August ASB Formal Meeting Report
Name: Kate Villegas
Position: ASB Administration Coordinator
Date: 09/05/19
Position Assessment: Core Camp was a great start to the Leadership school year, and I got to set my ideals for the school year in place. I got a better idea of what my position in Leadership entails, and this has helped me be a more productive Administrative Coordinator. I still have much more to learn about my position though.
I am still adjusting to having to frequently visit Gigi in the administration office for PO signing. It is such a quick and simple task but it makes me realize how busy I am at lunch, so I have to visit her before cross country after school!
We had the second highest numbers of attendees at the Back to School Dance, so I’d say it was very successful. The decorations looked great this year and I didn’t hear a single complaint about the DJ.
Standing Committee: At the moment I am not a member or a leader of any Standing Committees.
Special Committee: The Back to School Barbecue was successful this year. We were ahead of schedule almost all day and got preparation done quickly. Having many extra soda cans and water bottles from the End of the School Year Dance helped save a lot of time in the process of this event. Post-Barbecue we created a list of the many things we need to buy for the End of the School Year Barbecue since we are now low on supplies.
For the Tri-Tip Fundraiser we have communicated to the ticket-making company we go through that we would like them to make a design for us, which is being worked on at the moment.
Making the posters and preparing the gifts for our Kyoto exchange program coming in October hasn’t begun, but brainstorming and committee creation should begin in a week or so for gift and poster ideas so we can begin filling out POs if needed.
Nothing has been done for the Military Wall yet.
Concerns: I am a little concerned about Homecoming for the juniors because I haven’t heard about much preparation being done. We still have 4 weeks until our actual Homecoming Week, but it still makes me nervous since Niki and I aren’t directly in charge of anything for Homecoming anymore. Our class also had a big lack of spirit during Club Rush week…we came in fourth place for spirit. That will be a big issue during Homecoming if we do not push our class to dress spirited. Recently Niki has actually been doing her best to get the word out to our class to dress up for spirit days, and she is doing a fantastic job. That is an additional positive comment for Niki for stepping up.
Positive Comment: I would like to make a positive comment on the freshmen representatives. They are doing a great job in Leadership so far, and I am so proud of them for being so open to asking me questions. I made it clear to them that I am here to assist them in whatever they need, and they have taken advantage of this. They are proactive about their work, collaborate well, and are not afraid to clarify their questions with me. I believe they will have a successful Homecoming!
Change: I think the class needs to unite more. I don’t see our upperclassmen or sophomores talking to the freshmen much. The freshmen representatives are adapting perfectly fine, and I believe that they are getting the help they need, but separation between them and the rest of the class is an issue when it comes to our Core Principle that we all decided on: “family, not friends”. I don’t see as many friendships developing this year as I saw in our Leadership class last year.
My Impact: My friends and I are doing our best to welcome and create meaningful friendships with the exchange students this year. I have met Edith from Belgium, Nicole from Portugal, Bartt from Italy, Vittoria from Italy, and Arianna from Italy. If anything, they have impacted me! They are the sweetest people, and all the stories they have told me about their life back at home and how they are adapting to life in the United States have been so intriguing. I made it a priority to bond with them at the dance instead of spending time with the people I see everyday who already have many friends at Ripon High.
Position: ASB Administration Coordinator
Date: 09/05/19
Position Assessment: Core Camp was a great start to the Leadership school year, and I got to set my ideals for the school year in place. I got a better idea of what my position in Leadership entails, and this has helped me be a more productive Administrative Coordinator. I still have much more to learn about my position though.
I am still adjusting to having to frequently visit Gigi in the administration office for PO signing. It is such a quick and simple task but it makes me realize how busy I am at lunch, so I have to visit her before cross country after school!
We had the second highest numbers of attendees at the Back to School Dance, so I’d say it was very successful. The decorations looked great this year and I didn’t hear a single complaint about the DJ.
Standing Committee: At the moment I am not a member or a leader of any Standing Committees.
Special Committee: The Back to School Barbecue was successful this year. We were ahead of schedule almost all day and got preparation done quickly. Having many extra soda cans and water bottles from the End of the School Year Dance helped save a lot of time in the process of this event. Post-Barbecue we created a list of the many things we need to buy for the End of the School Year Barbecue since we are now low on supplies.
