JACKSON TWP — While their classmates were slow to the breakfast table Friday, intermediate high student council members were busy at a roundtable leadership conference.

Council representatives from 24 school districts, including Mars, Pine-Richland, Riverside and Butler, attended the semi-annual conference hosted this year by Seneca Valley, where there were no classes because teachers were participating in a professional development day.

Intermediate high students attend each spring and fall, she said. Seneca Valley last played host five years ago.

"It's a great time period of working together and just meeting different challenges and for (students) to have their leadership abilities come through," said Linda Plesniak, student council adviser.

Participants were challenged bright and early to raise $1,000 and collect 25 stockings for the Adopt-A-Native-Elder program, the conference service project.

The program provides food, medicine, clothing, fabric and yarn for traditional Elders of the Dine People, most of whom live in remote portions of a Navajo reservation, according to the Web site www.anelder.com.

Students were asked to either fill a Christmas stocking or donate money to buy needed items, Plesniak said.

Council members also had the opportunity to hear speakers as diverse as Emmy Award-winning Mark Scharenbroich, who spoke on improving school climate, and Seneca Valley sophomore Zach Motyl, who presented a workshop on effective communication.

Motyl, 16, has served on student council since eighth grade and is now the treasurer. Through the conference "we learn to become better speakers, listeners and leaders," he said.

Workshops focused on student leadership, and roundtable discussions gave participants new ideas to implement in their schools.

"Students bring back to student council a better sense of leadership and how to better direct activities that they've been having trouble with," Motyl said.