Morium and Mason:
Hi! We’re Morium and Mason. We also go by M&M, which is more fun to say. Plus, M&M perfectly represents why we’re running. We want to bring some sweetness into your lives. We understand and acknowledge that our community has been turned upside down this past year. In replacement of all the negative aspects of this year, we hope to make the 2021-2022 school year more exciting and memorable. Like M&Ms, we’re dedicated to making your lives at Fieldston as sweet as possible. 🙂
When we started to think about running for FSG, we thought about what we could do to convince the Fieldston community that we would be beneficial to the community. So what did we do? We created a partnership with Riverdeli and gave every student a 10% discount! It’s easy to make empty promises but a whole lot harder to deliver. By providing the community with the discount, we hope we are able to showcase our dedication and proactivity. We will continue to negotiate with neighboring businesses in order to provide the Fieldston community with happiness (and cheaper options)!
Although we are using the discount as an incentive, we have several other initiatives in mind all of which stem from the troubles our peers at Fieldston face. Throughout the processes of speaking with our peers about their individual experiences at Fieldston, many of them (us included) revealed they are stressed and burned out. Again, we don’t want to give false promises; we know that reduced homework along with mental health and stress are buzzwords that are frequently thrown around. Unfortunately, it is difficult to make any concrete promises related to these topics. However, we can make your life as students slightly easier. We will encourage every teacher to create a level of consistency in terms of communication. This means advocating for the usage of Google Classroom, YouCanBookMe, Google Classroom Gradebook and more. We’ll also create various forms and surveys where you will be allowed to freely express how you feel. These responses will be checked by the Secretary of Student-Teacher Communications (a new cabinet position) and reported back to the teachers. In addition, we hope to create lots of fun and helpful videos through FSG Media such as “Where to find the best snacks around the school” or “How to book a room in the library.” These videos will include the involvement of various Fieldston students so you can see your friends or even yourself. We all know this past year has drained the school spirit (and life) out of us. But we are here to revive you with positivity and honesty.
Margot and Asher:
Our platform for FSG is simple: meaningful, attainable change that will better everyone’s everyday life as a member of the Fieldston community. We recognize that there are systemic issues that must be addressed within our community. We also recognize that there are many small things that we can change throughout our school that improve our daily lives. As such, our goals reflect a dedication toward change and improvement, and a promise to balance small improvements with large overhauls. We are campaigning to make our communal daily lives better (and most importantly, more fun!), and we are dedicated to making our community more diverse, inclusive, kind, fun, and accepting.
The first component of our campaign is our Eagle Commitment to Student Life. Our Eagle Commitment to Student Life is our promise to you to incorporate fun and joy into our community. We plan on starting the first post-finals field day to foster community, spread joy, and celebrate summer. We also want to create the first annual Fieldston Easter Egg hunt (a 100% secular event), our send-off into spring break, complete with a competition. Lastly, we want to introduce winter and spring pep rallies to allow every sport to bask in our Fieldston love and pride. Our Eagle Commitment also includes working towards a school that has more printers and resources at each student’s disposal. Including more tampons in the bathrooms and better quality toilet paper.
The second element of our campaign is our academic-oriented initiatives. Firstly, we aim to expand clubs’ budgets through a joint effort with the financial team and fundraising. Secondly, we seek to overhaul the selection process for intensive classes to ensure that classes are representative of Fieldston’s diversity. Thirdly, we would like to create cultural days: opportunities for members of our community to showcase their cultures, and for us to celebrate them. Lastly, we plan on reintroducing the cabinet treasurer position, and by working with the FSG Senators we plan to create the elected position of FSG Vice President.
As your presidents, we plan on being transparent, fun, and impactful. Please reach out to us with any questions, concerns, or ideas, or if you would like to see a more detailed list of our campaign promises. Vote Margot and Asher, the Pfizer and Moderna of candidates!
