Around campus, leaders are selected through strong peer and teacher relationships

Photo by Anika Kapasi

Falcon leaders stand out by forming strong relationships with their peers and mentors around them.

As junior orchestra lead manager Tejas Tirthapura rushed around the music office grabbing music sheets to ensure that the school orchestra had a successful afternoon rehearsal, he ran through the duties he’d assigned to the other managers the night before, such as setting up the number of chairs and stands needed for each ensemble.

Tirthapura is just one of many student leaders on campus, serving in various leadership positions in clubs, classes and school programs. Student leaders, chosen in a variety of ways, focus on creating positive environments for their students to learn and thrive.

Orchestra managers chosen based on music directors’ discretions

In the school orchestra, there are three types of managerial roles: ensemble managers, lead managers and outreach managers.

Lead managers work closely with the music directors — Beth Nitzan, Jason Shiuan and Micheal Boitz — to help plan events such as concerts and rehearsals and ensure they run smoothly. Outreach managers handle the social media efforts on Instagram and YouTube, focusing on promoting the programs. Ensemble managers are in charge of the four ensembles in the program by recording attendance and handling music sheets. 

The manager team as a whole works on service projects such as providing free lessons to freshmen during tutorials. They also try to assemble chamber groups and plan on holding a benefit concert in the spring.

This past year, 20 managers were selected by the music directors out of the roughly 30 who sent in a written application, where students detailed why they want the position, what problems they see in the program and how they plan to address these issues. 

Peer evaluations from a current manager or principal player also are required for an applicant, allowing the directors to get a student perspective of prospective managers. Along with evaluations, applicants need to interview a staff member on campus on how to be a successful leader.

“I think the selection process is dependent on the leadership seen by directors,” Tirthapura said. “The positions are primarily based on the work you did as an orchestra member the year before.” 

Students who make an effort to lead, whether by example or by “going above and beyond even without the title” are able to build better relationships with the directors and be more likely to earn the positions, he said.

Band drum majors strive to be impactful role models

The band has five levels of leadership roles: drum majors,  brass/woodwind/percussion captains, head managers, managers and section leaders. Band leadership positions are chosen through the same process as orchestra and have similar responsibilities.

Music directors Boitz and Shiuan alongside percussion teachers Sean Clark and Chavadith Tantavirojn work together to decide on the leadership team. According to senior drum major Petr Tupitsyn, drum majors are the link between the students and staff, so maintaining a strong relationship built on trust and prior work ethic with the directors is important for acquiring a leadership role. 

A major role model for him was Class of ‘21 drum major Isaac Sun, to whom he looked up to during his freshman and sophomore years. He loved Sun’s confident energy and social skills as a drum major, which helped him realize he wanted to do the same for his younger peers.

“I love that I can be in a place where I am welcomed, while also being in a position where I can influence people for the better,” Tupitsyn said. 

Drama leadership plays important roles in each division of theater: ComedySportz, Drama club and drama classes

The drama program has two major leadership groups: the drama board, comprised of eight students who act as drama club officers, and drama leadership, which is a combination of the drama board, the two ComedySportz captains and drama department head Benjamin Brotzman. 

ComedySportz captains, who lead the program’s improvisational comedy group, are simply selected by the previous captains.

“Most likely people who have been in ComedySportz for more than a year, or whoever basically just shows the most devotion string, will be chosen,” drama board and leadership secretary junior Ashly Henry said.

The drama board, on the other hand, handles both club events and student induction into the International Thespian Society, an organization that provides student members with scholarships, awards and grants. The drama board officers are chosen through by the previous board members and Brotzman, where students vying for the position first give a speech about their qualifications, visions and goals for the drama program to all the members of the program. They then answer interview questions for around 15 minutes from the previous board. Ultimately, Brotzman and the graduating students of drama leadership determine who is most fit to be a part of drama leadership.

“The [graduating senior leadership students] understand what it truly means to be on drama leadership and the commitment, passion and determination needed to succeed in the positions,” said junior Arushi Maheshwar, the drama board and leadership president.

Together, drama leadership focuses on planning productions such as the fall play, “The Crucible,” managing various aspects like play’s casting, technical direction and props.

“The best part is having a platform where you can inspire others to act well for the good of theatre. You put the department ahead of yourself and you truly act for the good of the entire department,” Maheshwar said. “By being a part of leadership, I get to help tell the world that theater is not just about telling stories, it’s about changing lives, and inspiring others, as well as telling everyone’s story.”

Speech and debate president works to improve club’s culture and relationships between officers and students 

Speech and debate officers are selected through an interview process conducted by adult mentors and past officers. 

Senior club president Anushka Sankaran was inspired by her brother — the club president from the Class of ‘20 — to join the activity. Sankaran believes it is necessary for past officers to be a part of officer selection to provide a student perspective.

“There are definitely people who act differently in front of coaches, so past officers can provide a student opinion,” Sankaran said. “Officers also have a lot of time commitment, so they can give coaches a look at whether or not a prospective officer can dedicate the required time.”

