As part of our reporting of the upcoming ASG elections, the Irvington Voice interviewed Rohan Bodla, one of two candidates running for ASG President. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.

If you become President next year, what are your main goals?

My goal for next year basically revolves around this one simple acronym called plan IHS. So each word in plan IHS corresponds to a different thing I want to implement: I for Involvement, H for Harmony, and S for Spotlight.

For Involvement, I think my ultimate goal next year is to engage campus culture and bring the most out of our school. That would be through bringing back traditions such as in-person rallies, doing more courtyard events instead of the boring social media, doing more publicity stunts to engage people and get them to go to events.

Harmony is bridging the gap between ASG and the student body. Giving year-round reports about what we do throughout the year, behind-the-scenes and on a monthly basis; like on our Instagram what we do every month; that way the student body knows what we’re doing and knows that we’re advocating for them.

For Spotlight, I want to recognize and celebrate our campus’ achievements. So this could be sports (posting on social media whenever one of our sports teams wins), club tournaments and other student achievements. Basically I want to recognize our school’s work because I feel Irvington really shaped my identity. I had underclassmen recognize me and support me so I want to give back and do the same for our school.

What experience do you have in ASG and leadership?

I actually discovered leadership four years ago in middle school. It’s really something that’s interested me, something I’m passionate about since it gives me the chance to serve other people. It makes me happy knowing that I’m able to help someone.

In 9th grade I was one of the freshmen who joined ASG. In 10th grade I was Sophomore Class Officer and I was Junior Class Officer this year. I was one of two people representing our class and working toward Homecoming Week, doing bench, class dances and Spirit Week dress-ups. 

What experience do you have in other extracurriculars?

So outside of ASG, I’m part of DECA and MSA, which is the Muslim Student Association. I’m in those clubs and I basically represent those and try my best to get involved in any activities in those clubs. ASG is my number one activity, and other than that if I can, I try to get involved in other stuff I like to do.

What are your plans for implementing in-person events?

As to in-person rallies, I actually think we can start implementing that soon, too. We had our Homecoming dance outdoors right in the courtyard, and we can implement that for rallies too. So even if we’re not able to go inside the gym, you can do outdoor events like that. Also this year, in 2nd semester when we’re doing Versus Week, I think there’s a Blacklight Rally which we’re thinking of doing inside the gym. So maybe we’re already thinking of transitioning, and I think we can definitely make it happen this year.

How do you want to get students more involved?

So this is the Involvement point we were talking about so we already talked about publicity and about in-person events. In addition to that, earlier this year, we had an activity in the courtyard called the water balloon fundraiser. Events like those are what really unite us. It’s super fun. We weren’t doing that event primarily for raising money, that wasn’t our main point. Our main purpose was really just to have fun and get together. So I wanted to start doing more courtyard events as well: karaoke, rap battles, and then also doing a Squid Game type of event, just like having maybe a hundred contestants and a prize in the end.

Where can people find out more about your campaign?

My Instagram @rohan_bodla has pretty much all the information summarized in one post, and I also have a website – tinyurl.com/bodla-box.