At Godwin, students have a broad range of extracurricular activities ranging from varsity sports to science fairs. Students with passion rise to the top and take leadership roles in these activities as Charlotte Houghton has shown us with her participation in student congress.

Student congress brings together students from all of Henrico’s high schools as they attend meetings with each other and the school board.

The role of student congress is to present the school board with student feedback on various issues including the code of conduct, technology, and exam exemption.

Houghton has a leadership position as executive caucus, and she meets with the executive caucus members from the other schools before county meetings to outline the agenda. These students also convene with the Director of Education.

Members of student congress engage in the community by organizing events like going to the Christmas Mother warehouse to sort through items.

Houghton said they also organized a student exchange day during which a girl from Hermitage shadowed her for a day and she went to Hermitage the following day.

Houghton said that she became involved in student congress after being home-bound as a freshman due to an accident.

Former principal Beth Armbruster-Smith recommended student congress to her during her sophomore year as a way to become involved at Godwin.

“It gave me a lot of confidence when I came to speaking in front of people I don’t know as well,” said Houghton.

Houghton said participating in student congress gives her an opportunity to be a voice for the Godwin student body, and it gives her an outlook into how the county administrators make decisions.

Houghton said the county wants to represent students from all schools in their decisions. “They actually consider student feedback and care about what we have to say,” she said.

Being a lawyer has been a goal of Houghton’s since she was in middle school. She had an internship this past summer for the state government since government is her favorite class.

Houghton said, “My internship in state government gave me a look into how government actually works and how citizens impact the system.”