For the Tri-Tip Fundraiser we have communicated to the ticket-making company we go through that we would like them to make a design for us, which is being worked on at the moment.
Making the posters and preparing the gifts for our Kyoto exchange program coming in October hasn’t begun, but brainstorming and committee creation should begin in a week or so for gift and poster ideas so we can begin filling out POs if needed.
Nothing has been done for the Military Wall yet.
Concerns: I am a little concerned about Homecoming for the juniors because I haven’t heard about much preparation being done. We still have 4 weeks until our actual Homecoming Week, but it still makes me nervous since Niki and I aren’t directly in charge of anything for Homecoming anymore. Our class also had a big lack of spirit during Club Rush week…we came in fourth place for spirit. That will be a big issue during Homecoming if we do not push our class to dress spirited. Recently Niki has actually been doing her best to get the word out to our class to dress up for spirit days, and she is doing a fantastic job. That is an additional positive comment for Niki for stepping up.
Positive Comment: I would like to make a positive comment on the freshmen representatives. They are doing a great job in Leadership so far, and I am so proud of them for being so open to asking me questions. I made it clear to them that I am here to assist them in whatever they need, and they have taken advantage of this. They are proactive about their work, collaborate well, and are not afraid to clarify their questions with me. I believe they will have a successful Homecoming!
Change: I think the class needs to unite more. I don’t see our upperclassmen or sophomores talking to the freshmen much. The freshmen representatives are adapting perfectly fine, and I believe that they are getting the help they need, but separation between them and the rest of the class is an issue when it comes to our Core Principle that we all decided on: “family, not friends”. I don’t see as many friendships developing this year as I saw in our Leadership class last year.
My Impact: My friends and I are doing our best to welcome and create meaningful friendships with the exchange students this year. I have met Edith from Belgium, Nicole from Portugal, Bartt from Italy, Vittoria from Italy, and Arianna from Italy. If anything, they have impacted me! They are the sweetest people, and all the stories they have told me about their life back at home and how they are adapting to life in the United States have been so intriguing. I made it a priority to bond with them at the dance instead of spending time with the people I see everyday who already have many friends at Ripon High.
September/October ASB Formal Meeting Report
Name: Kate Villegas
Position: ASB Administrative Coordinator
Date: 10/24/19
Position Assessment: Communication with the freshmen has been great. They frequently ask me questions for clarification or simply because they were never shared important information, which I am proud of them for doing because I can see that they want to do their best in their responsibilities. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure how much control to take with the dance though. I know that I should be monitoring the class secretaries much closer, but I don’t think I know when I am under-stepping or overstepping with advising students in the class. I am getting into the gist of recording notes efficiently, focusing on what should be included and how to condense the information. I am not aware that I have to share my minutes with Gigi Green, I have just been sharing them with Morty, so I will be sharing them with Gigi too now. I am going to be updating the class calendar for the month of November soon, since October is coming to a close. I have not recording all receipts and disbursements of the student body funds with Gigi, and I am thinking that this is a type of list for records. I have been coming into her office 3-4 times a week to sign purchase orders for the student body. I am now much more aware of how much time I should really be spending with Gigi dealing with school funds. My communication with her will be improving. The Tri-Tip Fundraiser will occur today and we are finishing up the event (Special Committee Section). ASB is going to be getting started on the planning for the Christmas Door Decorations once we are finished with tri-tip, which will be very soon. We will be discussing what supplies are needed this year and will be getting started on paperwork.
Standing Committee: Senior Nights, Fall Sports - So far I have gone to the water polo senior night and the girl’s volleyball senior night for the fall season of sports to support the seniors and appreciate all the time they’ve dedicated to our high school during their time here. The football and cheer senior night is on November 1 at 6:30, and the date and time of the cross country senior night is to be determined.
