In the 10th edition of WSPN Goes Clubbing, Guest Writer Joey Fay interviews Student Advocacy Committee leader Zack Goldstein.
What is the Student Advocacy Committee?
“The Student Advocacy Committee is a club where we try to find the student needs, and we try to work out how we can solve those issues in the school throughout maybe hosting events to bring the community together or maybe raising fundraisers,” Goldstein said. “Or as we did last year, a lot talking to the administration, trying to make compromises and make sure the needs of both groups are being heard and bring them together.
How did this club begin?
“I know [the club] has been there more since my time,” Goldstein said. “It’s definitely been there for a while so I’m not really sure when it began. Originally, when I was here, it was called the Climate Committee and we changed the name because it was pretty misleading. There were definitely, me included at first, people who came into to the club thinking it was about the environment of the world rather than the school. So we wanted to change that just to make it a little bit more clear.”
Why should someone join the club?
“I think they should join the club if they really want to have a way to work with the administration or voice their needs,” Goldstein said. “Or just feeling like there are small things in this school that maybe they have an issue with or sometimes maybe there’s some conflict that they want to resolve and they are looking for a way to talk with other students who may have that experience, and hopefully it can be resolved through talking with the administration or hosting events.”
What are meetings like and how often are they held?
“We meet every other week at 8 a.m. in [English teacher] Gwen Goldin’s room,” Goldstein said. “Typically what our meetings are, we’ll first talk about or go around and mention something good that’s happened over the past week like some improvements for school or maybe something that’s an issue or a problem or a slight negative change, and then we’ll start talking about those. We had some agenda for the past meeting or some information we’ll talk about that as well and then once we start talking about the issues, we’ll try to brainstorm ways to resolve them.”
What is one goal that you have for the club this year?
“I think we have a couple goals. One idea we’ve had this year is for the different heritage months throughout the year.” Goldstein said. “Our plan is to put up more posters to celebrate the heritage months and make sure people are aware.”