As president, Sankaran strives to improve student-officer relationships, especially for newer members. By increasing the number of captains from three to five and creating lesson plans, she hopes for students to feel more comfortable and express their feelings with officers in order to create long-term interest in speech and debate.

Going into competitions, Sankaran also wants to increase participation; by encouraging officers to check in with students, she hopes to make members feel more supported.

“When I was a freshman and came to speech and debate, my brother was one of the officers and it was just him and his friends,” Sankaran said. “They were these really big, tall, scary guys so they were very unapproachable. Since then, we’ve tried to be really friendly, and it’s really fun just because people are much more comfortable talking to each other this year.”

As the voice for students at the school, ASB officers’ democratic selection process is essential 

The second-period leadership class taught by Kristen Cunnginham consists of ASB officers, class officers and various commissions including dance, outreach, rally, spirit and tech. Class officer positions are determined through a class wide vote each spring, while commission heads are determined with an interview with ASB officers.

ASB officers are selected by a school-wide student vote. Students running for ASB officer positions often campaign on social media, put up posters around the school and directly message students asking them for feedback. 

ASB president Mason Wang, a senior, feels that building as many relationships with peers as possible was crucial to his election success last spring.

  “The general idea is that we want to get as wide of a reach as possible, and just to have your face shown over and over again,” Wang said.

Throughout his campaign, Wang discovered that by being forced to present himself to students and make himself relatable as a candidate, he was able to reflect on himself and his goals, which allowed him to further focus on how to further serve students. 

The ASB works with the administration to make more impactful, school-wide changes — changes that he didn’t have the voice or ability to make as a class officer. By sitting in on school board meetings and voicing the students’ opinions, Wang has thus far been able to help add free feminine hygiene products to bathrooms across campus, partner with the Wellness Center by working toward advertising its events through social media and repaint parking lot lines.

“Leadership has a wide reach over the school, whether that be through Instagram accounts, announcements, admin announcements, emails, etc,” Wang said. “As ASB, we are in a position where we can work with the admin, and actually make changes at a school-wide level.”

MSET leadership roles built trust, work ethic and dedication to the program

At MSET, the school’s largest robotics team, all officer positions besides co-presidents, which are chosen through a student vote, are decided by adult mentors and the two former club co-presidents. Within MSET, there are four teams: MSET Fish (649) — a First Robotics Competition (FRC) team — and MSET CuttleFish (6165), MSET JellyFish (7390) and MSET BettaFish (7641), the three First Tech Challenge (FTC) teams. Each team has their own subteam officer positions; these roles are often based on participation from previous seasons along with experience and dedication to the team. However, the club as a whole is led by one co-president from FRC and another from FTC.

Subteam officer positions, such as electronics, hardware, outreach and software leads, manage the progress and members of their respective subteams, so experience and cooperation are essential.

 Contrarily, co-presidents focus more on the organization of the club at a higher level, working with mentors to choose subteam leads, sort out competition logistics and organize other club-wide activities. 

“A lot of what the team leads does affects the club as a whole, so it’s important that the entire club supports and trusts them,” FTC co-president senior Trevor Leung said.

Journalism editors aim to foster strong relationships with students to find success in the program

The five editors-in-chief of the Talisman yearbook and the four editors-in-chief of the Saratoga Falcon newspaper are decided through both a staff election and a final decision by the respective advisers: Megan Laws for yearbook and Michael Tyler for newspaper

Due to the copious amount of work required by both aspects of the program, section editors — who are chosen by editors-in-chiefs — help lead by managing specific aspects of the programs. The Falcon editors-in-chiefs divide all 75 newspaper students into two class periods, and then into section editor, manager or reporter roles. 

These  candidates fill out an application describing their qualifications, plans for the next year if they are to become an editor and what they have learned from their previous year in yearbook or newspaper. The editors-in-chief then pinpoint who they believe is best suited for the position.

“Editors-in-chief choose the section editors because they directly work with them, so having strong writers and dedicated staffers fill these positions is crucial for creating a well-functioning editing process for the yearbook,” senior yearbook editor-in-chief Ruemmler said.

As for the five yearbook editors-in-chief, Ruemmler explains that they are chosen based on their work ethic, leadership capabilities, experience in yearbook and character. She noted that clear communication with classmates is needed in order to do the job well. 

“If the staff in the class connected with you well and trusted you, then naturally they would be more inclined to support you in a leadership role,” Ruemmler said.

While the programs differ in structure, newspaper editors-in-chief also aim to foster friendly relationships and clear communication with staff. 

“I love that I am able to help the new members in newspaper, like my editors-in-chief in my sophomore year did for me,” Falcon editor-in-chief Nidhi Mathihalli said.

Mathihalli said that when she helps students in her class, she is able to form a stronger connection with them.

“While working with the newer members, it’s really fun to see what kind of questions they have, especially because those are the exact same questions that I had when I was new to the newspaper program,” Mathihalli said.

In comparison to when she was a new member in the program, Mathihalli now writes far fewer stories, but has found that editing stories and overseeing the class are equally important to the success of the newspaper.

“A leader is someone who might not do the most work,” Mathihalli said. “But at the end of the day, they are the people who are encouraging other people to reach their limits and do the most and best work they possibly can.”