Special Committee: Tri-Tip Fundraiser - Our tri-tip fundraiser is all prepared for and we will be executing the dinner tonight. Our proposal of the ticket-selling competition was successful, but the actual execution of the competition by our class could’ve been better. We only had three groups out of the ten groups go out to the neighborhoods they were assigned to sell tickets, and around 70 tickets (which is the equivalent of about 5 students’ tickets) were not sold. The ASB team is happy with the numbers we got this year and the amount of tickets sold to staff, but we can still see the lack of effort to sell from certain students (we know that our class can easily sell all of our tickets). Our biggest flaw in this event was our communication. We waited until the last minute to fill out the purchase order for Smart & Final and to purchase the supplies we needed from Costco, which was the result of bad communication among each other. We also didn’t effectively communicate to the class exactly what we wanted from them on the day that the money/stubs were due, and this communication is essential to a smooth execution. Carmen is working on the procedure form at the moment and we are creating a list of who we will be sending thank you cards to. We will be giving the extra meals we don’t give out to the high school’s staff lounge, saying thanks for allowing us to use the lounge for our fundraiser. The ASB team will be counting points for the competition this weekend so we can announce the winners of the Amazon money prize.
The Military Wall - Niki, Morty, and I haven’t made any progress on this project. The budget for this project at the moment is $5,000.
Concerns: I am concerned about the relationships we have within our leadership class this year. I feel more disconnected to the class this year, and I can feel it within the other students as well. I am not sure how we can improve these relationships, but I know that something needs to change with what we are doing, because it is affecting the mental health of our students and is affecting the overall unity of our class.
Positive Comment: I would like to also make a positive comment in regards to my ASB team. We have had some bumps in the road this year, but I truly trust these girls and am looking forward to the rest of the year with them. They recognize the mistakes each one of them have made in the past, and I think that that is a powerful step toward an improvement in processes. In leadership there is this common theme of students defining their entire year primarily by the small or large difficulties they had, which is a very toxic theme, and I am proud that the ASB team and I acknowledge the lack of use of this and won’t allow this mentality to surface.
Change: Our class does a poor job at celebrating our victories. Many will say great job to the freshmen on their dance once, or great job to Darius and Elias on the Gratitude Video once, and that isn’t even happening with every student in the class, but that is it, and then we move on, along with the group who organized the entire event/project. I think we need to find a way for our class to celebrate ourselves and our hard work more effectively. By planning one event, checking it off the list, then starting to plan the next event, we only make ourselves one step closer to burnout.
My Impact: I believe that the impact I’ve made on campus amongst my peers has been a different type of impact. I am trying to be more mindful by making use of meditation and getting back into yoga, along with being more aware of my thought process and emotions in my everyday life when it comes to both the big things and the small things. I am working on my character as well, because I feel as if I’ve lost some of what makes me me. I have to remind myself that to make an impact on others I must have made an impact on myself first.
Position: ASB Administrative Coordinator
Date: 10/24/19
Position Assessment: Communication with the freshmen has been great. They frequently ask me questions for clarification or simply because they were never shared important information, which I am proud of them for doing because I can see that they want to do their best in their responsibilities. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure how much control to take with the dance though. I know that I should be monitoring the class secretaries much closer, but I don’t think I know when I am under-stepping or overstepping with advising students in the class. I am getting into the gist of recording notes efficiently, focusing on what should be included and how to condense the information. I am not aware that I have to share my minutes with Gigi Green, I have just been sharing them with Morty, so I will be sharing them with Gigi too now. I am going to be updating the class calendar for the month of November soon, since October is coming to a close. I have not recording all receipts and disbursements of the student body funds with Gigi, and I am thinking that this is a type of list for records. I have been coming into her office 3-4 times a week to sign purchase orders for the student body. I am now much more aware of how much time I should really be spending with Gigi dealing with school funds. My communication with her will be improving. The Tri-Tip Fundraiser will occur today and we are finishing up the event (Special Committee Section). ASB is going to be getting started on the planning for the Christmas Door Decorations once we are finished with tri-tip, which will be very soon. We will be discussing what supplies are needed this year and will be getting started on paperwork.
Standing Committee: Senior Nights, Fall Sports - So far I have gone to the water polo senior night and the girl’s volleyball senior night for the fall season of sports to support the seniors and appreciate all the time they’ve dedicated to our high school during their time here. The football and cheer senior night is on November 1 at 6:30, and the date and time of the cross country senior night is to be determined.
