Candidate Rohan Bodla

“I really like interacting with people and trying to get to know them. I’m not just here to a small group of people, I’m here to represent my whole class.”

For those in a hurry:

• Rohan Bodla is a candidate running for Junior Class Officer. He is the current Sophomore Class Officer, having 3 years in leadership now.
• Bodla is centering his JCO campaign around class UNITY, which he will accomplish with improved diversity and publicity for school events.
• As JCO, Bodla will diversify class council, improve event attendance, and help grow the publicity of events using more than just social media advertising.
• Bodla has plans for both in-person school events and virtual school events next year.

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

I have lots of leadership experience, and I’m passionate about this job. I’ve been a class officer for this current year, so I know what this job entails. I know what I have to do in order to be the best possible class officer, and I know how to delegate all tasks to Class Council to bring the best possible event. With this leadership experience, being an ASG for two years now, I think I can do a great job in being the best candidate for this job. I’m also really passionate about this job and I want to have an impact on my class. I’d put in my effort to make sure that our class has a really good homecoming experience and an overall great year.

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

The most important thing, in my opinion, is being transparent to the class, telling them about what we’ve been doing. It’s really essential that we gain their input on our events. Other than our feedback surveys, I personally like to reach out to my friends and Class Council members on their opinions about our events and how we could improve them.

How will you reach outside your friend group and bubble?

Even last year, during my campaign, I tried to reach out to everyone that I knew from my class and everyone that interacted with me. I really like interacting with people and trying to get to know them. I’m not just here to a small group of people, I’m here to represent my whole class.

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

The most important thing me and my co class officer have done is reorganize Class Council. In freshman year, we didn’t really do as many activities and the two class officers were just doing their jobs. Other people weren’t able to contribute much. But this year, we’ve been able to reorganize the Class Council structure and delegate more tasks to each person. This year, we had multiple different committees and we tracked their productivity to make sure we got the most out of each Class Council member and to make sure that we had the most qualified people for the job.

We haven’t really been able to engage our classes as class officers this year as much since it’s all been virtual. We haven’t been able to reach out to as many people as we would normally do in an in person environment. What we could do better is try our best to reach out to people not through the normal social media ways, but also using loop mails and that kind of stuff. Just trying to get people more aware is something we could have improved on.

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

In the beginning of the year, during the summer, we were thinking that we were going to come back during spring.Because of that, we planned a lot for bench buildings, homecoming, HOCO week, and spirit week kind of stuff. We came up with plans for bench and spirit week overall. Because of this experience, I think I can do an even better job in person. Delegating all these different projects, to the complete planning for bench building, I think I will be able to execute that in person.

What is your experience in ASG and leadership?

The first time I joined leadership was in eighth grade. I was a student representative, and what we did was Staff Appreciation Week and handed out pencils to students on their birthdays. In Horner ASB, I got the experience to help plan out many spirit weeks and other stuff. But I think it really started in 9th grade when I joined Irvington ASG, where my job was a Public Relations Commissioner. Our job was to go around recognizing staff, students, sports and these kinds of things. I participated in many spirit weeks and I was in the homecoming dance committees for Winter Week and Multicultural Week. I think all of this gave me a really good experience and just planning all these events for ASG gave me the experience necessary to become a Junior Class Officer next year.

What is your overall goal with ASG?

I think this whole Class Officer thing is really interesting, and I really want to continue doing this. As for junior year, I think we’ll see, but I really want to just continue doing my job or go for a higher role. I want to leave an impact on my school before I graduate.

Do you believe your class has unity?

I definitely think our class has unity. However, what I’ve noticed is, closer to the end of high school, people get more aware of events and become more hype for the events.

What ideas do you have for homecoming?

For homecoming, there’s many different parts. You have to choose the theme for the class, organize Class Council, and pick the most passionate and experienced people to assist you in your duties. And after, there’s a bench building and decorations. We actually had a plan for homecoming that we were going to use, which primarily revolves around bench building and decorations with the Class Council. 

How will you organize class dances?

With class dances, it just happens during one lunch during homecoming week. Each class comes and performs a dance or a skit in front of judges, teachers, and the students.The only way that we get people to attend the class dances is by saying “there’s something going on in the gym”. People in class council, who are going to dance, draw their friends to come watch them. Publicity is going to play a huge part – reaching out to people and getting the word out there is super important.

How will you recruit students for class council?

The recruitment process that happened this year started with an application, then a presentation and a huge build up. We started seven days in advance and had around like 100 people apply by the end. We were only able to accept around 30 people. What’s important is that we need to make sure that we can get the most passionate people and a diverse group of people. I reach out to these different groups of people to get them to participate. 

If COVID and distance learning were to resume next year, how will you go about carrying out bench building?

We will have different groups in, such as a Warm Springs group and an Irvington group.Different groups will have smaller gatherings in order to make bench decorations to drop off your bench projects to nearby locations. 

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

Normally we just have one friend group that would usually come to the bench building. Since we’ve been able to diversify the people in our Class Council, different friend groups from our class will be more encouraged to come.

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

I think what you’re talking about is that time period, like a few months later. What we typically do is versus week, where all the different classes compete against each other. But in addition to that, we have a recognition committee that works on bonding. There’s also fundraisers and more to maintain our presence in our class.

