There is a new face on the Hernando County School Board – Brooke Culp, who is this year’s student
representative to the School Board. Culp was voted in by student delegates from schools throughout the district in December, and took her seat at the Jan. 11 School Board meeting.

Each year, student delegates from each of the district’s schools elect a student representative to the School Board as part of the Student Delegate Program. This student is a school liaison to the Board, providing regular updates from the schools and serves as an ambassador for civic engagement. The program was implemented in 2012, and is currently led by program coordinators Ashley Buckey and Tori Hunt, both teachers at Weeki Wachee High School.

Culp has spent all her school years within the Hernando County School District, at Chocachatti Elementary, Challenger K-8, and Nature Coast Technical High School, where she is currently finishing her senior year. Culp, who has been involved in theater and film for years, got involved with the Digital Video Production Program at NCT during her freshman year.

“I’ve been obsessed ever since,” she admits. In fact, she plans to study theater and film when she heads off to college. Outside of school, Culp recently performed as Jo in the production of Little Women at Stage West Community Playhouse in Spring Hill. Culp is a member of the National Honor Society and Beta Club, and had been a member of the Chick-fil-A Leadership Club.

Through club endeavors, she has volunteered with food drives, backpack distribution, and at shelters and horse ranches. She also enjoys volunteering on her own, helping to feed the homeless during the holidays, working as a camp counselor at the Environmental Center during the summer, and helping to tutor students struggling in various subjects.

As this year’s student representative, Culp’s goal is to “work in close liaison with every Hernando school and their representatives, and be an ample communicator from them to the board, as well as to the community,” she said. “I strive to be the students’ voice and effectively present their issues, questions, concerns, and successes. I hope to be a constructive leader and make our county proud.”