Candidate Prachi Roy

“This year is a special case for sure. But by implementing my master calendar and creating an organized system, I think I would be able to get a lot more done within just one year.”

For those in a hurry:

• Prachi’s plans for next year center around three core concepts (ROY): restructuring class council, open communication, and a year of spirit. Here is the debrief on each of these:
  • R (restructuring class council): Prachi plans on restructuring class council by improving diversity and transparency within what the council does. This means setting up a Master Calendar with events viewable by all, instituting a selection rubric so class council selection is objective, and instituting regular meetings.
  • O (open communication): Prachi also plans on taking better input from the class. She plans on sending out polls through the class council’s social media to find the general consensus about spirit event decisions and many more. She also plans on creating an ongoing form that people can submit input in at any point of the year.
  • Y (year round spirit): One of the main ideas that Prachi announces include a raffle, which will give everyone who attends a spirit/class event a ticket, which can be used in raffles throughout the year. The prizes would include prom tickets and class merch, which would incentivize more attendance at spirit events. She also wishes to set up more senior bondings, such as a senior beach day. 

Cindy: Why are you the best candidate for class officer?

Prachi: I think I’m the best candidate, because in addition to experience I have, which is three years in class Council, and in the spirit committee, so I think that’s really relevant, because that’s the committee that plans the most spirit days, the most spirit of events, and I think being a senior, a lot of that year is around events. So I’ll be well equipped to handle that, because I have a lot of events that hopefully, I can talk about later. But I have a lot of events in my mind. And I also just think that in addition to the ideas I have, I would be able to, I would put in the effort to like, actually implement them. And I’d also probably be really approachable, I’d want to make it very easy for more people to get their ideas there. So whether that’s people talking to me, or creating more Google Forms, etc.

C: What is one way that you’re going to gain in input from the class? And how are you going to reach outside? I guess, like the popular kids bubble? 

P: Basically, my campaign is ROY: R for restructuring class council, O, for open communication, and Y for a year of spirit. So for restructuring class Council, I would want to increase the diversity by first of all, I think it’s really important to be transparent about what class council does, because most people don’t know. So making sure anyone who wants to have an input on that gets the opportunity to apply and knows about it. And then, I think that a lot of people who apply to class council and don’t get in are confused or feel that there’s a bias. To combat this, I’d really want to create a selection rubric. And I think this just makes the whole process a lot more objective, being able to have a selection rubric that sets the standards. Just like three: probably one section on commitment, one section on skills and one section on professionalism. So that would be that application, then the best candidates with the high scores would move on to the interview round. And we judge them again, based on another selection rubric. And I think that would make it really easy to eliminate bias and engage the most. By using the selection bias, we’ll get people that are more diverse and people from different groups of our class.

C: What would you want to get done as class officer? Do you have any specific goals?

P: Often or when I was in class council, I felt like there was a slight lack of organization. I’d be in spirit and I wouldn’t know when the next event would be. Or so then they would tell us a week in advance to plan this event for our class and it would feel kind of rushed. So one thing that I’d want to implement is a master calendar. So each month would have different goals with different deadlines, going even more into depth as the year goes on. But just being able to see the whole year laid out in front of you can be really helpful. Knowing what happens each month keeps you on top, organized, and accountable. So I’d want to have a master calendar, not only for all of the council, but for each commission, and then doing monthly check ins with them. Also, I think a lot of the time, the class doesn’t feel like they have a say in our events. So I’d want to have a centralized form, where people year round can leave feedback for past events, or ideas for future events, or any general questions and concerns. Plus, we can have a form that we release for any big decision that we would make that we think the class would have an interest in: for a venue decision or a class event decision. Lastly, for year round spirit, which is so important for senior year, I want to incentivize people to attend events. Because incentives are key! One of these incentives that I’d want to implement is a raffle system because people love free stuff. The raffle system I’m thinking of would encourage people to fill out feedback forms and come to events like benches and dances. Each time you come or fill out a form, you get a ticket, but these prizes would be something that the whole class wants, like prom tickets, class merch, and dance tickets. It’s a super simple way to gain engagement.

C: What do you think specifically, you’d be doing differently than what’s being done this year?

P: This year is a special case for sure. Because there’s not really a lot of events going on. But by implementing my master calendar and creating an organized system, I think I would be able to get a lot more done within just one year. This year, we haven’t been having a lot of events, especially fundraisers. So I’d really want to do more: at least a monthly fundraiser and at least a monthly bonding because we need money for prom and we need bonding. In addition to traditional events, like senior panoramics, I’d also want to do a multicultural potluck during multicultural week, Senior beach day, and more fundraising events, like a boba bar.

C: Hypothetically, if we were to remain in like distance learning, do you have any ideas of how you would change the way things have been done this year in distance learning?

