If you attend any of the Devils Lake school board meetings you might have seen a student who is a part of the board. That would be 17-year-old Angela Chen, a senior at Devils Lake High School. Chen is involved in many groups and organizations at the high school and we got to talk to her about herself, representing the students, and future goals.
Born in Queens, NYC she moved to Devils Lake when she was in the 4th grade in 2016. The move from a big city to a smaller city could have been hard to adjust to, but Chen said she prefers the environment as it is much more “peaceful and quieter.”
“I like that I can drive anywhere and there’s no traffic,” she said. “It was easier than I expected… The community is really nice, everyone knows everybody, and you make a lot of connections. everyone is very kind in Devils Lake.”
She is involved with such groups as ACT Olympics, Student Congress where she is the class VP, DECA, a reporter for Skills USA, FCCLA, and FBLA. She took over the student representative seat in September after the initial representative stepped down. Devils Lake is one of the few districts in the state that has a student representative on the board.
While she does not have voting power, the board does ask for her opinions and feedback like on virtual learning. “I think it’s fun and interesting to hear what the school board talks about,” she said. “I’m a very open-minded person and I like to incorporate all the voices of my peers. I listen to my peers and whenever they do have concerns and they’re too scared to bring it up to teachers, I’m always the one to say something.”
After she graduates, she said she plans to attend the University of Minnesota Twin Cities likely in the marketing field. She plans to stay as the student representative until graduation.
