Our KIPP High School student leaders are bringing their school community together and defining their vision for their futures, their city, and their school. Learn more about what motivated Kevin and Aniyah to become student leaders and their aspirations for the future. 

Meet Kevin Pellot…

Hello, my name is Kevin Pellot, and I’m a 10th grade member of the KIPP High School Student Council. I wanted to share my aspirations for our school and some things about myself. 

I was inspired to join the Student Council because it provided an opportunity to speak out about what I would like to see in the current state and future of the school. My goal is to help support the staff by representing student view points. I want to help shape the school into an amazing community, socially and academically.

Even when we don’t see eye to eye, I love it, because what can change without differing opinions? We all have different visions for the school, but the overall vision is to make it an amazing place for students to learn and have fun.

Our student council has been planning multiple things, like events for Black History Month. Also, in the beginning of the year the Student Council helped plan fall festivals as well as a homecoming event. We also did reflections on these events to see what we could improve in future events. My vision for the school is a well-balanced community that demonstrates school spirit. I feel it's very important to make school enjoyable.

Student leadership matters to us because it is a place for students to share their thoughts. I genuinely believe that we all care about what happens in our school, and this is a community for all of us! We are currently reviewing our school policies and gathering student opinions on them just to see how we could make them a bit better for us. I do believe that we don't have a perfect set of school policies just yet, but we are definitely working on making them better!

To be real with you, I want to be able to tell people in the future that I had an amazing high school experience—one where I found a home. 

Beauty lies in the hands of our voice and our goals for the future of our school. 

Kevin Pellot signing out!

….& Aniyah!

Hello, KIPP New Jersey families! My name is Aniyah Byers, and I am a ninth grade Student Council member at KIPP High School. 

What inspired me to run for student government was seeing opportunities to improve our school’s culture and wanting to be a part of that change. Specifically, I wanted to work to improve relationships between staff and students. Also, I wanted to take on a leadership role in our community.

I’ve been involved in shaping the school by running for student council, winning student council, and bringing along ideas to improve our school community. I contributed towards the planning of our Black History Month Spirit Week, which included a door decorating competition between advisory classes. Additionally, I have been actively communicating with my fellow peers on what they like and dislike about our school.

Student leadership matters to me because I’ve always been the student to voice my opinions, but sometimes, adults don’t listen to them. There’s a lot of other students like me at my school who voice how they feel and I want them to know that they are heard.

I want my school to be honorable and appreciated when I graduate. Some people doubt us and shake their heads at us because we’re from Camden or judge us based on looks, but all of our students are capable of proving the outsiders totally wrong. 

In my future, I definitely want to go to college. I hope to either be a lawyer or a real estate agent. To me leadership plays a big role in this because I’ll be the first person in my family to go away for college; my brother Carter even asked if he could come with me when I go! This is really important to me because it’s something that I always wanted to accomplish. I want to be a role model for all my younger siblings.

Never Miss a Chance to Make a Difference

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