District 3 is a group of high schools from Florida’s Third Congressional District whose Student Government Associations (SGAs) meet to share and discuss ideas. This year, Lake Brantley ran for president of the third district and was elected by other high schools in their district. Therefore, they are responsible for hosting a conference to work on improving the way the SGAs run their separate schools. The meetings will be held in October, December and January of 2017-2018 which is the reason Lake Brantley’s Homecoming was originally scheduled for September.

“[D3 is] mainly to make sure that students are always sharing their ideas,” D3 President and senior Dante Edwards said. “Most of the D3 meetings are mostly about having qualities that one needs to develop in order to be a good leader. Things that are going to help people grow in character and qualities that they’ll be able to use in life or in college or tomorrow.”

Meetings usually consist of three or more sessions with workshops and entertainment such as guest speakers and DJs. For the workshops, students in the host school’s SGA are asked to pick a topic to present to a group of students from the district. The workshops are set up in different classrooms around campus and students use them to share ideas and concepts already in place at the school they attend.

“One student government might have a way to do their homecoming that works out better for them,” senior and D3 participant Mariana Gomez said. “By coming together you can share those ideas to make your SGA better for your school.”

Workshops help students to improve their leadership skills by giving them an outlet to share ideas and opinions. While students in Brantley’s SGA present topics at sessions, the president, Edwards, attends a resolutions meeting.

“Since I’m the president of the district, I don’t get to participate in activities at the meetings but I do run the resolutions meeting,” Edwards said. “That’s basically [where] all the schools submit a sort of bill that they want to present to the state of Florida and the committee from each of the schools and the district comes together. We discuss each bill and vote on whether we want to send it to the state meeting and then at the state meeting we send those resolutions to the senators.”

The D3 meetings help leaders from different stories and backgrounds come together to discuss ideas and better their schools, which makes it a great opportunity for students involved.

“We’re looking to have about 1400 students from all over our district,” Leadership teacher Mary Cumberland said. “We’re really trying to make sure that if they’re driving all the way from Hernando County, Polk County, or Pasco County when they get here, they’re having a good time and learning new skills.”