Jordan and Bennett:
And why should you vote for Jordan and Bennett for FSG co-presidents 2021-2022? Glad you asked. Jordan and Bennett (JAB) are both distinguished leaders and contributors to the Fieldston community. Jordan Goldberg is a tri-sport athlete: Football, Track, and Tennis, is a club leader of Whisky Bravo (a club that supports veterans and first responders through initiatives and events). Bennett Santora is a juggler extraordinaire (so basically just a clown) who has performed internationally. He is in the investment club, and is known to be a fast-thinker, some say he can even read minds (source: trust me, bro). Enough about why we’re such perfect humans, and on to some things we’re doing to improve Fieldston. First, our main goal is to work with tech to develop a streamlined platform. This platform will have everything you need, from grades, to lunch menus, bus schedules, announcements, and access to tardes/absence records. We have already gotten this approved by Ms. Selous, & Ms. Crowley from the tech department. With work over the summer, we can realistically have this ready by the start of the upcoming school year. Next, we have gotten our approval from Ms. Locher, Department chair of the Tate Library, to dedicate at least one room in the library to gaming & socializing, with console(s) provided. There will be a sign-up sheet so there will be no conflict of who gets the room for their given time. Last, a rapid-fire list of some of our other initiatives/ideas: improved female hygiene products in the bathroom, continued assemblies for mental health, new cabinet positions to promote racial and gender equity, a student section at pep rally, more debates and nuance brought to assemblies, and much more. Stay tuned for our upcoming speech, Jordan & Bennett.
Skyler and Dylan:
Hello everyone, we are Skyler Moses (she/her) and Dylan Haime (he/him) and we are running to be your next FSG co-presidents. We strive to collaborate with each and every one of you so that we can create a school and community that you want to see but be a part of. Our mission is to do whatever we can to make sure you experience a year that is fun, fulfilling, and memorable. We want to be the leaders that make real change happen. We want to make an impact that is led by voices. We are creative people with creative ideas ready to make a difference. We have been working with Steve and Moe from Rolen and Riverdeli and created a system. If you show your school ID, you will receive 10% off your order. We wanted to do this not only to benefit our students but to support our small businesses in our community. By doing this we are creating a long-lasting relationship with these businesses long after we both graduate. For seniors, growing up and change is scary. We want to create a sense of confidence within our students which is why we came up with the idea that for second semester seniors, during advisory those times would be used for our new course, Real World. Real World will be a how-to life skills class for life after high school. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have lost touch with our grade. We must rebuild. We have come up with an end of the year trip for each grade such as a day trip to Coney Island and the Theme Parks. This trip would bring each grade closer together before we depart for the summer. We believe that what you are passionate about is of utmost importance which is why we created, Arts&Athletes. For the Arts department, we will have someone who is employed at an art school such as NYU Tisch school to talk about what it is like to pursue art in college and further in life. The same goes for the Athletic community. We will be having coaches from colleges such as the University of Michigan talk about what it is like to pursue a sport. We miss our school spirit and are hopeful to have it come back stronger than ever to make up for lost time. We are very excited to be given the opportunity to run as your co-presidents and promise to not let you down. We promise to listen to you, fight for you, and not stop until we deliver a school experience that you envision. United in orange and blue we promise to always stand up and be there for you.
Ines and Aleksi:
Ines and Aleksi here! A bit about us: Aleksi uses he/him pronouns, comes from Ukranian descent, and outside of school he rows competitively. In school, he was on the AIB, the basketball team, and co-founded the Fieldston Political Journal. He’s currently part of the Summer Book Committee and Model UN. Ines uses she/her pronouns and is from Spain and Venezuela. Outside of school she has taken dance classes for years and loves to read and journal. Currently she’s part of the Mental Health Club and assistant directing the spring studio theater show. Fun fact: both of us are bilingual and have been in French class together since sixth grade!
We’re committed to creating an environment that is engaging, conducive to learning, and sustainable for the future. As we’ve mentioned, we want to work with student-led organizations to promote community engagement, and we’re looking into getting more money for clubs. We hope to reestablish the composting program with the Environmental Club, and want to make the Middle School roof a garden for all to enjoy. We’ll bring back the major assignments calendar so that you won’t be overloaded with work, and we’ll open a school store that will sell school supplies and NEW merch. We plan on experimenting with assemblies from advisory rooms, assemblies outside, live streams, and more.
