Describe your role at the Student Council. What does it mean to you?
I’m the PR director at Student Council. So basically, my role is to help create and distribute different materials for anything that we’re organizing at Student Council. We all work together to plan events and try and find different ways to connect students. And as part of that, I bring my own insights, and I plan to do a lot of stuff to help kind of connect the clubs and make students be able to understand what goes on between different groups and hopefully foster a bit more connection and social activities.
What inspired you to join Student Council and how did you become interested in your role?
When I first joined GW, I joined in eighth grade, and this was right in the middle of the pandemic or right after. And the school at the time, it was pretty big, and there was so much going on in terms of social activities and in terms of connectivity. And I think that was really the thing that made me choose to stick with GW even after the pandemic. And obviously a lot of people have graduated and moved on, but it really resonated with me at that time. And I wanted to join Student Council to hopefully bring some of that, I guess, interactivity and try and get people to do more things together. And as PR director, I really wanted to do this role because it’s in charge of distributing and finding out what people are doing and making sure that people know what we’re doing. It’s just something that I think I would do very well at. And we have a lot of things planned, especially starting after break, and we cannot wait to share.
Can you briefly summarize the events and activities that you have organized so far? What are your personal goals for the upcoming semester?
We organized the Halloween event week with the Padlets as well as the movie night. And I really enjoyed these, but hopefully after winter break, what we plan to do is I want to make sure that the clubs Instagram start get going and our Instagram, we kind of work on building that a lot more. We kind of, we just set it up and we’re getting it done over the break actually. But hopefully after break, we’re planning to get all the other clubs and kind of push that out. And as we said, we kind of want to work on stuff for the juniors and seniors because when I first joined GW, there was a lot of talk between everyone. And it was definitely important to make sure that everyone is sharing their perspectives and what was happening for them because that always helps promote connectivity. So, there’ll be more to come on that, but I’m really excited towards helping with them. And I also feel that I’m just really ready for a second semester to actually get everything finally kicked off because there’s a lot of planning that goes into stuff and sometimes it always takes a little longer.
How do you plan to collaborate with one another to achieve your common goals?
We have our weekly meetings and in those we kind of plan ahead and we work on stuff for the week. And it’s just a really great dynamic because we all have like our own parts and just our occupations for the Student Council, but we all make sure that we give our input. And we’re a pretty fluid team in that if one person is unable to do something at a time, another person can take over. And we’ve had great success planning things out and everything’s happened as we wanted it to. And I’m really optimistic for next semester and after break because I know that we can get things together done very quickly.
How do you plan to foster school spirit in an online environment?
Yeah, so we have a number of events planned and in the events that we do that we have hosted so far, maintaining engagement and getting people to participate has been a really big part of it. And as I said, when I joined GW, there was a lot going on in a whole bunch of different strains. And just as our plans go, it’s just important to make sure that there’s something for everyone and to kind of make sure that everyone can connect with each other, and no one feels like they’re not heard, or they’re not left out. I mean, that they’re not left out. And it’s just really important for us to ensure that there’s a variety of things. That’s why in the second semester, we plan to have stuff with social media, plan to have stuff in events, chats, et cetera. It’s just something that everyone can find a place for themselves to enjoy.
How do you believe that your involvement in the Student Council will contribute to your own personal growth and development?
Yeah, as I’ve joined Student Council, I’ve definitely learned the power of teamwork and that sometimes like delegating things to people or splitting up to do parts of a whole, it can really work out. And when everyone does their stuff, it’s just so seamless. And I’ve had the pleasure of working with this team, and it’s really just fun to collaborate and I’ve become a better listener as a result. Working with everyone in Student Council but also hearing the ideas of other students and peers has really just made me a better listener.
How do you think your role in Student Council will prepare you for future roles that you might take on later?
Being in Student Council just really prepares you to be a better listener and a collaborator. And it’s something that forces you to kind of look at what everyone wants and find a solution for that. I know that as I go through life, I know that these skills will be something that I will always require. And finding ways to implement changes and work with what you have and help make things better, even if in a little way, is a massive part of it. And I want to like, I’m not sure I’m kind of very split between two very different things, which is medicine and politics. But I know that there’s always going to be compromises and stuff that you have to find solutions for. And I just know that I’m definitely learning from this experience, and I absolutely love what I do. And I can’t wait to see where else this takes me.
What are your personal top priorities for the school? How do you plan on working toward them in your role at Student Council?
My top priorities are definitely establishing better community and ensuring that there’s something for everyone. And StuCo has always been an important part of GW, and its role has obviously evolved and shifted as years have gone by. But what I want to make sure for this year is that our work is reflective of what students want and it actually, you know, does things to make an impact there. I also really want to establish a good social media presence for the school and make for definitely promoting students, our amazing clubs and obviously what we’re doing. It’s important to like document things and really ensure that people are plugged in and that they know what we’re doing. And that’s just one of my priorities for this year. And the school’s always been an amazing place, and we want to make it even better.
Share a fun fact about your time at the Student Council.
I think maybe when we had our first meeting, I had absolutely no idea how it was going to work out. And for some reason, I had this idea that everyone would be in their own rigid roles. But the first meeting, we all kind of started working on Halloween stuff at the time. It was pretty fun to see that everyone was doing whatever needed to be done as opposed to just working on only their part. And I just really liked that Student Council was collaborative, but I can’t really think of a fun fact in particular.