Candidate Emily Han

“This isn’t just a position where I’m doing something just because I have to do it. It’s something that I do because I enjoy it. I enjoy the process of it, and it impacts other people in a positive way.”

For those in a hurry:

• Emily Han is a candidate running for Junior Class Officer. She is the current Sophomore Class Officer, a dancer at ICED, a Link director, Public Relations Director for FIMRC, and an officer for Viking Consulting Club.
• Han is centering her JCO campaign around class COMMUNICATION, which she will accomplish with added transparency and building connections with her class.
• As JCO, Han will use different publicity methods, build strong connections with her class, improve attendance at events, and improve class unity.
• Han will use her leadership experience to guide her class to a more engageful year. 

Suyash: Why would you say that you’re the best candidate for class officer next year?

Emily: I think I’m one of the best candidates for class officer because I have a really positive mindset. And that means that even through situations that might not be favorable, I can still get through it and stay focused on what our primary goal is. Also, I have the ability of staying proper and businesslike, even when we have a situation that might not be as favorable. 

S: What is one way that you’re gonna gain input from your class? 

E: In our class council this year, we did a feedback Google Form. And basically, we wrote down questions such as: “Oh, how are the class officers this semester?” , “Is there anything you would like to change?” , and “Anything you would implement?” We’ve gotten a lot of good responses. We try to cater to those responses, because we want to change ourselves to be the best leaders possible. We got around like 32 responses.

S: How will you reach outside your friend group and bubble?

E: I think that having diversity within the class and having different people attend different events is really important, because of outreach. And outreach isn’t just to people that you know, it should be more catered towards people that you don’t know, actually, to make more connections. And I think that a way to do this is through social media, just because so many of us have it. It’s an easy way to connect with one another, whether that’s through polls on Instagram, or replies, you can always swipe up on someone’s story, even if you don’t know them that well and make a connection. And next time there’s an event, you can personally ask them and invite them to go to this event with you. That’s how you make new friends and new connections.

S: What would you do differently than what is being done this year?

E: I think that the expectations for this year were a lot different than before, just because everything’s online. We can’t do certain events and certain things that we’ve projects that we want to do. But next year, we want to set a new standard for benches and more events. This year, bench participation was kind of low, just because people didn’t really want to attend things that didn’t have an incentive for them, like if their friends didn’t come. So, we would provide an incentive, whether that’s holding a fundraiser at the bench so that the food would be the incentive and people would come with their friends and help build props, or for different events we could do next year, we could have it be more interactive and more engaging.

S: Since your first year as a class officer was entirely virtual, how will you handle the new responsibilities if next year is in-person?

E: I was part of class council in freshman year, and I know what went down in person. Because of the experience that I had in my freshman year, it would help me when it comes to in person next year, just because I know that there’s an all nighter that we have to do, or there’s multiple benches that we have to do. It’s all about why people want to come and what they’re going to do at these events. I think that in person is actually going to be a lot easier just because we have the ability to make a personal connection with the people and class council.

S: What is your experience in ASG and leadership?

E: In eighth grade, I started my leadership journey by being the ASB secretary, which was a really fun position. After going to CASL, which is a big leadership conference, I decided that this was something that I wanted to do for a really long time. In freshman year, I didn’t really know what to do, because it was a new environment, it was a new school. I didn’t know what clubs I wanted to be a part of. At the beginning of the year, I joined at least 10 clubs just to see what I wanted to do. And after that, I think ICED really stuck with me because ICED is a dance club. I joined the Interact club, Key club, and Leo, which was a bunch of fun for service events. But this year, I think I put my responsibilities more seriously, as I tried out for sophomore class officer in freshman year. Thankfully, I made it here. And I’m also doing Link this year, which has been super fun meeting new freshmen kids. I’m also the PR director for FIMRC, which is a medical club, and I’m also an officer for Viking Consulting Club, which is a business club.

S: is your overall goal with ASG?

E: In eighth grade, I don’t really think I knew who I really was just because that’s when we were all maturing and starting to grow. I think that the people that I surrounded myself with really helped me decide who I wanted to be when I was older, and what my personal personality is like right now. In elementary school, I used to be really quiet, and not as outgoing and free as I am now. But now I would say I’m more extroverted. I like talking to people. I like being in big crowds. And that’s something that I can thank my previous friends for.

