![Bass Clef Choir members Zion Ondoma, Henry Hansen, and Zerik Nicholson harmonize vocals while singing "Prayer of the Children". “[It’s] a piece dealing with the Bosnian conflicts of the ‘90s,” said Associate Director of Choral Activities Matthew Jensen, “but is applicable to what's happening today all over the world.” The students will perform the song during Large Group Contests in Cedar Falls in May.](https://riverhawkpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/20260414_111618-1200x554.jpg)
The newly formed Minority Student Union at Mason City High School is a small group of six great and open-minded young Black students striving to make a difference in the Black community.
With this union, we aren’t looking to expand or grow the group, but we are looking to make a change. We are striving for a better outlook on the overall community around us. We are aiming for a better, safer, and more reliable environment for everyone, especially those who look like us.
We hope to be able to have an impact that leads young Black/minority students in the district into a bright future.
By the Numbers
During the past eight years, the percentage of overall minority students across Iowa and in Mason City has grown.
In 2018, minority groups made up 25 percent of students attending Iowa high schools, according to the Department of Education’s Iowa School Performance Profile, In 2025, the same population gradually increased to nearly 30%.
At Mason City High School, minority groups grew slightly more during that time, from 20 percent to nearly 30 percent. Yet the percentage of Black students at MCHS hasn’t changed a lot. It lingered at 6 percent the entire time.
Leaders Not Followers
Each person in the Minority Student Union has their own expectations of one another, and that is to be a leader, not a follower. Don’t follow behind a crowd. Lead your own crowd to success.
This union is very important to us, and we take it very seriously because being the example for the younger crowd and not living up to that expectation results in everyone else in the union looking bad.
We, as a union, believe that instead of giving up on someone because they aren’t showing signs of improvement, we simply help them in their areas of need. Encourage them to put forth the most diligent effort to achieve the things that they want and need for themselves.
In this union, we all set goals for each other, making sure we are not tardy or absent from class, refraining from skipping class, completing school work on time and efficiently, and maintaining good attendance.
We want to see each other thrive and succeed in school, at home, and in the community.
Vision to Make an Impact
We have come up with some proposals to help influence young Black/minority students to do good things. These include helping others out if they aren’t already, pushing them to put forth more effort to be the best they can be, and representing their skin and culture in a positive way. To do this, we will develop community service plans such as:
Clean outside the atrium of the high school
Volunteer at the Community Kitchen
Provide Pizza & Pop in East Park
All of those things listed above that require money will all be funded and paid for by the MSU. We want to see the great bright smiles of everyone in the community whilst blessing them to the best extent possible.
The goal is to make a difference and ensure the younger generation of Black and minority children stay on the right path to success.
This Union of great students is also meant to impact the people who look at minority groups the way they are looked at now. And the impact we want to make on those people is for them to be more open to meeting minority groups, and to not judge or immediately stereotype them because of the things they do or say.
Not everyone you encounter in these groups is always a good person, but we have to be able to distinguish the good from the bad.
Success starts with us, for us, and most importantly, by us!