Special Committee: Tri-Tip Fundraiser - Our tri-tip fundraiser is all prepared for and we will be executing the dinner tonight. Our proposal of the ticket-selling competition was successful, but the actual execution of the competition by our class could’ve been better. We only had three groups out of the ten groups go out to the neighborhoods they were assigned to sell tickets, and around 70 tickets (which is the equivalent of about 5 students’ tickets) were not sold. The ASB team is happy with the numbers we got this year and the amount of tickets sold to staff, but we can still see the lack of effort to sell from certain students (we know that our class can easily sell all of our tickets). Our biggest flaw in this event was our communication. We waited until the last minute to fill out the purchase order for Smart & Final and to purchase the supplies we needed from Costco, which was the result of bad communication among each other. We also didn’t effectively communicate to the class exactly what we wanted from them on the day that the money/stubs were due, and this communication is essential to a smooth execution. Carmen is working on the procedure form at the moment and we are creating a list of who we will be sending thank you cards to. We will be giving the extra meals we don’t give out to the high school’s staff lounge, saying thanks for allowing us to use the lounge for our fundraiser. The ASB team will be counting points for the competition this weekend so we can announce the winners of the Amazon money prize.
The Military Wall - Niki, Morty, and I haven’t made any progress on this project. The budget for this project at the moment is $5,000.
Concerns: I am concerned about the relationships we have within our leadership class this year. I feel more disconnected to the class this year, and I can feel it within the other students as well. I am not sure how we can improve these relationships, but I know that something needs to change with what we are doing, because it is affecting the mental health of our students and is affecting the overall unity of our class.
Positive Comment: I would like to also make a positive comment in regards to my ASB team. We have had some bumps in the road this year, but I truly trust these girls and am looking forward to the rest of the year with them. They recognize the mistakes each one of them have made in the past, and I think that that is a powerful step toward an improvement in processes. In leadership there is this common theme of students defining their entire year primarily by the small or large difficulties they had, which is a very toxic theme, and I am proud that the ASB team and I acknowledge the lack of use of this and won’t allow this mentality to surface.
Change: Our class does a poor job at celebrating our victories. Many will say great job to the freshmen on their dance once, or great job to Darius and Elias on the Gratitude Video once, and that isn’t even happening with every student in the class, but that is it, and then we move on, along with the group who organized the entire event/project. I think we need to find a way for our class to celebrate ourselves and our hard work more effectively. By planning one event, checking it off the list, then starting to plan the next event, we only make ourselves one step closer to burnout.
My Impact: I believe that the impact I’ve made on campus amongst my peers has been a different type of impact. I am trying to be more mindful by making use of meditation and getting back into yoga, along with being more aware of my thought process and emotions in my everyday life when it comes to both the big things and the small things. I am working on my character as well, because I feel as if I’ve lost some of what makes me me. I have to remind myself that to make an impact on others I must have made an impact on myself first.
November/December ASB Formal Meeting Report
Name: Kate Villegas
Position: ASB Administrative Coordinator
Date: 12/16/19
Position Assessment: Since the last ASB Formal Meeting on October 24th, I have been primarily focusing on advising the freshman representatives and fulfilling my secretarial responsibilities with Gigi. The freshman representative are doing great and understand the gist of leadership much better now. The amount of questions I am getting is slowly dwindling down. I continue to visit Gigi in her office three days a week after school to sign purchase orders, to grab reimbursement checks to deliver to students, and to deliver reimbursements and purchase orders to Gigi. The ASB team has been working on the Tri-Tip award and the Holiday Door Decorations. We finished up nearly everything for the Tri-Tip award. The purchase order for the Amazon gifts is going through Gigi right now, so once it is cleared Elias, Kade, Emma, and I will be able to order our gifts with Shawna. The Holiday Door Decorations ran really smoothly this year, besides some of the door decorations being completely wiped out. Next year we know just to buy cheap wrapping paper and ribbon. Instead of being at the highschool for multiple hours on a Sunday night, we prepared everything for the doors beforehand (inside and outside of class), and were only at the school for an hour and forty five minutes to decorate, which was much more efficient. The procedure form is being worked on at the moment and will be turned in on Wednesday.
