Senior Olivia Howell was recognized this month by Leadership for her involvement in school events and her student communication. Mrs. Anderson, who recognized Howell, said, “She’s really good at being that cheerleader for the class as a whole.” Mrs. Anderson described Howell’s cheerleading by saying, “When you’re really stressed out, especially before a big event, she’s good at keeping morale up and everybody going, and gives some good words of encouragement.” Howell initially joined leadership her freshman year because her brother, Dylan Howell, who was a junior at the time, was also taking leadership, so she followed. After he graduated, Olivia Howell continued in leadership, and she said, “I told myself junior year that I would run for ASB President, and I’m really glad I did.”
Howell was recently elected as the 2025-2026 school year’s ASB President, making her an important and prominent member of the leadership team. This includes her work in event planning, which has typically been as a committee head, meaning she oversees and helps with the full picture of the event, and helps to ensure the group stays on track. Howell’s favorite part of event planning for leadership is watching the whole process come together. Using the example of a school dance, Howell described this process as starting “from choosing a theme, spiraling into a whole dance.”
Howell notes that an important part of her role as Barlow’s ASB President is to make sure school can be fun. While she can’t change any of the curriculum, she can help implement events and dress-up days to help make school more enjoyable. She also recognized that making school enjoyable was especially important, “With the phone ban this year, some students don’t even want to come to school.”
Mrs. Anderson especially wanted to highlight Howell’s contribution to planning this year’s Homecoming events. “Being ASB President, there is more responsibility that she has, and because we had Homecoming so early, she definitely stepped right into that role in terms of coming in this summer, before school even started, to plan stuff as well as get the rest of the class to come in early and start getting ready for Homecoming,” Mrs. Anderson recalled. Howell was a key part of this year’s Homecoming dance and other Homecoming events because of her dedication to her role as ASB President, and her willingness to come in during her summer to prepare.
Howell’s inclusivity was mentioned by both Mrs. Anderson and this year’s ASB Vice President, Olivia West. Mrs. Anderson highlighted that Howell was particularly good at “welcoming new people, especially with our class. We’ve got people who have been in it for years and years, and the brand new people, so she definitely makes an effort to try and include them, whether it’s her individually or encouraging others to.” West agreed, noting that Howell was good at getting feedback from related parties. Howell mentioned that the class works best and as a team when not everything comes from Mrs. Anderson, and to help Mrs. Anderson, Howell says, “When April says she needs to get things done, I go and talk to the students myself.”
Outside of her accomplishments in Leadership, Howell is also an animal lover and an athlete. She has two dogs and participated in 4-H animal projects. Howell has been wrestling since sixth grade and was the team captain of Barlow’s girls’ wrestling team last year. Howell is looking forward to what this year’s Leadership program and wrestling season have in store for her.