In freshman year, I wanted to be a class officer, just because I thought that was a really good opportunity to see what people really wanted. It was a position where I could use my influence to get other people’s opinions out there. But after this year, I wanted to run again because of some experiences that I had within being a sophomore class officer. This isn’t just a position where I’m doing something just because I have to do it. It’s something that I do, because I enjoy it. I enjoy the process of it, and it impacts other people in a positive way.

This year was definitely a trial period for me, where I got to interact with the different committees within ASG. Throughout the year, I was even thinking about whether this would be a position that I would want to do. I decided that class council and being a class officer was something that I wanted to do in junior year and even probably senior year, just because it’s something that I enjoy a lot. 

S: Do you believe your class has unity?

E: I think that within our class, we do have a form of unity. But I would say that there are some differences in what groups hang out with who and the type of cliques that are within our class. I think that’s because we have such different preferences or personalities that other people who have the same ones that tend to hang out with each other. What’s important would be finding the middle ground of what all of us enjoy, and maybe that would try to, or that would bring the class together. 

S: What ideas do you have for homecoming?

E: In person homecoming would look a lot like a spirit week, where we have spirit days and events where we would wrap up points, and we would have a winner at the end. But it would also be like the homecoming dance and the events that lead up to that, like the morning rallies and that type of stuff. But with it being online this year, we would have like a game day or still spirit week, but it would be just online and slightly different, not necessarily more of a dance, but more of just a whole big class bonding.

S: How will you organize class dances?

E: There are definitely a plethora of reasons why students aren’t interested or engaged in our class dances and also in homecoming or spirit weeks. I think that just letting them know that we have something open and something that’s comfortable for them is important, because some people don’t like putting themselves out there, whether it’s for the class dance, and if that’s the instance, then they could attend an event with their friends that they’re more comfortable with. So it’s all about adjusting what they like, and sending them to places where they would feel comfortable and would want to come again.

S: How will you recruit students for class council?

E: I think that it really depends on the way that we do social media outreach. The people that we asked to post these flyers shouldn’t be people just from our friend group, it should be people that we don’t really talk to. As for the picking process of class council we did an individual interview, and it was about 10 minutes long, where we ask different questions based off of their personalities and skill sets. You can kind of gauge the type of person that they are after actually having a conversation with them. We didn’t have just one group being in class council, which is beneficial to us when it comes to outreach and events. We didn’t keep a bias when we were keeping in mind who we wanted for these roles. We kept in mind that just because we’re friends with this person doesn’t mean that they’ll necessarily do the best job that could be done within this role.

S: Are there any improvements to bench building that you seek to implement?

E: In my freshman year of class council, I wasn’t a class officer and this was new to everyone in my class, right. These events were essentially just us hanging out and doing art together. That’s really what it was at the baseline. That was a really appealing event to me, and because the people that I was working with, or I was going to these events with, came with me along the way, I consistently attended them, because they were fun. That’s the type of environment I want to foster for years to come so people have a positive image about bench, and it’s something we can definitely improve or further develop in future years.

S: Typically, class events end after homecoming. Do you have plans to have events for your class throughout the year?

E: The reason why we decided to do spirit videos almost monthly is because we felt like there was an absence of events, and we wanted to keep the class engaged for however long that we could. These spirit videos are something that we can do to make sure that people are still reminded that, oh, yeah, this is our class. This is the spirit that we’re here for. Spirit videos were something that we did, just to keep the hype up. But I would definitely say that there is an absence of events during these middle periods. To fill these holes, we can do simple fundraisers or simple events, just something to keep our class engaged.

S: Now that you’re more familiar with the high school environment, what differences do you see between ASB in junior high and ASG now?

E: I would say that definitely in middle school, we didn’t have as many responsibilities in leadership as we do, just because obviously, as middle schoolers, I don’t think they would trust our decisions as much or what we do. Having this responsibility and freedom of creativity within high school allows for a lot more events that we think would appeal to our class because of our personal opinion.