Month: April 2016

By Finn Collom

My name is Finn Collom, I’m a senior in the Academic Choice learning community, and I’m the Associated Student Body President here at Berkeley High. I’ve been a part of BHS Leadership now for nearly four hectic, amazing years. I’ve held positions on class and executive teams, commissioned projects with students and administration alike, and I hope to leave behind a Leadership team that continues to pursue ways to make our school better. We have a lot left in front of us to address as a school, and what I hope to make clear is that Leadership isn’t some nebulous body of officials making important decisions above the larger student body, but rather a conglomeration of students organizing within the student body.

One thing that confuses this distinction, especially during elections, is the sheer number of positions students can run and apply for to participate on Leadership. We’re not just a collective of class presidents: we have a School Board Representative, a Chief of Service, Deputies, Vice Presidents, SSC and BSEP Representatives, etc. How does this all come together?

Here at Berkeley High, our student body government can be broken into a couple parts: the Class Teams, made up of a Class President, VP, and deputies, who all focus on issues/events that affect the individual classes, like prom for juniors and seniors; the Executive Team, made up of an ASB Prez and VP, all the Class Presidents, the School Board Representative, and Student Commissioners/Chiefs (i.e. the Chief of Service, or Commissioner of Elections,) who focus on ‘school-and-beyond’ issues/events, like organizing the Holiday Meal or addressing inequality in SLCs; and the Student Senate, which consists of SSC and BSEP representatives, as well as representatives from the small learning communities, who assist the Executive and Class Teams in implementation of ideas and events, big and small.

All of this can get a little confusing, especially when you’re asked to vote for a near-whole set of these positions every year. My advice is to seek out these candidates, ask them questions about their big and not-so-big ideas for the school, and inform yourself about the choices you have to make. Finally, enjoy participating in one of the world’s most noble experiments: active, participant-led democracy. Go Jackets! ~

By Jasper Feinberg

One of the largest issues currently facing our school is how to, or whether, to change the Small Learning Community (SLC) system. At the moment, there are five Small Learning Communities on campus: BIHS, AC, CAS, AMPS, and AHA. While much of the school community understands the issues with this system, its origins and possible benefits are not closely studied.

The concept of smaller, more personalized schools was pushed heavily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation around the time Berkeley High created such a system. The justification was that within a chosen environment, each student would have a better chance to reach his or her potential, even if the system was not perfect. It would also create a sense of community within a school of 3,600, larger than many colleges.

To some extent, these goals have been accomplished. I think most would agree an artist will have a better chance to succeed in AHA, while a student focused on film production may thrive in CAS. The themes of each school are not always executed perfectly, but they do provide valuable opportunities for specialization regardless. Moreover, if a student does not want to choose such a theme, both BIHS and AC provide the “typical” high school experience and focus on all subjects more or less equally. Moreover, the Small Learning Community system has fostered communities that would not likely exist otherwise given the size of Berkeley High, especially in the smallest schools. Thus, when looking at reforming the Small Learning Community system, it is important to understand the benefits provided by each.

That is not to say there are not issues that require fixing. There is an unacceptable amount of segregation between the schools, which is often along racial lines. Much of this can be traced to the geography based lottery system, as well as the perpetuation of stereotypes about who is “right” for each school. There are also issues with the differential opportunities for AP and higher level classes allotted to each school.

I believe we must act to fix this inequity, but in a way that does not completely destroy the benefits of the current system. For instance, if the school were all combined in one program, the community and personalization of the small schools would be lost. If every program was converted into a small school, there would likely be budgetary issues associated with trying to maintain the same sense of personalized learning, but on a large scale. Thus, I think the best and most realistic solution is to keep the general format of the school, but fix the way in which students pick their small schools. If schools were chosen after 9th grade, and a true emphasis was placed on eliminating the real and perceived educational differences between the small schools, the racial disparities would likely improve. No system is perfect, and neither is Berkeley High’s. That is not an excuse to avoid change. Rather, it means we need smart changes.

By Laelah Jackson

As a leader at Berkeley High, I define a leader as someone to look up to and turn to as an example to do good things. A leader is someone who takes initiative in certain situations and is not always in the spotlight, I know that there are a lot of leaders who are behind the scenes. Leadership is when people can bring others together to make a tight knit community.