Standing Committee: We had our Fall Senior Nights for cross country, football, girls volleyball, girls golf, water polo, and sideline cheer. The committee’s job was more so to attend all of the senior nights to support them, and to help Natalie wherever it was needed. I believe it was a great choice to decide on doing senior nights for all of our sports because the athletes greatly appreciate it. We decorated the shadow box for the first time this year with its theme as “Gratitude”. The committee was responsible for writing a thank you card to someone who they are grateful for in their lives, and we stuck these cards inside the shadow box for display. I gave my letter to Sra. Lozano and took a picture with her, which we used for the shadow box. We decided to decorate the entire shadow box just during one lunch period, but it ended up working out wonderfully.
Special Committee: For the Military Wall special committee, not much information has been shared on the project status and we haven’t devoted much time to it either. Although, money is currently put aside for the wall.
Concerns: I am concerned about the upperclassmen’s desire to excel in the leadership program. I suppose this is always something to be thinking about and not necessarily worrying about, but as I progress through high school, I see more and more students become less motivated, which is discouraging. A lot of students begin to lose sight of their goals and what they want from life and even simply this program at this stage of high school. This has everything to do with mental health.
Positive Comment: I would like to make a positive comment on the Holiday Night Rally (and the Orchestra/Choir/Band Concert). I believe it was much more organized this year, and the turnout was good considering it is still one of our newer events. I am glad that communication between clubs and ASB Leadership has been more clear through Brendan’s position, so clubs were well informed on the Holiday Tree Competition for the rally. Clubs now all have an equal opportunity to be involved in many projects we run, because communication is improved and much more open.
Change: A change must be made to allow for more open communication in this class. After submitting the GoogleForm a while back based on what negative things we see in leadership students and the leadership class, back-channeling, gossiping, and favoritism really stood out to me. Do we not have enough courage to believe that something might actually change if we are able to openly communicate our concerns to each other? It is unfortunate that students will continue to feel like they are being gossiped about or that another student is being favorited because they are afraid to communicate those feelings.
My Impact: I am making an impact by reaching out to people that I usually wouldn’t feel comfortable reaching out to. I deprived myself from the large amount of social interaction I used to have with others, so now I feel as if it is all making up for it in a very positive way. I have realized how horrible it feels to be in a bad spot, and to additionally feel very lonely and like no one understands what you are feeling. Instead of swiping past a private post on Instagram that comes with a lot of baggage, I make sure to reach out to the person and let them know that I will be there to listen to them anytime.
Position: ASB Administrative Coordinator
Date: 12/16/19
Position Assessment: Since the last ASB Formal Meeting on October 24th, I have been primarily focusing on advising the freshman representatives and fulfilling my secretarial responsibilities with Gigi. The freshman representative are doing great and understand the gist of leadership much better now. The amount of questions I am getting is slowly dwindling down. I continue to visit Gigi in her office three days a week after school to sign purchase orders, to grab reimbursement checks to deliver to students, and to deliver reimbursements and purchase orders to Gigi. The ASB team has been working on the Tri-Tip award and the Holiday Door Decorations. We finished up nearly everything for the Tri-Tip award. The purchase order for the Amazon gifts is going through Gigi right now, so once it is cleared Elias, Kade, Emma, and I will be able to order our gifts with Shawna. The Holiday Door Decorations ran really smoothly this year, besides some of the door decorations being completely wiped out. Next year we know just to buy cheap wrapping paper and ribbon. Instead of being at the highschool for multiple hours on a Sunday night, we prepared everything for the doors beforehand (inside and outside of class), and were only at the school for an hour and forty five minutes to decorate, which was much more efficient. The procedure form is being worked on at the moment and will be turned in on Wednesday.
Standing Committee: We had our Fall Senior Nights for cross country, football, girls volleyball, girls golf, water polo, and sideline cheer. The committee’s job was more so to attend all of the senior nights to support them, and to help Natalie wherever it was needed. I believe it was a great choice to decide on doing senior nights for all of our sports because the athletes greatly appreciate it. We decorated the shadow box for the first time this year with its theme as “Gratitude”. The committee was responsible for writing a thank you card to someone who they are grateful for in their lives, and we stuck these cards inside the shadow box for display. I gave my letter to Sra. Lozano and took a picture with her, which we used for the shadow box. We decided to decorate the entire shadow box just during one lunch period, but it ended up working out wonderfully.
