Student Council Advisor of the Year

Talk about best in class. Terri Cyphers, a longtime Spring Forest Middle School Student Council Advisor, was recently named the Texas Association of Student Councils (TASC) Middle Level Advisor of the Year.

The award was announced Nov. 21 in San Marcos, Texas, during TASC’s Middle Level Conference. Terri has taught language arts at the SBISD middle school for 19 years, the last four years at the eighth-grade level.

In addition to serving as Spring Forest’s Student Council Advisor for the past 10 years, she has guided TASC District 7/13 as president, and is also a TASC board member. She has helped guide her Spring Forest students to Outstanding Student Council and Sweepstakes awards. She’s a frequent presenter at TASC conference sessions, and she is a director and advisor consultant at summer leadership workshops.

Terri also serves as an elected advisor to the TASC State Board of Directors. She was still surprised to be named advisor of the year despite her group involvement.

“There were five or six other nominees recognized before they ever announced the winner. While I wasn’t totally surprised, I wasn’t ever positive that such an award would go to me,” she recalls.
Others are not so surprised. “It is not often that a teacher displays the qualities that this advisor does. Through Student Council, she has helped create a culture that is energetic and compassionate about ‘paying it forward,’” said Spring Forest Middle Principal Kaye Williams, Ed.D.

One of Terri’s former Student Council presidents told the association this: “My advisor made a lasting impression on each of us. I am confident that was material in establishing my passion for student government. . . Through example, she taught me compassion, pride, respect for myself and others, a desire to do my best, (and) how to lead, listen and problem solve. My Student Council time with her is both cherished and missed. I will always be grateful to her for all she has done.”

A graduate of Cypress Creek High School and Stephen F. Austin State University, Terri has also taught at Housman Elementary and in Aldine ISD for five years. She is the mother of two adult daughters, both of whom attended Spring Forest Middle.

TASC is the largest student leadership organization in the United States.