Q & A: Class of 2022: Simran Dubey
SETH ABOUHALKAH| SEPTEMBER 2, 2018 | Q&A
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) — The 2018 election season is here, along with an incoming group of class officer hopefuls. Be an informed voter and learn about your potential class officers .
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: Everybody talks about unity, but how are you going to really unify the class?
SIMRAN DUBEY: Well I’d love to, if I get elected obviously, be in contact with the other class officers through the other grades to see how they can help us; obviously this is our first year so we are going to need a little bit of help, so how they can help us to build a better class this year and unify Stanton.
DA: What is your big picture plan for this year?
SD: Well my main goal and my platform is service. I would like to have completed at least three service projects this year throughout the year because I know the first quarter is going to be a little rough but throughout the four quarters complete at least three projects. I already have the three in mind, it would be an Art with A Heart drive for Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital, Hunger Fight, which is a program that sends us packaged food, and we hold an event at Stanton to box and package the food and send it to places that don’t have as much, and the third would be a program that I’m setting up with Don Lockhart in the Mayors office, so that would be more of an in community project that we can create ties within Jacksonville itself.
DA: How will you get students to actually want to do the services through and with you?
SD: One of the biggest motivations, especially in high school, is the bright futures scholarship, because they are going to need a 100 hour for that. And to graduate Stanton you need hours in itself so I feel like that would be a motivation. But, I hope that our freshman class can dig into their souls and find a generosity to help others.
DA: Being class president means that you have to be heavily involved. So, how often and how willing are you to use your extra time to fulfill your duties?
SD: I’m willing to use all of my extra time. As it is, a lot of things I do outside of school are to improve my leadership skills and things of that sort, so this would be something where I could take those skills and put them to use. So I’m willing to put all of my time and energy into this to help improve our class.
DA: How would you communicate with the entire freshman class?
SD: To communicate outside of school obviously would be social media, because we are the technology generation. But I do know that some kids in our class do not have social media, so I would like to create a class website for that specific problem. So, every month our officers can create a update to send and put out on the class website. Our website will also include a blog area for students to write their ideas.
DA: How would you work together with teachers and administration to accomplish your goals?
SD: I have learned, especially in the past years as NJHS president, that one of the most important things is to build ties with our administration and our teachers, because those are the people who know the school the best. To do that I’d obviously converse with all my teachers, send them weekly updates as well so they know what we’re doing, and ask for help when its needed.
DA: What experience do you have that qualifies you as president?
SD: This past year I was NJHS president at James Weldon Johnson, I was also a magnet ambassador, I was part of our yearbook committee, which means I know how to communicate with our class and make sure we have a recorded history of our 9th grade. And among outside of school activities I actually am a second degree blackbelt at Karate America and this past year I’ve started teaching there, so that also improves my leadership abilities because nothing is harder than teaching a little 5-year-old.
DA: Besides yourself, who do you think deserves the position?
SD: Well I feel like any of these people would be a really good option, but I would especially like someone from a different school than me because I know that I relate to the kids that went to my school but those people relate to the kids that went to their school and I feel if we work together, even if one of us didn’t win, we would be able to unite our three different schools because we do have candidates from the three main magnet schools that feed into Stanton.
DA: Besides volunteering, what are you mainly going to focus on?
SD: That would be communication. Making sure that everyone knows what’s happening, what we’re doing, and what they want us to do so it’s not just a one way street of communication, but they’re able to tell us and we’re able to talk to them as well.
DA: How would you incorporate Ubuntu into your policies?
SD: The big thing about Ubuntu is that its very inclusive and everyone’s involved which is what I want my term to be like. I would love to have everyone included, everyone be able to voice their opinion, and if they’re not comfortable doing it in public, have suggestion boxes where they can do it anonymously, so everyone feels like they’re included and able to contribute to our success this year.
DA: What talents do you have that you would incorporate into your presidency?
SD: I would say my leadership skills or my confidence. I’m very open, very much an extrovert. I like to get my opinion across, I like people to know what I’m thinking, and I feel like that would really help me this year so I’m able to communicate efficiently with everyone and as well as the administrators and teachers. That’s also a big help there, because I’m not as scared to talk to them.
