The 2022-2023 school year is guaranteed to be full of surprises. Given the number of dean and faculty position changes, students will be looking to ground themselves in what they know and understand best— their peers. Two new students are coming into crucial leadership positions this year, one of them being Katie Tran, the new Student Vice Head of School.
When asked what inspired her to run for this leadership role, Katie explained, “It’s definitely something that I have thought about doing for a while.” However, she went on to say that, “Watching Hannah and Zachary [the previous school year] work really hard together to help improve CA in a lot of ways and continue fun events and also improve the transparency around council meetings and communication with the student body that has been really inspiring and something that I want to participate in continuing.”
Katie has honed in on the ideas of transparency and communication. She spoke highly of the weekly council chronicles and council feedback forms. Emphasizing her high praise of council chronicles she explained that she finds them “important because they provide an organized map of the week’s events and updates and such for the entire community as well as a closer look into the week’s council meetings.”
Going on to discuss her love for the council feedback forms, Katie stated how she plans on using student feedback to make immediate improvements to the community. She said, “One of my main goals for the year, which will start pretty immediately, is planning events according to what the student body’s interests and wishes are.” She explained that she will cumulate the feedback shared in last year’s feedback forms from specific events and other forms that were sent to council so that when she organizes school events, she has a path of voices and opinions from the student body to follow.
Katie needs very little introduction, as she is already a prevalent voice and member of the CA community. With experience leading SEAS, PeCo, MESO, numerous singing groups, and working in the LOCC, Katie has grown to understand the importance of conversation, honesty, and trust in the CA community, which her endless devotion to student feedback further exemplifies. Katie says she wants to use what she knows and what she learns to determine “what we [council] can improve on for next time so that future events can be better for everyone.”
Being the optimistic leader that she is, Katie concluded by reflecting on a meeting that took place with the new council staff at the end of the last school year. “Everyone had so many new ideas and thoughts on how to improve CA and I am extremely excited to work with a group of such enthusiastic, thoughtful, and dedicated individuals who really want to make a positive impact on our community.” Katie’s comments inspire confidence in this year’s student council, and her positive attitude is a sure sign of a fantastic year to come!