We will restore our vibrant community through frequent competitions across grades and establishing a yearlong point system, so that every couple of weeks we can have challenges where you can earn points for your team! At the end of the year, the points will be counted up and the leading team will win. We’re optimistic about organizing outdoor versions of pep rallies and homecoming to bring back school spirit, and we plan on creating a student lounge to socialize and hang out during the school day, where we’d incorporate video and board games to provide an alternative space to the Commons.
It is crucial for us to create the sense of community that we have all missed so much this past year. We believe it’s important for middle schoolers to connect with high schoolers, and plan on organizing a concrete way to make these connections. We’d like this to be a student to student tutoring center, and serve to find social support and foster supportive friendships with older peers as well. We also know that for many, seeing your grades (and for seniors, information about your college applications) online throughout the semester is essential, so we’re looking into working with the administration to incorporate Naviance.
We’re determined to create more transparency with the administration through roundtable discussions, allowing students to openly voice their opinions. The goal is to establish a close relationship that will be sustainable in the future. With a change in administration this year and next year, this is the perfect moment for change in our school — together we can make decisions that will last for years to come.
Best,
Aleksi and Ines.
P.S. Save the tree.
Timia and Ben:
Ben Shulman and Timia McCoade reporting for duty! We’re so excited to be running for FSG Co-Presidents for the 2021-2022 school year! We dedicate ourselves to everything we do and FSG is no different.
We’ve been at Fieldston for a grand total of 17.5 years. We both share a deep love for this community. We truly believe that when you really love something, you’re better equipped to see its flaws and want to fix them. We know we can’t do this alone. Ben and Timia are quite short, coming in at a whopping average height of 5’4” (without Timia’s platforms); we’re not the best at being intimidating. We don’t want to be high and mighty detached figures. We won’t promise to be your voice or speak for the student body as if it is monolithic, because we know that’s not true. Fieldston students are capable of self-advocacy, and we promise to lift your voices. We will both listen to, and work with, every student and their unique perspective: together. Your opinion matters to us. Our work will center what you all want done, but here’s where we’ll start:
MORE IN PERSON LEARNING:
Why is this year different from all other years? The COVID-19 pandemic and Hyflex Learning. We, like most of you, want to spend as much time during the rest of the year in person. Timia and Ben are currently in talks with the administration, working to put as many whole grades on campus as possible.
SNACKS:
Timia and Ben already have a plan in place to continue, and drastically ramp up the current snack cart. We have worked with the athletic trainers and the student body to curate a delicious selection of snacks which will be on several carts around school! Food and mental health are intimately connected, and providing an adequate quantity and selection is our first step towards addressing that often ignored link.
TEST CALENDAR
What is the point in having a testing calendar if we don’t use it? We have spoken with the administration, and we will actually begin using the testing calendar next year to make sure students and teachers both know when students have assessments coming up. This will help ensure that we never have more assessments than allowed in a day. Too much work in general, but especially surprise work, is not helpful to student learning nor mental health.
AFFINITY SPACES:
We’ve been in talks with the DEI team about transitioning affinity space meetings away from lunchtime over to Thursday Flex Time so that affinity spaces would have the opportunity to meet at one, consistent, standard time. Affinity groups are integral spaces for learning and for the mental health of BIPOC students that attend this PWI. We know that these groups all have their own leaderships; now we want to ensure they all have their own dedicated time.
This is just the start. With your help, we want to do so much more! Vote Timia and Ben for FSG!
Tanveer and Sara:
Sara and Tanveer here! We are extremely excited to share our final FSG platform with you guys after a couple weeks of spam emails and terribly photoshopped posters. For the past 5 years Sara and I have bonded over everything from field hockey to tik tok and of course a passion of bringing change and opportunity into Fieldston. Besides our connection as candidates, we want to share the platform we have in mind to connect Fieldston as a community.
