Zane Kleinberg and Tommy Moss
Hello friends, peers, teachers, and administrators, we’d like to introduce ourselves —
we’re Zane Kleinberg and Tommy Moss. Our goal in writing this is two-fold: to present our platform, and to elaborate on what differentiates us from the other candidates. In our current situation, each of us couped up at home, we thought it would only be right to address the topic of unity. It’s immensely challenging right now to feel connected — to feel as if we’re part of an entity bigger than ourselves. While it might be months until we’re reunited, let’s remember that we’re all in this together. No matter what candidates’ names you decide to fill out on election day, it is our hope that we will come out stronger than ever before.
First, we’re going to touch on our main goals, aspirations, and initiatives during our
presidency. Proper nutrition is vital to be a productive student. That’s why we’d like to integrate student selected meals into lunch as part of an effort to expand our meal options. We’ve all been there — we’ve gotten to the cafeteria, found out that we aren’t interested in the day’s options, and ended up going to Riverdeli five days a week. It’s time to change that. Now, to focus on the elusive practice rooms. They’re great spaces that are often left out of discussions. We’d like to discuss the possibility of converting one of the rooms into a recording studio open for walk-ins or bookings. Fieldston has many blossoming stars, and we’d like to aid them in their craft. To that extent, we’d keep the remaining rooms open all the time. There have been a few terms that have been thrown around a lot recently.
Communication, transparency, conversation, clarity, et cetera — we’d like to demystify them. At first glance, it would seem as if everything that could be done has already been done. What would we do, talk more? Incorrect. We possess the tools to make cutting edge applications, and that is how we will tackle this issue. There has never been a truly unified Fieldston application that focuses both on our school and the students who attend it. This app will have an FSG component where you can instantaneously message us, and we will make it our mission to reply within twelve hours. As well, the app will contain a forum section where students can discuss current issues, post announcements, and communicate with each other. Above all else, our goal is to make school a more inclusive, comfortable, and safe space for everybody. While our initiatives outlined above are substantial, our mission to create and maintain a safe environment for every student is paramount. We’re not the most traditional choice for presidents, and we’re not necessarily who you’d expect to run. However, we’re the most driven, dedicated, and motivated candidates in the field. Our unique perspectives make us the optimal choice and are what differentiate us from the other candidates. The decision lies with you, thank you.
Ayana Santos and Daniel Silverstein
Hello! We’re Daniel and Ayana. We hope you’ve been enjoying our posters! Here’s a little about us and why we’re running: We love Fieldston and all it has to offer and we want to make your experience as a Fieldston student the best it can be. Daniel is the captain of BVS, a 7th grade STS leader, and started the Big Brother Program; Ayana is the captain of VVB, runs the Big Sister program, and is an SOCM organizer. We’d be super excited and grateful to have the opportunity to serve you as FSG co-presidents. We’ll give it our all!
Our campaign is centered around encouraging conversation, building community, and creating change.
① We want the student body and administration to have an open and transparent relationship. For too long students have been denied information, input, and sadly, blindsided by the administration. We know this is a serious issue that must be addressed. As presidents, we’ll make sure the student body is aware and informed about the issues confronting our school, ensure open lines of communication between the administration, board, and student body, and make sure students have a say in the decisions that will impact them and their community.
② We’ll strive to make Fieldston a carbon neutral community. Highschool green roofs, solar panels atop the gym building, white roofs, green A/C systems, and a green-power purchase agreement are all part of our plans to reduce Fieldston’s carbon footprint and impact on the environment. We all need to engage as a community to help save the planet.
③ Students’ mental health is very important to us. We want to increase the diversity of our school counselors, create a mental health committee, and have an annual event to celebrate mental health and foster inclusive, honest conversations. Our focus will be caring for students at Fieldston. We know that among the most stressful parts of high school are tests and major assignments. We’ll make sure you’re never overloaded with major assignments by enforcing the teachers’ assignment calendar and creating rules that limit how many major assignments you can get per week.
Caring for you also means having more fun, school spirit, opportunity, and an easier and richer academic life. We’d work to implement seasonal pep rallies, open library study rooms, online alternate credit forms, and annual ALP’s. And yes, of course, we need a grab and go station, new outdoor lounge furniture, Buunni Coffee discount, and speakers on the Field because… why not?
With us as presidents, FSG will be more dedicated then ever to Fieldston’s mission of progressive education, ethical learning, and academic excellence, and we’ll continue the work of SOCM to make Fieldston an even more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community for all. We’ve already met with faculty and members of the administration to discuss ways to implement our plans. We are dedicated to fighting for you, your voice, and your education. After all it’s in our DNA 😉 (Daniel ‘N Ayana… get it? Sorry we know it’s cheesy).
Nina Kronengold and Calder Stokes
Nina and Calder here! We’re thrilled to introduce our FSG platform. We have known each other since Fieldston Lower, where our friendship bloomed in soccer-filled recess days. We share a passion for creating change in our communities, through Nina’s work in startup companies and art, and Calder’s journey with music and entertainment. Over the past 11 years, Fieldston has been our home and our unique experiences have allowed us to recognize the problems in our community. Our vision is to amplify students’ voices through interviews, google hangout meetings, and surveys. We want to bridge the relationship between Fieldston presidents and the student body because ultimately, we’re all Fieldston students.
Get ready for Tea Time with Calder and Nina: monthly roundtable discussions with tea and scones to get your input, along with advisory visits and anonymous surveys. One of our peers is currently developing an app where you can anonymously leave those brilliant ideas that pop up at 2 am. We’re here for students in every grade. That means freshmen adapting to high school who feel intimidated walking in the hallways surrounded by upperclassmen, sophomores who feel stuck between being an under and upperclassmen, juniors freaking out over the workload, and seniors juggling the entire college process. We know what it’s like to be in your shoes.
