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