Special Committee: For the Military Wall special committee, not much information has been shared on the project status and we haven’t devoted much time to it either. Although, money is currently put aside for the wall.
Concerns: I am concerned about the upperclassmen’s desire to excel in the leadership program. I suppose this is always something to be thinking about and not necessarily worrying about, but as I progress through high school, I see more and more students become less motivated, which is discouraging. A lot of students begin to lose sight of their goals and what they want from life and even simply this program at this stage of high school. This has everything to do with mental health.
Positive Comment: I would like to make a positive comment on the Holiday Night Rally (and the Orchestra/Choir/Band Concert). I believe it was much more organized this year, and the turnout was good considering it is still one of our newer events. I am glad that communication between clubs and ASB Leadership has been more clear through Brendan’s position, so clubs were well informed on the Holiday Tree Competition for the rally. Clubs now all have an equal opportunity to be involved in many projects we run, because communication is improved and much more open.
Change: A change must be made to allow for more open communication in this class. After submitting the GoogleForm a while back based on what negative things we see in leadership students and the leadership class, back-channeling, gossiping, and favoritism really stood out to me. Do we not have enough courage to believe that something might actually change if we are able to openly communicate our concerns to each other? It is unfortunate that students will continue to feel like they are being gossiped about or that another student is being favorited because they are afraid to communicate those feelings.
My Impact: I am making an impact by reaching out to people that I usually wouldn’t feel comfortable reaching out to. I deprived myself from the large amount of social interaction I used to have with others, so now I feel as if it is all making up for it in a very positive way. I have realized how horrible it feels to be in a bad spot, and to additionally feel very lonely and like no one understands what you are feeling. Instead of swiping past a private post on Instagram that comes with a lot of baggage, I make sure to reach out to the person and let them know that I will be there to listen to them anytime.
January/February ASB Formal Meeting Report
Name: Kate Villegas
Position: ASB Administrative Coordinator
Date: 13 February 2020
Position Assessment: Since the last ASB Formal Meeting on 16 December, I have been focusing on advising the freshman representatives and fulfilling my secretarial responsibilities with Gigi. The freshman representatives have had Winterfest and their Matchomatics fundraiser. The freshman and I had a meeting to discuss any confusion on forms. We also began to discuss preparation for the Student/Staff Basketball game, which they are starting to plan with Perez. They are thinking about the teachers and students they want to involve in the game, and are looking into getting started on a facility form, procedure form, etcetera. Mackenzie is going to ask Morty for an example of a past procedure form to help guide them through the unfamiliar event. I continue to visit Gigi in her office three days a week after school to sign purchase orders and take care of anything she needs me to take care of. I also assisted the class officers and the rest of the juniors in our Winterfest competition. I helped out wherever I was needed with the cart, the window, and the gym decorations.
Standing Committee: The only standing committee I was apart of in January was Link Crew. Link Crew applications and acceptance occured, and I was accepted into Link Crew for a second year. This is a year long responsibility, but 8th Grade Day and 8th Grade Parent Night / Open House will be occurring very soon, so Link Crew will get more busy during this second semester approaching this new school year.
Special Committee: I was apart of the Valentine Hearts special committee in January. David was my partner in completing 50 hearts to tape onto the E building windows on 12 February. David took care of 25 of the hearts, and I took care of the other 25 of the hearts. We each completed our job and wrote the names of the students on the hearts and left them a positive message. No progress has been made in the Military Wall special committee yet since the last ASB Formal Meeting on 16 December.
Concerns: I am not too concerned about this, but it is always something that comes up: Students who did not apply into the Leadership program next year, putting in a significantly less amount of work ethic into the class for the rest of the school year. I am not that concerned because I know that every student in our class has a good work ethic and passion deep inside, but I know that this pattern has happened in the past, and those students feel less motivation to work hard and succeed for the rest of their last year in the program. We also may begin to see this with the senior members of Leadership.
Positive Comment: The Valentine Hearts were a success this year. I saw many students post a picture of their Valentine Heart with their name on it in their story, and generally students seemed to be very happy with the message it left. I also heard some teachers say how much they liked the Valentine Hearts because every student at Ripon High gets recognized with a heart and a heartfelt message. This is very important because there are very few times where every single student on this campus gets something personalized for them / gets recognized. It is very inclusive.