Scared to share opinions that may be deemed as “wrong”? We’re looking to revamp assemblies by including speakers with different perspectives to create a more open-minded environment. Post-assembly discussions will be mixed between grades and presentations will be student-led with engaging workshops and activities.
Just want a peaceful experience in the bathroom, or shall we say “aquarium”? We’re working with the secretary of public spaces and facilities staff to improve our public spaces. Every week, a facilities member will introduce themselves and will rate the cleanliness of each public space. These ratings will be translated into points and pooled together with the points advisories receive through advisory challenges, color wars, hallway decorations, and more. At the end of each semester, the advisory with the most points will receive school store discounts.
Sick of wasting money going off-campus for food? Hungry in between classes? Just want a decent cup of coffee to keep yourself awake? We’re currently working with the AVI food staff on a meal plan that fits your wants. You’ll be able to fill out daily feedback on the lunch of the day while offering suggestions for future cafeteria offerings. We’re also working to partner with Buuni to provide its coffee roasts at school, so you don’t have to pay $5 for a cup of coffee or run off-campus in between classes. We also know students get hungry, which is why we want to bring back snack time!
These are just a few of our ideas, but stay tuned for more. All our plans have been pre-approved by faculty so they can become a reality with your vote. We’ll be stoked if you vote Nina and Calder for FSG!
Maria Grabowsky and Raz Mehta
We’re running for FSG because we love Fieldston and, consequently, feel obligated to address the issues affecting it. To us, the two largest issues facing our community are the lack of trust between students (the interpersonal) and the lack of emphasis on mental health (the intrapersonal). That’s how we arrived at the three overarching pillars of our presidency: engaging in civil discourse, combating prejudice, and embracing mental health.
Engaging in Civil Discourse: Embracing our different beliefs, just like embracing our different identities, is essential to enhancing our education. This is why we are committed to making Fieldston more accepting of how our different experiences warrant differing viewpoints. Everyone should not only feel like their voice is heard, but should have the opportunity to hear their peers’, too.
Combating Prejudice: The prejudice within our community hurts us all; it not only
makes targeted groups’ feel unsafe, but also hinders our ability to trust one another. If we want to build comfort and strengthen our relationships with each other, addressing prejudice is not just something that we should do, but it’s something that we NEED to do.
Embracing Mental Health: As the mental health assembly beautifully articulated, mental health affects all of us. However, there is still a stigma around discussing and addressing it, which is preventing us from better supporting ourselves and each other. It’s time that we break down this parasitic stigma and embrace our mental health, as it plays such a prevalent role in our lives. We want to help make each of us better resources for ourselves and each other.
We clearly have some hefty goals, so you’re probably wondering what makes us most qualified to accomplish them. We believe our dedication is our best qualification, but if you want to be reassured, here are some of the positions we hold: Maria is an STS 7 leader, Staff Manager of Fieldston News, and member of La Causa, and Raz is a MERGE leader, AIB member, and an Invictus leader.
Even though it’s just the two of us on the ballot, our presidency will involve all of you, too; we will be transparent with you because it’s your right to know how your community is being led, but we will COLLABORATE with you because we value your experiences and opinions.
In conclusion, we will work tirelessly with you and for you to make Fieldston a place where we capitalize on our differences, where prejudice does not go unchecked, and where our mental health gets the attention it deserves.
Denika Kao and Tristan Robinson
Hey Fieldston community! We hope that you and your families are safe and healthy
during this difficult and new time. Our names are Denika (she/her) and Tristan (he/him), and we have two main tenets for our community: Dependability and Transparency. From our times here at Fieldston, we’ve both observed a frustrating similarity of when Fieldston community members were left deeply hurt, angered, or pained: a lack of dependability and transparency. Thus, it’s of the utmost importance to us that we ensure to the best of our ability that these two core tenets, which are deeply aligned with the core values and ideology of this school, are upheld during our presidency.
Here’s how we’ll do it: we want to be held accountable. This means monthly school reports – what we’ve achieved and what we’re planning on doing – so that you can give us feedback. This brings us to our next initiative: drop-in office hours and an FSG website, providing spaces to hear your suggestions, comments, questions, and concerns! However, it’s not just us that needs to remain transparent and held accountable; we’ll also do the same for the administration through monthly meetings with key members of the administration, listening to what they’ve been doing in the past four weeks and what their plans are for the next four – notes of these meetings will be shared in our monthly school reports. We will hold roundtable lunches prior to each meeting, free to all students who want to voice their feedback to the administration. Every single concern, every single comment, every single question, will be passed on to the administration. We’ll make sure of it.
Another concern of ours is improving student life! We know that this year has been pretty rough (an understatement), and so we want to make sure that we more than make up for it next year :). Firstly, we plan on expanding the school store: putting smaller carts in both the student commons and the stu-fac. They’ll be stocked to the brinks with snacks you (yes, you) choose in monthly surveys. We will also extend breakfast time through advisory, because we want to make sure you all are getting enough to eat before a long day of classes! But you’re not the only one who needs energy before that 8:30 am class – your phone and computer do too! Which is why we’ll put charging stations in every hundreds building so you never have to experience that oh-no-my-computer-died-and-I-have-no-charger feeling ever again. We also want to make sure our school spirit is flying sky-high, just like our school mascot. So get ready for a permanent school merch website!! Now you won’t have to run the second those quarter zip sweaters are taken out.
Okay, you’ve heard some of our ideas now. But this isn’t all of it!! In fact, it’s only the beginning. We hope you’re excited about all the things we plan to do, because we definitely are. Vote Denika & Tristan for FSG.
