ASB elections introduce many underclassmen into office

The sophomore class, the largest on campus, now has the most representation on the school’s ASB.

The sole junior elected to the school’s leadership body was Roshan Verma as president. Sweeping the rest of the positions for the Class of 2020 were George Bian as vice president, Timothy Yoon as treasurer, Jolyn Tran as secretary and Prosper Chiu as board representative.

As newly elected officers, both Bian and Verma want to focus on transparency between the Leadership class and students.

“I feel like this past year, there was a lot of miscommunication and the rest of the school wasn’t as aware as to what Leadership was doing,” Verma said.

This past year, ASB’s agendas were not well advertised, he said. For example, not many students know that ASB undertook a school beautification project at the front of the school to make it a more attractive place for students to spend time during lunch or after school.

To fix this communication problem, Bian plans on making sure that students know what is going on in Leadership, and that all student input regarding activities and events, such as dances and spirit weeks, is considered.

With the newly elected students taking office soon, it may seem unusual that four of the five elected students are current sophomores. In contrast, in past years there have been more juniors, with two or three elected sophomores.

Verma, the only elected officer with prior experience on ASB, acknowledges that with more underclassmen transitioning to ASB, it will take longer for everyone to get acclimated to their new roles. At the same time, Verma said that he does not expect any issues working with them because of the help of the “great support system” comprising the leadership class, activities director Matt Torrens and administrators.

“I know they are extremely hard-working people,” Verma said. “They know what they signed up for and I’m confident we’ll be able to deliver on our goals for next year.”

Torrens said that he expects the new officers to perform just as well even though they may have less experience because ASB officers must have one year in class office before running.

“If you’re in class office, you’re still setting up for rallies, setting up for dances and cleaning up for dances; you’re part of the planning process of these different activities,” he said. “Even though they’re sophomores, they’re still prepared because of the Leadership class model.”

In the end, varying degrees of experience are set aside as these students set out to plan and carry out numerous school activities.

“I feel that it will be a great year on ASB because all of the elected officers are very responsible people who love our school and will make sure it is the best place it can be,” Bian said.