by Jeffrey Mu ’24
With the new school year comes the beginning of the fall ASB elections. Featuring new candidates and an open election system, students are free to vote for their favorite representative in their grade. And each of these representatives has much more to say than the short videos posted for all to watch. This week, we talked to the three junior class representatives about their experiences on ASB and their plans for the future if they are elected.
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Gavin Griffin ’24 – Junior Class Representative Candidate
Q. How long have you been part of the ASB?
A. Since my freshman year.
Q. What is your favorite part of the meetings?
A. Probably any time that we can organize events and make them into something that the students really enjoy.
Q. Was there a particular event that you enjoyed organizing the most?
A. I think from recent memory, my favorite event was the belly frog contest from last year during spirit week. It was a definite hit amongst the student body.
Q. As you’re running to be our junior representative, what contributions do you want to make?
A. I think it’s important to have a class representative who has a lot of experience in leading and organizing events. It’s also key to make the organization accessible to everyone, which is my platform and what I’m running on. I’ve been on the ASB since freshman year and as someone who is in the meetings, have been an advocate for open elections. My message is about being outwardly facing and listening to your guys’ opinions, but also having the back-end experience with managing the events.
Q. What are your plans for the open elections?
A. The open elections have already been happening since last year. We were able to do that thanks to a long and hard discussion within ASB.
Q. How will your actions impact the average student?
A. ASB as an organization plans a ton of events on and off campus. I think if I were to be the class representative, I would be able to take the concerns of the student body and resolve them better. I have done that work and not only have the front-end, but also back-end experiences being in ASB and knowing how to turn my ideas into reality.
Q. If you could change one thing about ASB, what would it be?
A. I think we still need to be more inclusive; we have a lot to improve on in that field.
Saketh Dasaradhi ’24 – Junior Class Representative Candidate
Q. How long have you been a part of the ASB?
A. I’m a pretty new joiner. I joined at the end of last year.
Q. What is your favorite part of ASB?
A. I enjoy public speaking a lot and ASB lends me that platform to do so, representing our grade. There, I can use my post to enact change in the student body.
Q. As you’re running for the representative of the junior class, what is your hope if you are elected?
A. My hope is really simple; it’s just to get more students involved in on-campus. Last year, I didn’t feel like that was accomplished through the ASB and leadership, so that’s what I’m trying to change.
Q. So you said in your video that you would bring food trucks to campus, what type of food trucks would these be?
A. That’s up to the students, but if I had to choose, I would choose burgers and some type of dessert. But again, I want to foster greater student participation in these fun events, so it’s up to the student body.
Q. How does your campaign impact the average student?
A. I’m trying to foster a sense of unity here at Bell. If the students aren’t going to the mixers or stuff like that, they aren’t engaged in the school spirit, and it’s my job to change that. I believe we need more spontaneous events like food trucks during finals week or the AP week.
Q. If there was one thing you could change about ASB, what would it be?
A. I would make sure that everything we do in some way has to be dictated by the students. I feel like when we’re planning mixers or themes it’s more of internal, ASB-exclusive work. Sure, we’re getting your feedback, but we’re also making the final decisions ourselves. I want ASB to be a medium where everything we do is affected by the student body and what they want.
Kyle Fan ’24 – Junior Class Representative Candidate
Q. How long have you been a part of the ASB?
A. I’ve been part of ASB since the second semester of last year.
Q. What’s your favorite part of being on the ASB?
A. Making change and creating that impact on our Bell community is the best part. Technically speaking, entertainment events or student body planning and organizing are fun as well, but along the way making some good friends and having that nice environment is also a benefit.
Q. So since you’re running for being the junior representative, what contributions would you help to make?
A. I hope that I could be accessible to everyone. I want to serve as the voice of the student in our class, just being that guy whom you can talk to someone about, and who knows how to make changes and get things done.
Q. What changes do you hope to enact on campus if you’re elected?
A. I have many ideas, some of them include the more generic food trucks and events, but more so student engagement in those events. Overall, I think the main concern on top of those events and everything which the ASB covers as a committee is to make events more connected and students feel that way as well.
Q. For the average student, what changes would they see on the campus if you’re elected?
A. If I were to be elected you would feel more included and relaxed in proposing your unique ideas. These changes would depend solely on what the student body would like to see on campus.
Q. And if you could change anything about ASB, what would it be?
A. One thing I would change would be the ASB election system. I’ve been advocating for this inside ASB meetings since I joined last year. One of the reasons why I didn’t like the previous internal elections compared to the external ones is that I didn’t feel like it was a fair race to the student body. Only the thirty or so people on ASB could vote, and so it was closed off to the general students.
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So there you have it folks! All three candidates for Junior Class Representative are advocating for more open elections so that you all can partake in deciding which one you view the fittest for the job. But ultimately, despite whom you’re voting for, you can rest assured that all three candidates are qualified and extremely excited to bring about some big changes during this upcoming school year. Happy voting!