By J1 Reporter Maelee Smith

The number of leadership positions a Marian student can hold has been limited to two by the Marian Administration. Principal Dr. Susie Sullivan wants to give more girls the opportunity to be leaders. 

“Girls need a chance to use their leadership skills, practice them, hone them,” Sullivan said. She worries that students with too many leadership positions will feel stressed and overwhelmed with all the work they have to do.

“We would like girls to have no more than two major leadership positions because we want to spread them out. If they are spread out, girls won’t overcommit themselves,” she said. Administration keeps track of how many leadership positions a student has using a spreadsheet. 

Sullivan said that they have not always had the most success at enforcing this rule because there have been several times in the last few years where a student has had more than two positions, but claims, “We will keep better track this upcoming year.” 

Next year, students with more than two leadership positions will be forced to resign from one or more of them, so that they only have two. However, Sullivan wants to discourage them from having more than two in the first place, so that they don’t have to drop any later on. 

Senior Ellie Brabec balances being a class officer, a retreat core team member, the school mascot, and the copy and index editor for the yearbook. “It’s a lot, but I love it,” she said.

Brabec is kept busy with all of the responsibilities for her leadership positions, as well as with homework, bowling and her job. “If I had to drop one position I would be sad, obviously, but I would want each person who wants a leadership role to get it,” Brabec said.

Brabec loves being a leader, and said she could handle more responsibilities, but she also wants to give others the chance to be a leader, too.

Sophomore Meghan Kelsey is also a class officer. “Just doing class officer is a lot, especially with school and sports. I couldn’t imagine having another responsibility,” she said. 

Although she doesn’t have as many leadership roles as Brabec, Kelsey still feels overwhelmed sometimes by the amount of work that goes into being a class officer, especially when it comes to preparing for Field Day. “As we get closer to Field Week, we start meeting like every day before school,” Kelsey said.

She said that allowing a student to only have two leadership positions is smart because having just one can be stressful. “I honestly think two is probably a good number because you want to make sure everyone else can have them and also more than two would actually be a lot,” she said. 

To avoid confusion and issues regarding how many leadership positions someone has, Sullivan plans to communicate this rule more effectively. “I kind of assume when I tell people once that it is just gonna happen. I need to communicate it more often,” she said. 

Sullivan advises girls to take themselves out of the running for a leadership position if they already have two, so that they won’t be forced to drop one later on.