State Board of Education announces Mat-Su Career Tech student as 2024-2025 Student Advisor Elect

In Alaska, student representation on school boards and in state education organizations has been a topic of ongoing discussion, with some districts, like the Mat-Su, facing challenges in ensuring meaningful student voice and participation. But at the state level, there is still a call for student representation, as the State Board of Education (SBOE) recently selected the 2024-2025 Student Advisor Elect, naming Amber Sherman of Wasilla to the position.

Sherman, a junior at Career Tech High School (CTHS), takes part in numerous student activities including student government, Youth Court and the mentoring of her fellow students. She is a Volunteer Attorney for the Mat-Su Youth Court in Palmer, representing juvenile clients in a courtroom setting, and is an Elected Parliamentarian in the CTHS Student Government. If that weren’t enough, she is a first-place winner in the World Language Declamation for Russian II monologue and dialogue.

Sherman is also a member of the Alaska Association of Student Government (AASG), serving on the e-board, which is where she applied for the SBOE’s Student Advisor role. Sherman's role will include attendance of SBOE meetings, AASG conferences and meetings, and reporting on state-level activities to the AASG Executive Board.

“I’m there to be a representative,” she says modestly of the role. She will be a student voice of issues at the local, state and national levels.

Part of her responsibility is to attend state education meetings and give input and opinions from students across the state as well as her own opinion as well as relay what is happening to her own school and the students in the AASG.

She will also attend the AASG statewide conferences along with delegates from member schools, participating in general business meetings where issue related resolutions are introduced, debated and voted on by the delegation.

One of the goals she has set is to return the Student Advisory Board (SAB) reinstated and the SAB representative role returned to the school board.

“It’s definitely one of the things I am going to try and get the board to do-making it mandated that (school) boards have to have a student representative,” she said.

While she says her long-term goal is not politics, her interest was piqued last year during the student-led protests after the Mat-Su School Board removed the SABR position from the board.

“The idea that we as students could have so much power, and how many people came out to protest…I think it’s really important that students get to see that they have that kind of power.”

Sherman is also hoping that CTHS can be a host school for an upcoming AASG conference and be able to bring more attention to the opportunities found within AASG. “The conferences are super interesting, and I wish I was in a position where I could go to schools and pitch to them why they should participate.” She said that if the school is selected, she would like to see fundraising so that students from rural and remote locations could attend.

“A lot of people from remote locations don’t get to attend when the conferences are held in more urbanized areas and I think it would be a great opportunity for them and us.”

“The State Board of Education is proud to bring Amber Sherman on as our newest Student Advisor Elect. Her commitment to education and developing, not only herself, but the students around her is a testament to her understanding of the importance of learning in our lives. The Board looks forward to the knowledge and insight she will bring to the table,” said Lorri Van Diest, Second Vice Chair.