ASB President-elect speaks about plans for 2018-19 school year

ASB+president-elect+Neil+Ramaswamy+%2811%29+delivers+his+campaign+speech+during+this+years+ASB+elections.+For+next+year%2C+Neils+main+goals+are+increasing+communication%2C+engagement+and+transparency+both+within+the+council+itself+and+with+the+student+body.

Kathy Fang

ASB president-elect Neil Ramaswamy (11) delivers his campaign speech during this year’s ASB elections. For next year, Neil’s main goals are increasing communication, engagement and transparency both within the council itself and with the student body.

by Arushi Saxena, Reporter

Juniors, sophomores and freshmen voted to elect a new ASB council last week for the upcoming school year. The student body choose Neil Ramaswamy (11) as their new president, who plans to inaugurate new plans to increase communication, engagement and transparency both within the council itself and with the student body.

As the ASB president-elect, Neil wants to unleash the potential of student council and elect strong committee heads to provide a structure and support system for underclassmen who are newer to the council. He is also a strong proponent of giving everyone a voice and of listening to ideas from the entire student body as well as other elected representatives.

We’re going to make sure that we elect really competent committee heads, so that I don’t specifically have to do all of the work. We’ll have competent people who are willing to engage, nurture and teach these freshmen what it’s like to be in a cohesive council,” Neil said. “I also plan on implementing performance reviews, so upperclassmen can review underclassmen and underclassmen can review their peers, so everyone feels like their presence is necessary and that their presence is important.”

One of the areas in which Neil would like to help the council improve is in terms of engagement. He has currently seen that a little over half of the council is engaged, but he believes that if everyone contributes to discussions and event planning, they can achieve a lot more, collectively.

“It’s like crowdsourcing. Everybody’s going to be involved,” he said. “We need everybody aligned in the same direction, whether that be working on different projects, but just in the same direction.”

Throughout the past year, Neil has shadowed current ASB president Jimmy Lin (12) in his role as vice president. Looking to next year, he has created a plan for his first meeting with the council to encourage the sharing of ideas to create an elaborate plan of goals for the school year. Neil hopes to brainstorm with all 25 members of the council and make sure that the student body has a larger voice and are encouraged to speak with their student officers to result in their ideas making their way directly to the administration.

Prior to Neil’s tenure as ASB vice president, he served as spirit coordinator on his freshman and sophomore councils.

“Having worked with Neil for three years now on the council, I’ve seen the dedication and commitment that he brings to his role. From class spirit coordinator to ASB vice president, he always does whatever he can to make sure that we achieve success as a whole and best serve the student body,” ASB vice president-elect Shania Wang (11) said. “Aside from that, he’s also just been a great friend and person to have around. I’m really excited to see what he does as ASB president next year, and I’m sure that he’ll do an amazing job leading the entire [student council].”

Surrounded by mentors and strong individuals who motivated him to be dedicated and hardworking, he’s embraced the rest of student council as a family and hopes to listen to all of the other representatives’ ideas and set specific goals for the year.

“It’s not just about achieving the stuff that you know you can get,” he said. “It’s about trying to push yourself past what you think you can achieve.”