By Darren Amona
The new Student Government Executive Board for the year 2020 has been elected. The Board will consist of Alex Zelman, Drew Wilenzick, Talia Raich, and Zach Burton.
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Junior Alex Zelman is stepping up into the role of Student Body President. “This position oversees a lot of initiatives and events that go on in the school, helps facilitate matters, organize everything, and help people with anything they need,” said Zelman. Last year, she served as the Chief of Staff and was involved in planning the Yom Iyun, Day of Learning.. However, Zelman wanted to continue on her path of leadership and rise to become the Leffell School’s Student Body President. “This position gives me the best platform to connect with other kids and inspire them to get more involved,” said Zelman. One of her goals for this year is to enhance productivity out of the school’s committees. “I want every committee to have at least one group of people constantly working on something. This will ensure greater involvement and a more diverse group of kids working on [events]”. Zelman is excited about the new executive board, and she believes that “having kids from different grades allows us to have a diverse background of what we think should be done this year. This year is going to be really meaningful!”
Sophomore Drew Wilenzick is looking to change the school for the better as the new Student Body Vice-President. “I wanted to make a difference in our community with initiatives and make people’s experience in this school better… I want the overall feeling at this school to be more bonded within grades and the entire school.” According to Wilenzick, the Vice-President’s duty is to “oversee major events planned by committees, pursue personal initiatives and also be a point person to talk to the school while being accessible to other students.” Wilenzick also notes that he wants to focus more on each student’s average day, rather than the events. “This year I really want the things that are already in your schedule to improve like your classes, tefilah, and even lunch, focusing on the core aspect of what it means to come to Leffell.” Finally, Wilenzick believes that having a Student Government Executive Board with students of different grades will help them appeal to more grades and make this year especially exciting.
Sophomore Talia Raich is excited to be a part of this year’s Leffell student government as the new Communications Chairperson. This position “manages internal and external communications between the student body and student government,” says Raich. Raich believes that this position “suited a lot of my interests; spreading [the word about] what events student government has, like making flyers, sending emails …is one of my strongest suits.” She wants to pass on “the ideas of student government events to more people so they can have more access and opportunities to become a leader in this school.” Raich also wants to plan “a lot of fun and meaningful events that will have a larger impact on people.” She says that “this year we are focusing on making a more compact student government which means that everyone has to be doing some work which will ultimately [result] in a lot more [work] being done in each committee”. Raich is devoted to this position, and she wants to make sure “everyone can help plan events and do what they want to do within student government.”
Sophomore Zach Burton is stepping into the role of Chief of Staff, which “oversees grade representatives, certain committees, and… take[s] notes in executive board meetings,” according to Burton. Burton has made it clear that he would like to make as big of an impact on The Leffell School as he can in the 2020 year. “I wanted to run for student government to make an impact on the school. Last year as a grade representative I felt that I wasn’t getting as much done as possible, so when I was looking for other positions to apply for, Chief of Staff seemed like it had a really big role and I thought I could accomplish a lot by overseeing many people.” During his time in student government, Burton wants to make “everyone in the student body feel like they have a voice in student government.”
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Outgoing Student Body President Daniel Lampert left the new Executive Board with these parting words: “My advice for the next student government is to cherish all of their time and make the most of it all so that they can execute all the initiatives that they want. If they aren’t on top of themselves and the people they are working with, then they won’t be successful, but I am sure that they are going to do an amazing job.”