This year, I observed a lot of more experienced leaders trying their hardest to bring the school together. There were rallies, dances, events, that hard working students put on to get their peers to come out and celebrate. I also saw people turn to people during more difficult times when a lot of people were hurting and angry during the BSU Walk Out. I believe these events happened because leaders were trying to bring our BHS community closer together so we can have fun and also when other students need more support and others to stand with them. I believe this is seen all the time outside of school, in my opinion. I often hear about certain people putting on protests and holding rallies for a specific cause. These people show leadership skills by using them to get people to come forward and stand up for what they believe in.

In the future, I plan to use this information to try my best to get others to come out and support BHS and its students. I will also be there when tragic events happen and I will speak when others don’t have a voice or have been silenced.

Often, society looks towards people to call its leaders. These people are often outspoken, bold, can take initiative. And often, these types of people are needed in certain situations. I also think that a leader is one who shows dedication to their team and who they lead. A leader would never leave anyone behind. I believe that leadership is when others are looked to as an example to do better and stand with others, not in front of them.

By Angie Fike

As a leader at Berkeley High, I define leadership as an opportunity to channel feelings about the school into action that will positively change the school environment. I look at it as an opportunity to listen to the voices of our school and exhibit dedication in accomplishing what we decide to. It is an opportunity to develop a strong team with mutual respect and mutual drive to better our school. I believe that a key component of being a leader at BHS is to hold yourself and others to a high standard — to constantly be assessing our actions and setting goals to be the best we possibly can be. One quote about leadership that I like is something John F. Kennedy said: “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” I believe that if you want to be a leader, a big part of it is learning and being open to improvement and growth. It is learning how to successfully work with others. With BHS leadership, I look at it as being fundamentally a leadership team rather than just a few leaders. What makes us leaders is that we have a common goal to make decisions that will benefit not only us, but the student body who we represent. I also think a big part of leadership is learning skills such as public speaking and writing, group organization, and how to communicate both with administration and the student body. In the future, I think it would be really cool to practice public speaking maybe through workshops or something because it’s something I would love to work on and that I think everyone in leadership could benefit from.
I observed that being on leadership, the size of the school definitely feels even bigger as we grapple with how to have communication not only within leadership but among the school as a whole. I observed that being on leadership definitely helped me feel more connected and involved in BHS. It made me feel empowered to implement ideas into action. At the same time, I experienced how it can be a little slow going in terms of getting things done and how important it is to establish strong communication and organization within our weekly meetings or else we won’t plan anything. We are all really busy and having meetings only once a week made it harder to feel really driven or engaged as a team. Also, the task of fundraising sometimes got in the way of other ideas we had, which is probably unavoidable as fundraising is definitely necessary part of our commitments. I also observed that once we took action (selling food at a sports game, putting up posters, organizing the talent show), everyone felt a lot more invested in leadership. I think this can be translated to other parts of people’s lives as often money is an obstacle, other commitments are obstacles. Both outside of leadership and outside of school, I definitely experience this same feeling that once I feel involved or impactful in something, I am more engaged in it and am driven to continue being involved.  Overall, a central goal of leadership is to establish strong communication and to set goals so that we can accomplish what we would like to, and to experience the feeling of having a positive, real impact on the school.

By Alessandra Cao

As a leader at Berkeley High, I define leadership as taking an issue or cause and convincing other people to follow you.  Being leader doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a morally good cause, but it means that you can inspire other people to follow you in your idea or movement. An example of when I saw a positive form of leadership, was during the “black lives matter” protest earlier this year in November and last year near the end of the year at Berkeley High.

I observed all different kinds of  communities, small schools, races and ethnicities come together to support a cause. I felt that our different school communities really bonded and came together to help our black community have a stronger voice. I believe this happened because our BSU really got the students to come together and stand up for this very unjust society we live in and decided to act on it, and in a very gracious way. I think that our oppressed students were extremely fed up with all the racism in Berkeley and at Berkeley High, which really pushed them to start a movement at our school. Our protests were very peaceful, and sent a strong message. “Black lives matter” protests have been going on all over the country, but have been more violent and aggressive. However, the message has still come across powerfully.