P: We haven’t been doing as many bondings like, and in senior year, those are like super vital. One thing we could look out for more is mental health. I actually suggested this for this year already, but if it’s still online learning, I think a belay system could be really beneficial. I don’t know if you do rock climbing. But a belay is like, it’s a type of rock climbing, I think. And it’s like a triangle. It’s your support system. So a belay form would let you fill out a form and find someone to talk to. Little ideas like that can really, like help bring people together during distance learning as well.

C: Do you think that your class has unity? And if not, how would you improve it?

P: I think our class has unity. But I think that I think the school spirit just dipped a little junior year, and it did a lot with being online. But I think I’d focus really hard on bringing it up senior year by diversifying class counsel, having up all the events, incentivizing all the events with the raffle system I mentioned beforehand, and really focusing on making things fun. One thing I noticed about bench buildings is that people don’t come. We can make them more fun: creating a break area, having a lemonade stand, and just fundraising during the event too.

C: What ideas do you have for homecoming if we were in person?

During homecoming week, spreading the word is really important. By having a diverse class Council, everyone will hopefully bring 2+ people to the events. Then, the raffle system will be like a really great incentive for events. To spread the word, not only utilizing online platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, we can also use announcements, like the bulletin boards, because we could put up more fliers.

C: How would you improve the hoco process?

P:  I’ll start with bench building. In addition to creating that raffle system for that summer event, and having good prizes, I think we need to make it more fun. We can create a lounge area with board games and just places to relax. Even after kickoff, people will want to come back because  it stays fun. A problem I noticed with bench building is that a lot of times you can run out of supplies and that makes it super hard to build decorations and some people can’t do anything with their art supplies. And I think one common reason for this is we only tell one commission, usually spirit or fundraising, to get supplies and ask for donations to stores. But I’d make that a task of all of class council, so that we can reach more stores and get more supplies. I’d really like to have an ongoing document or spreadsheet with what needs to be done at each station that designates stations at bench building. So it’s really easy for people to go, “Oh, we need to do this today.” And then all of the class council knows. We can also put that doc out to the whole class. 

C: How are you going to organize and manage such a large group of students in your class council?

P: I’ll go back on my experience a little bit. I’ve experienced, like meeting a program. Basically, I am a program manager at Read, Write, Discover, and it’s like a tutoring program. But we’ve expanded to different sites and created programs over at different libraries.  I’ve had to lead, onboard program coordinators, and train them under this program structure. I think I can bring that experience and be a really good mentor for class counsel, and be someone who can inform them and communicate with them well. I’ll take my mentorship experience, and create monthly meetings, reach out to them for updates, and have them know that they can talk to me whenever. Plus, because of the master calendar, I would have everyone in class counsel know each task each day, and I would recap it as often as possible so they don’t forget and they can be held accountable. 

C: What are some of the ideas that you have for spirit weeks and how are you going to make them actually work and gain participation?

P: I want spirit days that are easier to dress up for, because a couple of ones from years prior have been super specific. And it’s been really hard to dress up for. I would work super hard to and like talk with our spirit commission a lot to make sure that the Spirit days would be really easy to dress up for and really fun. And then to increase engagement throughout the week, I think one thing we used to do in sophomore year was we give out really small trinkets to increase participation. And like this would help because if people didn’t dress up, you could give them a small like a super small cheap thing to wear. And boom, more spirit participation points! I think if we did that- making pins, ribbons, small things that they can use during the week- more people would participate.

C: What plans do you have for prom? 

P: I think the most important thing is securing the funds. This year, we didn’t have a lot of opportunities to raise funds. So I think one of my main priorities for next year as senior class officer would be to have enough funds to create a great experience without having expensive tickets. I remember my sister’s class had tickets that were around $40. Basically, I’d fundraise a lot, but with different ideas every time, so the class wants to actually participate in them. That would be the first step to securing funds, so that we can have a great venue and have a great experience. And then second, I really want to get the class’s input on what we can do with those funds. So if we have the opportunity to, like, have a couple of venues as an option, I’d want to gauge people’s interest because they’re the people who are going to come. Then at prom, we could have unique stuff like a caricature artist. I feel like that’s something that you can hold on to for a long time. And then the class can get a chocolate fountain, ect.

C: Would you plan on having like a combination prom with the juniors next year? And do you anticipate this sort of thing happening?

P: Basically, once again, I think this is something that regards the whole class. So I want to send out a poll and see how they respond to it since it’s their prom, as well be their only one. So I think what the class was is really important. It could go either way. So I’d see what the class wants. I think combined proms generally happen from a lack of funds. So by focusing on increasing our funds, then I could then plan to have a senior prom alone if that’s what our class wants.