser for the SRR student council.
“I’ve always been one of those kiddos who loved playing school,” Bemboom said in an exclusive Newsleader interview. “For birthdays and Christmas gifts I was given things like old desks and chalk board from public auctions from local schools . . . I loved at the end of the year in my elementary school years when the teachers let us take home old workbooks.”
In college, Bemboom decided to become a special-education teacher and worked hard to make that a reality.
Throughout middle school and high school, Bemboom was a member of student councils. She even went to the Minnesota Student Council Convention when she was a junior with the kids and adviser from SRR.
It came full circle when she started with SR-R. Bemboom spoke with the then-current adviser to see if they needed any help. She started as a volunteer co-adviser in her second year of teaching and eventually rolled into the position.
Bemboom says her council has been very active at the local, state and national level.
“We have students who have served on the MASC (Minnesota Association of Student Councils) Executive Board as president and vice president and (who have) attend(ed) the National Association of Student Councils conference each summer,” Bemboom said.
“It’s a really humbling experience,” Bemboom said of competing for National Student Council Adviser of the Year. “There are a ton of very deserving advisers out there . . . I feel very lucky!”
The award will be presented to the winner at the conference June 27. Bemboom will attend with 10 students from SRR, another 50 students and another 10 advisers from Minnesota. One of the students attending will be Bemboom’s daughter, Megan.
According to the National Association of Student Councils website, there has never been a Minnesota winner of the Warren E. Shull award.
Principal Erich Martens presents Trisha Bemboom with her Minnesota Adviser of the Year award on March 11.
Trisha Bemboom celebrated her win with her student council. Pictured (front row, from left to right) are the following: Olivia Boser, Bemboom, Brittany Schoen, Landon Kobluk, Hayli Marquette and Kaitlin Janson; (back row) Mason Rademacher, Logan McLaird, Kayla Kahl and Jeremy Thorson.