This experience and movement will always be in my mind forever as a huge inspiration. Watching young teenagers be able to lead a 2,000 person walk was really impressive and will always remind me that if I have something that I want to be heard, I am perfectly capable of making it something big. A movement that I am quite passionate about is against the “fast-fashion” industry, which creates clothes and shoes using horrible sweatshops which not only severely mistreat their workers, but harm the environment as well. I would someday like to make a change in the disgusting “cheap clothing” culture and spread the word about how much purchasing clothing from particular stores does a lot of harm to our world.

By Solomon Chang

As a leader at Berkeley High, I define leadership not as necessarily leading a group of people, but as representing that group of peoples’ thoughts and being a catalyst for any concerns they bring up. These people for me were the freshman class, the class of 2019. As a leader you have to make sure that the group you were selected to lead is taken care of. Leadership is a platform where people who are driven to make this campus better for their class, have a higher chance of doing so. This is because it holds many people who share the same view as me; that by being together we have the power to take people’s thoughts and make them real, giving everyone a say in the place they spend a good deal of their current lives in.

As a leader this year, I learned that leadership is a lot about communication. Either between me and my class team, our class team and Mr. V, students and our class team, communication is key to running an efficient and functioning leadership unit. I observed our class team in the meetings and found that our most successful meetings were when everyone was on board a hundred percent with the idea. In the month of February, our class meetings were very unorganized because of the lack of communication between all the people on the team. When we failed to reach the ticket limit for the Spring Dance we were organizing, I was able to get that it was because of the communication or lack thereof, that could have gave us an extra week to promote and sell tickets. In upcoming events, as a freshman leadership team, we will change to be more unified behind ideas so that we can use our power to make the school experience better for our peers. Communication and building bonds are helpful tools to have, in and outside of school. The most successful people know how to connect with other people that will help them move up in the world. The same goes with leadership, if we can build bonds with each other, we can truly work as a solid team to take on this school’s big issues, which there are certainly a multitude of. Being a leader means taking initiative, seeing what has to be done, seeing what people want to be done, and doing it. And if we’re successful with this we’ll be successful with making people a little bit happier; win-win.

By Simelia Rogers
My experience in leadership has been motivating. In Berkeley High there’s so much passion for change and progression, leadership is the perfect place to demonstrate this passion and make it into something real. In leadership people have many ideas and the truth is we only have so much capacity to execute it. However, the sophomore class team took an idea from another school that we met at a leadership conference, and for the entirety of the second semester we have committed ourselves to creating an event we are calling The Make A Wish Gathering. The goal of the event is to further promote unity and community improvement. The event is a gathering where we will be granting wishes that the students have made with the hope and goal of bettering Berkeley High. The money to grants these wishes is simply through donations and a crowdfunding page. This process has been long but will hopefully be rewarding in the end. The build up has also been a lot of work. Through the Make A Wish gathering planning I have gained a lot of discipline in sticking with the idea even after it has been pushed back on. I have also gained the value in dividing and delegating tasks to every individual to achieve efficiency. Additionally, I have a new understanding of dedication, over the duration of planning this event it has become apparent to me that leadership goes beyond the walls of the school. It takes a lot more time and energy passed the allotted time. When you have a passion for something you will do anything to make it happen. Finally, I have also become closer with my class team and other individuals in leadership. It has been a leadership filled year and I’m excited for all that leadership will due in the future!

