ASG Town Hall Recap

On Tuesday Dec. 8, at 8pm, ASG live-streamed its first-ever Town Hall on YouTube showcasing the candidates’ campaigns and policies, with a turnout rate of approximately 29 attendees. Below is the IHS Voice’s recap of the event.

Disclaimer: This recap was condensed for clarity and length. To get the candidates’ full responses, watch the full town hall here: ihsvikings.org/townhall

What are you going to do to make sure that you grow as a leader?

Raj

  • Collect feedback from classmates and take them into account

Maansi

  • Ask for people’s thoughts before taking action 
  • Believes in self reflection

Nosheen

  • Ask people about their opinions on her actions
  • Make sure to implement the suggestions that people give her

What experience do you have in the ASG class?

Maansi

  • Current IHS Visualizations Director 
  • Led IHS Winter Ball and worked with publicity last year
  • Led Mask Drive in the summer and worked with several committees this year

Nosheen:

  • Joined ASG as Freshman Class Officer and Sophomore Class Officer
  • ASG Vice President this year and led the class officers 
  • Transitioned bench-building to an online platform

Raj

  • Current Junior Class Officer 
  • First year in ASG, planned fundraisers and events
  • Helped with transition of bench-building to an online platform

What students do you think ASG is not reaching out to?

Nosheen

  • Will work with Yearbook and Voice to reach out to more students and clubs
  • Reach out to smaller clubs to collaborate on events, so they can get more recognition

Raj

  • Many Irvington students don’t have certain social media
  • Next year, use physical flyers and forms to reach out to people who don’t use social media

Maansi

  • Study the interests of the student body and create events that are attracting more people 
  • Reach out to more clubs and make an effort to recognize them

What are some specific projects you want to implement?

Raj

  • Create centralized feedback form because emphasizing feedback is important and reaches underrepresented students
  • Work with Class Officers to create a feedback page for them

Maansi

  • Change the planning format
  • Feedback forms usually can’t be applied until the next year
  • Will take time in the beginning of the school year to learn what type of events students want and apply them to the schedule 
  • Work with other clubs like The Voice to learn about other clubs and student groups to reach out to 

Nosheen

  • Recognize different clubs and and their achievements during announcements and rallies 
  • Started Viking Pulse this year and addressed a lot of mental health issues in the Irvington community
  • Students facing systemic issues can come light with Viking Pulse

Three words that capture your leadership style:

Maansi

  • Passion: helped start some events that ASG held, like the Mask Drive. 
  • Purpose: ASG can do a lot with their resources and use their platform wisely to bring in new ideas 
  • Togetherness: work with people in and outside of her class to make an impact

Nosheen

  • Connections: foster positive work environments and help people reach out to her  
  • Non-Positional: there’s no limit to what someone can do, anyone can have a big impact on ASG
  • Impactful: make sure that whatever she does has an impact

Raj:

  • Self-improvement: you can’t grow if you can’t get feedback
  • Service-based: loves giving back to the school and wants happy environment that makes Irvington as great as possible
  • Empowerment: help all ASG members and school body 

Biggest struggle as a leader?

Nosheen

  • Maintaining stamina
  • Strong in the beginning of the year, but would burn out easily 
  • Learn to prioritize tasks without getting stressed out
  • Being VP has helped prepare for the stresses of being president

Raj

  • Time management 
  • Tends to procrastinate and overwhelm himself before something is due
  • Overcame this by keeping a whiteboard to check upcoming events

Maansi

  • Easy for people to walk over her 
  • Learned how to be assertive as an executive council member
  • Realized that she was there to represent ASG and the student body, not for herself

Improving school spirit in case school continues to be virtual:

Raj

  • Use feedback from this year to carry out events next year
  • Use and implement data and giving clubs shout-outs 

Maansi

  • ASG’s service events have been drawing a lot of people
  • Think about what to do as they go forward because there are certain events that attract more people

Nosheen

  • Executive council didn’t know how to do things this year because the future was uncertain
  • Executive council can foresee better this year and can decide if an event will be virtual or in-person with more experience
  • They know what is successful and what is not

Only for Nosheen: Why should you be president for reasons other than experience?

  • Can foster relationships and motivate people
  • Wants people to know that she’s there with students, and that she’s not above them

Only for VP candidates: What can you take from your experience that will help class officers?

Maansi

  • Gained experience leading the class as a member of executive council
  • Helped with class council and was an active participant with bench

Raj:

  • Junior Class Officer
  • Joined ASG recently so understands student perspective that is independent of ASG influence
  • Can help the class officers through experience and behind-the-scenes knowledge from being a class officer