By Calder Stokes and Nina Kronengold
Hello, fellow Fieldston reader! As our first semester comes to a screeching halt and our second semester commences, we are excited to share with you some of the work we have been doing, as well as our future initiatives. Even though we don’t have a crystal ball, and can’t say that this year will end on a great note, we’re all in this together.
Despite having such an unforeseen year, we have done our best to make sure that your voices have been heard and that we use our position to ensure the best for our Fieldston community. Running a student government during COVID has been challenging, but we have used student surveys, video speeches, affinity discussions and our cabinet to talk to students, relay their needs to the school administration and keep them in the loop on updates in the school’s administration and board. We want everyone to feel like they know what’s going on. Throughout the summer we worked with administration, faculty and parent representatives as part of a school-wide COVID Task Force to facilitate a safe transition back into the school year, while planning virtual and socially distanced community events. This fall, we established a separate student-run COVID Task Force with two representatives from each grade to address grade-specific COVID related issues. We also have been running a weekly cabinet meeting with 26 student secretaries who collaborate on student needs pertaining to both the academic and non-academic concerns of our community. Student mental health has been a particular focus of our cabinet. We have assigned a mental health representative for each grade and have encouraged cabinet members to consider the importance of students’ emotional well being in their specific disciplines. Our amazing secretaries have been working hard to address the concerns and topics in the realm of their respective positions, and they updated the student body with a brief video describing what they’ve done this semester and what they hope to do in the future. Moving forward, we plan to continue our long term goals of focusing on student voices and transparency between us, the students and the administration, as well as a larger emphasis on communication. As observed by many of our surveys, this is a difficult year for students to feel connected and for our final semester as Presidents, we will be focusing specifically on creating opportunities and spaces for students to have fun and feel a sense of community. Get ready for more advisory challenges, grade-wide activities, and spirit and school-wide events! We are excited for all that is to come and hope that these initiatives can help us get through the year as a strong community. If you are reading this right now, and have any points, concerns, or initiatives you would like to see covered this year, please reach out to us, we would love to hear all of your voices!