By Clementine Kidson

   As being apart of the leadership team of Berkeley High School, I define leadership as leading or guiding a group of people to accomplish objectives or create a better space within a group or organization. In my perspective, being a leader this year allowed me to work with other leaders on the leadership team to make Berkeley High a better community. I noticed that being a leader is difficult, but crucial, especially inside of a massive community. This year I observed all aspects of the leadership team, and I noticed how each feature of the team was attempting to make a difference in the school in all different ways. The strategy of “dividing and conquering” has made it possible for every leader in leadership to invest in the Berkeley High community and represent the student body accurately. I believe this was happening because every leader is so motivated and able to work as a team to make a better community. Whether it was the Holiday Meal, or Unity Week, all of the leaders put their efforts into specific goals and objectives. When I view Berkeley as an entire community outside of high school, I see this happen less. Citizens of Berkeley want a difference, but they do not know how to  directly impact their community. For example, people tend to view the public parks of Berkeley as an unsanitary place, but no citizens have gotten together to truly take action on the issue. If citizens took leadership as students at Berkeley High successfully do, they would have a greater chance of accomplishing goals to improve Berkeley. Being a leader can not only strengthen a group or community, but also be a great attribute to a person’s skill set. It might not be transparent, but everyday tasks and simple communications are ways to hone skills of leadership, so everyone can understand the importance. Without it, a community can be weak and disorganized. As I recognize what it truly takes to be a leader, I take pride in being apart of the Berkeley High Leadership   team.

By Talya Koger
As a leader at Berkeley High, I define leadership as being aware to others needs and being able to work in order to fulfil them. This year on leadership, my sophomore team volunteered in many community events, such as the Berkeley Project, and is also planning an event called “The Make A Wish Gathering”.  In the Berkeley Project, people worked at different places all around Berkeley and volunteered at them. While doing this, I realized that in order to be a leader in Berkeley I have to understand the needs of the people and work to help with these needs. This is the only way to truly understand how to make Berkeley a better place and connect with the people I am a leader of.  The Make A Wish Gathering gives each student a chance to write a wish that will better the Berkeley High community. This event gives me the opportunity to hear each student’s desires to make Berkeley High a better and place and gives me a chance to be able to make some of these wishes come true. Napoleon said, “A leader is a dealer in hope”. Being a leader means understanding the people and giving them  what they need. Leaders can supply opportunities that many could not get for themselves. This is another reason why the Make A Wish gathering is so important. It gives many students a chance to have hope and make a difference that they may have not been able to before. Through my leadership experience at Berkeley High, I’ve learned to become a better listener and less selfish person because of the necessity to be more aware of others than yourself as a leader. Leaders cannot work in their own best interest but through what best serves the people. In order, to best serve the people leaders must be aware and conscious of needs and be thoughtful in how to fulfill them.

Emara Shabir

As a leader at Berkeley High, I define leadership as a group of individuals who strive to create unity, understanding, and an impact in Berkeley High. Without leadership there wouldn’t have been a chance for students to become leaders, speak out about important issues, and gain understanding of others.

This year I’ve seen a lot of community based learning, for example the B.S.U lead an all day assembly to educate their community about their own history. This all day assembly affected not just African Americans but all people of color, for they too wanted to learn more about their own history. For me it was working with the ELD students that helped me understand my parents immigration story. Although I am not an immigrant myself, I can sympathize with my parents hardships more now that I’ve talked to ELD students about what they’re going through.

I believe this happened because of the lynching message directed towards African Americans. If that hadn’t happened, then the assembly wouldn’t have happened, nor the all day long community based talks. I’m grateful for that opportunity to finally talk about pressing issues such as colorism, cultural appropriation, racism, and gentrification.

I wish that people would talk more and fight less about issues such as racism because we see know that it gets violent really quick when a person refuses to educate themselves. If there was a way to have a community based discussion around America that would actually bring up the issues of systematic racism that would be great. However, in order to start that we have to start with ourselves. Educating ourselves on ICE, systematic racism, sexism, and Islamophobia, will benefit us when we are trying to educate another person.

Everyone needs to be educated, and the educator. The time is now, and always will be now. There is a issue within American and it needs to be dealt with through education. We have been blessed that we live in a diverse community. As a community we have to take advantage of our diversity, through this we can achieve understanding.

I’m running for ASB president, and if I am elected then I will have quarterly discussions where issues come up that have to do with our community. If we can talk about these issues, and educate ourselves then we can achieve a better understanding, and possibly come up with better solutions.

Leadership is much more than a extra curricular. It’s an opportunity to become a leader, to have a platform where you can voice your thoughts and get others to understand. For me, leadership has become a lifestyle, that wherever I go, I will try to create a community. I’ve learned that it starts with one person, then branches out into a group.