Dear CSI Macaulay Class of 2030,
(and by that I mean)
Dear Zoe,
Dear Joseph,
Dear Ava,
Dear Phuong,
Dear Hailey,
Dear Elan,
Dear Christian,
Dear Miya,
Dear Panagiotis,
Dear Michael,
Dear Kenneth,
Dear Alex,
Dear Nevaeh,
Dear Eudoxia,
Dear Sharon,
Dear Arely,
Dear Anastasia,
Dear Elene,
Dear Sabrina,
Dear Brandon,
Dear Alexander,
Dear Amirjon,
Dear Natalie,
Dear Nicholas,
Dear Matthew,
Dear Hoda,
Dear Amir,
Dear Sean,
Dear Abigail,
Dear Angeline,
Dear Madison,
Dear Zakiyah,
Dear Mario,
Dear Aaron L and Aaron S,
Dear Nicole A and Nicole M,
Dear Christina G and Christina S,
(Isn’t it pretty cool that we have 3 sets of name twins in our class?)
YOU are the reason I’m running for Student Council. Not the Class of 2030 as a whole, but all 41 of you as people. Every one of you has not only a different name, but a different story, a different perspective, and a different idea of what you want these next four years to look like. And by asking for the privilege of representing you, I’m asking for the opportunity to know what matters to you, what frustrates you, what you want to change, and what would make these next four years feel like ours.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from having numerous leadership roles in high school, it’s that it’s not about what I want, but about understanding who each of you are and doing my best to support your learning experience on campus on a larger, legislative scale. The number one most important thing I want to center my campaign around is creating meaningful change for us. I won’t bore you with a winded list of my prior leadership accomplishments; rather I would like to show you, and I hope that our few days together in Macaulay and CSI have been an accurate glimpse into that. That being said, I think that just as much as I want to get to know the issues you care about, it’s important that you know about me in order to make an informed decision. So, I would like to share just one project of mine that I’ve become very fond and proud of over the past couple of years.
After accepting my best delegate award at NYC Model Congress for my bill on transportation safety among the boroughs, I was invited by attorney, NYC public schools’ advocate, and absolute queen Ms. Melissa Cisco to work with MTA employees and other bright minded high schoolers to combat the issue of fare evasion, and as a result of that work, the common audio you hear every time you hop on a bus “A fare is required to ride” had been implemented. The best part of this project for me was the realization that I was creating meaningful change for our beloved city and speaking for the voices of students who live in it.
Let’s be for real, over the next four years, each of us is bound to experience hurdles, but not everyone has the time to attend a meeting, write a long email, or go out of their way to make change happen. You shouldn’t have to. I want to be the person who reaches out first. And as I continue to get to know each of the 41 of you, I hope that I would make it genuinely easy to tell me when something isn’t working so I can bring it to the Macaulay team.
I’m asking for your vote because your vote gets me a seat at the table, but your voices are what I’ll bring with me there.
Oh and did I forget to mention my name?
It’s your friend, Pranaya.
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