They’re now confident, self-assured and opinionated, but Spokane Public Schools’ new student advisers had far to get there

Promptly after assuming their seats on Spokane Public Schools board, new student advisers wasted no time sharing their opinions .

Speaking up at school board meetings – in front of elected offcials, administrators in the school district, members of the public and the media – is not an opportunity all teenagers would jump at.

With dozens of sets of eyes and ears trained their way, student advisers Maile Esperas, of Ferris High School, and Lauren Erickson, Shadle Park, didn’t hesitate to share their thoughts and represent the some-29,000 peers in their district.

Each year, the school board interviews and appoints two high schoolers to assume a seat on the dais as student advisers. Advisers rotate meetings, giving input on whatever the board is considering and sharing updates from their schools.

Some are more talkative than others, but there’s not a trace of stage fright present in either senior this year when they sit at the dais.

Their outgoing nature is palpable and seemingly effortless, but it didn’t entirely come natural to them. They each credit a deliberate action on their part or involvement in a school activity that led them to be their confident selves.

Maile Esperas

For Esperas, it was choir. The Ferris senior is involved in a handful of music groups in and outside of school, delighting in singing and the lessons it teaches her.

But before she found her voice, first it had to be taken away.

Much of Esperas’ middle school experience was online due to the pandemic, and she found herself shrinking into online learning and “making excuses” for herself.

“Student voice is just so important to me and giving back to my community and supporting my community and my own way,” Esperas said. “To be able to speak up for others, I also had to learn how to speak up for myself, and that was the hardest part. I wasn’t a very confident kid, especially during middle school.”

After returning to in-person school, Esperas realized she had to relearn how to be social. When she saw a student slam another into a locker on her first day of high school, she realized how desperately the rest of her peers needed positive connection as well.

“I’m very much about, like, connections and community,” Esperas said. “Those are everything. Because if you don’t have a good community, if you don’t have that good support system, then it’s like you’re alone.”

Esperas didn’t waste any time getting involved in school, urged by a staff member that had known her since middle school to try her hand at all sorts of leadership opportunities that led her to her seat at the dais.

“If you skip an opportunity, it’s never going to come back,” Esperas said. “I would rather have my name and my voice be out there than just go day to day.”

In addition to her seat on the board, Esperas’ voice is heard through her numerous choral engagements, a leader in her school’s large choir and one of 17 women in another ensemble. She’s also a solo performer and a member of her family’s band, Lokomaika’i. It’s Hawaiian meaning “To always act with kindness and generosity to others.” Her grandfather started the band after moving to Spokane from Hawaii, even playing at Expo ’74.

She loves to sing but can’t put words to the collective emotion or effort that is belting out a piece of music with other singers.

“Music is always like my sanctuary, and so I can just forget about everything I have going on whenever I’m singing,” Esperas said. “You’re just on stage and you’re focused on one thing, and you’re with a group of people who have one common goal, and that’s to sing. It’s just so powerful to me that so many people can just understand each other through notes on the page.”

Partly through performance, Esperas has grown into a confident high schooler in stark contrast to her middle school days behind a screen.

“It took a lot of reworking who I thought I was and really what others viewed me as since elementary school, taking that and really redefining it. That was a hard thing to do, and I think I’m still actively working on it,” Esperas said. “Music allowed me to really express myself and my emotions, my personality, and it just really allowed me to be more self assured.”

Esperas’ post-grad options are open, torn between fostering the community she’s worked so hard to build or bringing her worldview to uncharted waters. She could stay close to home, eyeing Gonzaga to study business, education or law, or venture further to Western Washington University, Oregon State University or the University of Hawaii.

Lauren Erickson

Erickson shed tears over the school district’s new cellphone policy when asked her opinion during student adviser interviews.

The self -described “old soul” was frustrated watching her peers scroll on their phones during classes or before school rather than talking to each other.

“Instantly, the first day of school I noticed how it definitely changed,” Erickson said. “I just kinda got teary, because it’s a different year for my senior year and I was just so grateful they did that.”

Whether it’s volunteering to plan and set up her homecoming dance, lead freshmen in their summer orientation or serving as class secretary three years in a row and now, assuming the seat as a school board adviser, the Shadle Park senior is a ride -or -die Highlander and devotes much of her school time working for her peers.

She wasn’t always so comfortable in leadership positions.

“I definitely have grown in speaking as a person,” Erickson said. “Freshman year, I was very timid, but I lost a lot of that in COVID. Now I’m finally rebuilding it up, and I think it’s stronger than ever.”

Erickson now serves as her school’s ASB secretary. She initially ran for the position as a freshman through some urging from her former third -grade teacher, now a Shadle counselor.

Though she ran unopposed, it took guts to assume the leadership position that went on to “springboard” her interest in roles leading art club, applying for school board adviser and most recently, to be a princess in the annual Lilac Festival.

“I’m so glad my freshman self just took that leap,” she said.

Erickson has a deep sense of school spirit and seizes every opportunity to involve herself in Highlander activities. She’s eager to represent her peers whether it’s bragging about her school’s softball team headed to a state competition or giving the school board a much-needed teenager perspective.

“I definitely feel like I can relate to my peers. We don’t really have many social cliques at Shadle, but there are people who have different passions and I can relate to a lot of people, and I’m a good listener,” Erickson said. “They can come to me with anything, and I can come to them. It’s that double road.”

Erickson’s commitment starts even before class is in session. She led tours for incoming freshmen during summer orientation, showcasing her school’s wide array of clubs and other areas to get involved in their school. To get them engaged even before enrolling, she connected them with seniors with similar interests so incoming freshmen feel they belong right off the bat.

“Having the same people helps with depression and checking in,” Erickson said. “A familiar face goes a long way in high school.”

The senior is still weighing her options post graduation, considering taking a gap year or attending Central Washington University or Spokane Falls Community College to study art, maybe pursuing teaching art.

She loves being creative through artistry and crafting, and the measurable growth present in doing art.

“That’s what just keeps me going on, getting better and better and better. That’s what some artists strive for,” Erickson said. “Also it’s just letting loose and making a mess. Even if it’s not the best art project ever, you did something, and that’s what matters.”