Keeping two flex times: We hope students are able to branch out and join more clubs as opposed to the restriction of only one flex time. Also students that partake in more than one club can split their time evenly and fairly between both clubs. Expansion of the school store: Given COVID has put a dent in the school stores hours we hope to rebound even stronger. Items such as ping pong equipment, cornhole, and of course, a wide variety of snacks are some things on our mind. The midday snack service provided by the cafeteria is also great(and free) so possibly working with the dining staff to place snack stations around the school can be another thing on our agenda. More community days(Speakers, ALPS, MADS, FADS, Field Days): We may have lost in person learning but we didn’t lose each other. The Fieldston community is a HUGE part of our running stance and we want to prioritize it coming into next year. Increased gradewide activities and forums are definitely some great ways we thought we could connect with each other after virtual learning. New Cabinet Positions: We want to strengthen the Fieldston community and one way we can do this is by modifying our student cabinet. We were thinking about a secretary of social media who runs accounts on a platform(s) of their choosing for students at Fieldston. This content can be anything from helpful videos to silly ones just to give everyone a laugh. Coffee on campus: We know without the opportunity to go off campus and given Buunni is now closed, everyone gets pretty tired throughout the day which is why we want to bring back having coffee available in the cafeteria all day. Grade Accessibility: We also know the suspense(and unwanted surprise) everyone feels when grades come out, especially during online school. We are going to advocate for a platform that makes grades accessible all year long which incorporates tests, quizzes, and projects as they are assigned. Transparency: Our biggest goal is to hear what you guys want for the school! We want to make a system where you can anonymously fill out a form to send us requests for what you want to change or improve about Fieldston! The form will be open year round and can be a suggestion to improve snack placement, scheduling, or anything of your choosing.
Well that’s all we have to say regarding our platforms and we hope you vote Sara and Tanveer for FSG Co-presidents!
Lena and Eli:
Hi! We’re Eli and Lena, and we’re so psyched to be running to be YOUR next FSG Co-Presidents!! We’ve been passionate about this for so long, and in the interest of maximizing our impact on this school, we’ve been in correspondence with adults and students across campus in order to ensure the feasibility of all of our initiatives.
We feel as though serious subjects such as mental health, and equitable, intersectional education have become performative talking points at Fieldston. We want you to know that these are values that we hold close to our hearts, and have genuinely cared about long before embarking on this campaign. Both of us attend the Learning Center regularly, and have struggled with mental health and reaching out for help. Fieldston has a wide array of resources for students struggling with their emotional or academic wellness, but unfortunately, those resources don’t always feel accessible for all students. We’ve noticed that there’s a gap between the available resources and the students’ ability to utilize them. As your presidents, we are prepared to implement strategies to aid students by; opening up “office hours” for one-on-one with the learning center, which will allow students to gain helpful tips for organization, time management. as well as in reviving the Secretary of Learning Center position in the FSG Cabinet. We also will host quarterly roundtables in conjunction with the Learning Center, specifically highlighting student-to-student connection. Lena has been involved with Students of Color Matter since spending four nights in the 200s building during the lockout in the Spring of 2019.
We were grade representatives together in our sophomore year, which laid the foundation for a well-communicating partnership. In the last year, we’ve only strengthened our working relationship, one we’d continue to build on as your Co-Presidents. We’ll implement roundtable discussions twice a month based around each cabinet position. The secretary would organize a roundtable around a topic within their subject, in order to cater to and highlight student interest.
We’re establishing a partnership with AVI in order to collaborate with them on the design of the Fall 2021 menu before it’s finalized this July. We’ll be sure to take student input into account during all steps of that process. We’ll also bring back breakfast, and extend it to the end of advisory. We’re also aware of the fact that Fieldston has expressed intention of reopening at 100% capacity next fall! As excited as we are, in the event that we’re required to revert back to remote/hybrid learning, we’re prepared to cultivate a social atmosphere that is as lively and engaging as this community deserves.
Finally, in the last few weeks, we’ve confirmed the creation of a Fieldston Community Garden. If elected, students would be able to garden on-campus starting this spring. This includes working alongside the Middle School Environmental Club on projects such as redesigning Fieldston’s Green Roof, as well as utilizing our garden plots to plant both wildflowers and vegetables. Gardening has been proven to mitigate the effects of anxiety, and potentially ease the burden of people struggling with their mental health.
Sarafina and Lee:
Hi! It’s Sarafina-N’-Lee
We are so excited to be running for FSG together. With Lee having been at Fieldston since Kindergarten, with a sister in 5th grade, and Sarafina joining in high school, with her brother joining 7th grade during the pandemic, we feel that we can truly see Fieldston from almost all points of view. Add to that our cultures, races and identifiers, combined with taking this role very seriously.
