Student Affiliates of Seventeen (SAS) 2020 Report: Transitioning to Leadership in a Historic Year

Abstract

The University of Missouri–Columbia was selected to host the Student Affiliates of Seventeen (SAS) Executive Board from 2019–2022 and began their term in August 2019, following a successful three-year tenure by Ball State University. The new executive board has anchored its term in four pillars—Growth and Sustainability, Justice and Equity, Excellence and Innovation, and Wellness and Positive Development—which have guided the organization over the past year. This report reviews the purpose of SAS and discusses membership development, programming, advocacy, and the organizational development activities of the organization, including progress on goals to increase and engage membership and foster a more equitable and socially just organization that embraces liberation as a value. Counseling psychology students’ and the organization’s response and adjustment to the COVID-19 pandemic and national reckoning with police brutality and anti-Black racism are also discussed.