By Lilian Lebwohl
The 2021 Leffell Student Government Executive Board has been elected and includes juniors Drew Wilenzick, Avi Katzen and Darren Amona and sophomore Ilan Brusso.
Junior Drew Wilenzick is rising to the role of student body president after holding the position of grade representative and vice president.
“The president heads up the student government and delegates tasks to everyone to make sure everyone is working on something and things are getting done,” Wilenzick said.
Having been at TLS since second grade, Wilezick loves the small, tight-knit community and wants to give back to the school that has given him so much.
“We as students can make a large impact on the school and we have the opportunity to change things to make things better for ourselves and students to come,” Wilenzick said. “I wanted to be in a position where I can do those things, but I can also represent my peers in trying to do those things for them.”
Specifically, with all the challenges that the past year presented due to COVID-19, Wilenzick hopes to help the student body socially.
“People are really lacking social gatherings,” Wilenzick said. “It might be good to shift toward outdoor, chill, fun times with your grade and other people in the school, so people can socialize more.”
Junior Avi Katzen is excited to step up to the position of vice president after being a 10th-grade representative last year and he is also hoping to make a positive impact on students at TLS.
Katzen believes that he will be able to accomplish his goals, but will have to adhere to a strict schedule in order to do so.
“Throughout all of my years at Leffell, everybody was so nice to me, so I think a personal goal of mine is to make at least one person feel like I made a difference for them,” Katzen said. “[The vice president] assists the president with whatever they need help with, helps plan specific events for the whole student body and also is just someone that is there for everyone and listens to people’s concerns and opinions.”
“In previous years, there have been fewer deadlines for people to get their work done so I think that this year if we have more deadlines for committees and grade reps, there will be more opportunity for things to get done because we’ll have a plan set,” Katzen said.
Junior Darren Amona was elected to chief of staff. This position prepares the student government agendas, oversees grade reps and committee chairs and is a voting member of student government.
During his time in this position, Amona plans to be more communicative with other members of the student government.
“I want to have more check-ins with the grade reps and the committee chairs,” Amona said. “I want to make sure that each committee is productive, and every person in every committee is doing something, working on something, and contributing to our school.”
Amona believes that he can still carry out his plans despite any potential hindrances caused by COVID-19.
“I want to help the school progress past the bounds of the pandemic and I want us to come up with more ideas to help make the school a better environment during this tough time,” Amona said.
Additionally, Amona plans to include students who are not part of student government in planning activities.
“It is great to see something that you have planned,” Amona said. “It’s a nice feeling.”
Sophomore Ilan Brusso is stepping up from the events committee vice-chair to the role of communications chairperson.
“[Communications chairperson] makes sure that all the different members of all the different committees are on the same page about things, uploads the daily bulletin every day to Facebook and Instagram, and is in charge of editing the weekly addresses,” Brusso said.
Although elected to a specific position, Brusso believes that the reason the executive board at TLS is exceptional is that they can collaborate, without being limited by their titles.
“None of us are too held back by what we feel others might perceive of an idea because we want to go forward,” Brusso said. “We think we have a good idea of how we can change the school and make it better and I think that that really excites all of us on the executive board and we’re ready to make changes.”