Here is an outline of our most exciting initiatives, more information will be on our website: https://sites.google.com/ecfs.org/sarafinaandlee
Mental Health
We want to ensure consistent mental health resources and outlets throughout the day consisting of office hours run by students or faculty members, designated spaces to decompress if you just need a break, and ways to receive any additional resources you may need.
Promoting Equity Inside the Classroom
A big problem in our country’s educational system is stereotype threats. Fieldston does a fantastic job of encouraging these important conversations, but can’t dismantle this alone, so it’s important to do our part: Educating students about stereotype threat and the disparities of experiences in the classroom. Many students walk through life feeling alone in these worries, unaware of why or how they occur, or that they’re not alone in these feelings. In turn, many students have no idea that it exists and occurs. The first step to dismantling a system is talking about it and ensuring that every student has the opportunity to do so, in a judgement-free, questions-encouraged space.
Monthly Club Events: Bringing Together our Community
Monthly events in the commons/quad/field hosted by various clubs. This way we can learn from and have fun with each other.
Alumni to Student Connections
Fieldston has amazing Alumni connections spanning across decades, careers, and specialties. Extending Alumni to Student connections through Alumni-taught Master and Guest Classes, internship and job opportunities, resources for various courses, guest-speaking and more.
A Yearly Dance Party
Spending time as a community outside of an academic realm, to just have an evening of fun is truly needed. We need to socialize, dance, hang, and make it a yearly tradition. The school is big, but this can be done, if we do it by grade.
High-School to Middle-School Mentorship: Passion Spaces!
High schoolers with a passion for involvement in an aspect of school can create a Passion Space, allowing for them to teach and work with middle-schoolers in fields that might ignite them. Including tutoring/teaching, guidance, collaboration in projects/performances, and bonding events.
Using Your language in the Real World
The best way to learn a language is to use it in the real world. We want to create opportunities to speak with native and/or fluent speakers, inside and outside of our community. Learning through field trips, interview-based projects, and guest speakers. We can further our language skills, learn the cultures, and reduce the fear of speaking in a different language.
Devoted to making Fieldston the best it can be,
Sarafina and Lee
Cameron and Elijah:
Hi everyone! It’s Cameron and Elijah here! Cameron uses she/her pronouns and Elijah uses he/him pronouns. We want to be your FSG co-presidents. We will prioritize you and we will be your voice at Fieldston. Cameron has experience on the cabinet as she is the current secretary of Mental Health and Wellness. She understands what it’s like being on the FSG which is a plus! Both Cameron and Elijah are varsity athletes and are very involved in Fieldston’s clubs and affinity spaces. We can assure you that any concerns you may have, we got you covered.
Elijah and Cameron have run this campaign with 100% authenticity which means that every initiative that we have can realistically be put into place. There is no false hope in our campaign. We want real change and justice at Fieldston and that’s why we are promising you that our ideas are concrete and doable and will have a great impact on the Fieldston community.
After such a crazy year, we want to provide the student body with certainty and control at Fieldston. You will take control of your education by voting for Cameron and Elijah. Here are some of our crucial initiatives. These ideas will make Fieldston a more equitable, fun, and spirited institution: Making grades accessible all year round to let the students take control of their education and motivate students to work harder or reach out for help from a teacher or peer, having more eagle merch to jazz up the school, diversifying mental health by focusing on non-white mental health and supporting minorities at Fieldston, and also integrating affinity spaces which will allow for participants in one affinity space to share their experiences in and out of Fieldston and potentially share what they need from the people listening. Lastly, we want to introduce more cabinet positions such as the secretary of Racial Justice.
The initiatives above are only a few of the many ideas we have brainstormed. Although we know that these initiatives are important, we are not going to assume that they cover every student’s concerns, that’s why Cameron and Elijah will be sending monthly surveys out to the Fieldston student body if we were to be elected. These surveys will allow students to share their needs and inform us of what we will fight for. Although we may be your FSG-co presidents we are just here to uplift your voices.