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

We’ve been able to keep our class more engaged and handle better ideas for events with a lot more resources here Irvington.

• Rohan Bodla is a candidate running for Junior Class Officer. He is the current Sophomore Class Officer, having 3 years in leadership now.
• Bodla is centering his JCO campaign around class UNITY, which he will accomplish with improved diversity and publicity for school events.
• As JCO, Bodla will diversify class council, improve event attendance, and help grow the publicity of events using more than just social media advertising.
• Bodla has plans for both in-person school events and virtual school events next year.

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

I have lots of leadership experience, and I’m passionate about this job. I’ve been a class officer for this current year, so I know what this job entails. I know what I have to do in order to be the best possible class officer, and I know how to delegate all tasks to Class Council to bring the best possible event. With this leadership experience, being an ASG for two years now, I think I can do a great job in being the best candidate for this job. I’m also really passionate about this job and I want to have an impact on my class. I’d put in my effort to make sure that our class has a really good homecoming experience and an overall great year.

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

The most important thing, in my opinion, is being transparent to the class, telling them about what we’ve been doing. It’s really essential that we gain their input on our events. Other than our feedback surveys, I personally like to reach out to my friends and Class Council members on their opinions about our events and how we could improve them.

How will you reach outside your friend group and bubble?

Even last year, during my campaign, I tried to reach out to everyone that I knew from my class and everyone that interacted with me. I really like interacting with people and trying to get to know them. I’m not just here to a small group of people, I’m here to represent my whole class.

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

The most important thing me and my co class officer have done is reorganize Class Council. In freshman year, we didn’t really do as many activities and the two class officers were just doing their jobs. Other people weren’t able to contribute much. But this year, we’ve been able to reorganize the Class Council structure and delegate more tasks to each person. This year, we had multiple different committees and we tracked their productivity to make sure we got the most out of each Class Council member and to make sure that we had the most qualified people for the job.

We haven’t really been able to engage our classes as class officers this year as much since it’s all been virtual. We haven’t been able to reach out to as many people as we would normally do in an in person environment. What we could do better is try our best to reach out to people not through the normal social media ways, but also using loop mails and that kind of stuff. Just trying to get people more aware is something we could have improved on.

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

In the beginning of the year, during the summer, we were thinking that we were going to come back during spring.Because of that, we planned a lot for bench buildings, homecoming, HOCO week, and spirit week kind of stuff. We came up with plans for bench and spirit week overall. Because of this experience, I think I can do an even better job in person. Delegating all these different projects, to the complete planning for bench building, I think I will be able to execute that in person.

What is your experience in ASG and leadership?

The first time I joined leadership was in eighth grade. I was a student representative, and what we did was Staff Appreciation Week and handed out pencils to students on their birthdays. In Horner ASB, I got the experience to help plan out many spirit weeks and other stuff. But I think it really started in 9th grade when I joined Irvington ASG, where my job was a Public Relations Commissioner. Our job was to go around recognizing staff, students, sports and these kinds of things. I participated in many spirit weeks and I was in the homecoming dance committees for Winter Week and Multicultural Week. I think all of this gave me a really good experience and just planning all these events for ASG gave me the experience necessary to become a Junior Class Officer next year.

What is your overall goal with ASG?

I think this whole Class Officer thing is really interesting, and I really want to continue doing this. As for junior year, I think we’ll see, but I really want to just continue doing my job or go for a higher role. I want to leave an impact on my school before I graduate.

Do you believe your class has unity?

I definitely think our class has unity. However, what I’ve noticed is, closer to the end of high school, people get more aware of events and become more hype for the events.

What ideas do you have for homecoming?

For homecoming, there’s many different parts. You have to choose the theme for the class, organize Class Council, and pick the most passionate and experienced people to assist you in your duties. And after, there’s a bench building and decorations. We actually had a plan for homecoming that we were going to use, which primarily revolves around bench building and decorations with the Class Council. 

How will you organize class dances?

With class dances, it just happens during one lunch during homecoming week. Each class comes and performs a dance or a skit in front of judges, teachers, and the students.The only way that we get people to attend the class dances is by saying “there’s something going on in the gym”. People in class council, who are going to dance, draw their friends to come watch them. Publicity is going to play a huge part – reaching out to people and getting the word out there is super important.

How will you recruit students for class council?

The recruitment process that happened this year started with an application, then a presentation and a huge build up. We started seven days in advance and had around like 100 people apply by the end. We were only able to accept around 30 people. What’s important is that we need to make sure that we can get the most passionate people and a diverse group of people. I reach out to these different groups of people to get them to participate. 

If COVID and distance learning were to resume next year, how will you go about carrying out bench building?

We will have different groups in, such as a Warm Springs group and an Irvington group.Different groups will have smaller gatherings in order to make bench decorations to drop off your bench projects to nearby locations. 

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

Normally we just have one friend group that would usually come to the bench building. Since we’ve been able to diversify the people in our Class Council, different friend groups from our class will be more encouraged to come.

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

I think what you’re talking about is that time period, like a few months later. What we typically do is versus week, where all the different classes compete against each other. But in addition to that, we have a recognition committee that works on bonding. There’s also fundraisers and more to maintain our presence in our class.

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

We’ve been able to keep our class more engaged and handle better ideas for events with a lot more resources here Irvington.