Change: I believe that we should only accept six or less 8th graders into the Leadership program to be Freshman Representatives. I think eight is far too many freshman to be on a team all together. Our sophomore, junior, and senior class officers all operate within teams of four, so I don’t think this aligns very well with the large amount of freshman representatives accepted into the program. It is also difficult to operate in a team of eight anyway. I am not sure if this is something that can be changed as we select new freshman representatives for the 2020-2021 school year, but I definitely think it should be considered as we begin looking at applications and conducting interviews soon!
Impact: One of my priorities lately has been being an active listener. This has been something that I have struggled with in the past and that I have been putting a lot of effort and focus into to improve it. This year of 2020 I have realized the importance of actively listening to your peers, friends, family, and teammates. People want to feel listened to, and they want to feel as if they are cared for by others. I have made it a goal to be that someone who others feels cares for them, listens to them, and is genuinely interested in their life
Position: ASB Administrative Coordinator
Date: 13 February 2020
Position Assessment: Since the last ASB Formal Meeting on 16 December, I have been focusing on advising the freshman representatives and fulfilling my secretarial responsibilities with Gigi. The freshman representatives have had Winterfest and their Matchomatics fundraiser. The freshman and I had a meeting to discuss any confusion on forms. We also began to discuss preparation for the Student/Staff Basketball game, which they are starting to plan with Perez. They are thinking about the teachers and students they want to involve in the game, and are looking into getting started on a facility form, procedure form, etcetera. Mackenzie is going to ask Morty for an example of a past procedure form to help guide them through the unfamiliar event. I continue to visit Gigi in her office three days a week after school to sign purchase orders and take care of anything she needs me to take care of. I also assisted the class officers and the rest of the juniors in our Winterfest competition. I helped out wherever I was needed with the cart, the window, and the gym decorations.
Standing Committee: The only standing committee I was apart of in January was Link Crew. Link Crew applications and acceptance occured, and I was accepted into Link Crew for a second year. This is a year long responsibility, but 8th Grade Day and 8th Grade Parent Night / Open House will be occurring very soon, so Link Crew will get more busy during this second semester approaching this new school year.
Special Committee: I was apart of the Valentine Hearts special committee in January. David was my partner in completing 50 hearts to tape onto the E building windows on 12 February. David took care of 25 of the hearts, and I took care of the other 25 of the hearts. We each completed our job and wrote the names of the students on the hearts and left them a positive message. No progress has been made in the Military Wall special committee yet since the last ASB Formal Meeting on 16 December.
Concerns: I am not too concerned about this, but it is always something that comes up: Students who did not apply into the Leadership program next year, putting in a significantly less amount of work ethic into the class for the rest of the school year. I am not that concerned because I know that every student in our class has a good work ethic and passion deep inside, but I know that this pattern has happened in the past, and those students feel less motivation to work hard and succeed for the rest of their last year in the program. We also may begin to see this with the senior members of Leadership.
Positive Comment: The Valentine Hearts were a success this year. I saw many students post a picture of their Valentine Heart with their name on it in their story, and generally students seemed to be very happy with the message it left. I also heard some teachers say how much they liked the Valentine Hearts because every student at Ripon High gets recognized with a heart and a heartfelt message. This is very important because there are very few times where every single student on this campus gets something personalized for them / gets recognized. It is very inclusive.
Change: I believe that we should only accept six or less 8th graders into the Leadership program to be Freshman Representatives. I think eight is far too many freshman to be on a team all together. Our sophomore, junior, and senior class officers all operate within teams of four, so I don’t think this aligns very well with the large amount of freshman representatives accepted into the program. It is also difficult to operate in a team of eight anyway. I am not sure if this is something that can be changed as we select new freshman representatives for the 2020-2021 school year, but I definitely think it should be considered as we begin looking at applications and conducting interviews soon!
Impact: One of my priorities lately has been being an active listener. This has been something that I have struggled with in the past and that I have been putting a lot of effort and focus into to improve it. This year of 2020 I have realized the importance of actively listening to your peers, friends, family, and teammates. People want to feel listened to, and they want to feel as if they are cared for by others. I have made it a goal to be that someone who others feels cares for them, listens to them, and is genuinely interested in their life