Project Experience
The I Wish Campaign
Selected as a Student Representative for Stanford University’s Challenge Success Program, I took the lead in giving teenagers a platform to share their experiences, to be seen as a person— not just a student. Targeting parental expectations, I proposed a new project to my school board. Facing drawback, I wrote a proposal, highlighting the need for this project to take place in order to give teenagers a platform to be vulnerable. Upon approval, I coordinated a day for 2,000 students to anonymously answer the question “What do you wish your parents knew” during advisory class. Gathering the wishes, I read every single one. Next, I coordinated a day for students and parents within my community to meet in order to film the 16-minute video, where they would read the wishes and give their honest reaction. Heartbreak, tears, and empathy were exemplified. Editing the video with iMovie, I shared it on social media and in advisory classes. As a result, the responses were no longer experiences that teenagers wish their parents knew, they were revelations that parents began to understand. Parents expressed that they grasped the divide in their communication. This opened once unspoken discussions, while establishing empathy for one another. As teenagers, our experiences fostered commonalities, situating us at the crossroads where our struggles intersect. I brought the experiences from the production to national platforms. Exchanges with editors from the National Association of Independent Schools blossomed into an article that highlighted the challenges teenagers faced from remote learning. An interview with a producer from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) evolved into segments on the importance of student experiences aired on NBC’s Nightly News and The Today Show. Today, the production has thousands of views and is posted to the Challenge Success website, where over 550 schools showcase and model it to encourage empathy across the nation. In addition, I launched a Challenge Success club to collaborate on projects that make others feel embraced to share their experiences.
CopyRight
Symposium
I worked with the Program Manager to coordinate a CopyRight Symposium with the UCLA Institute of Technology, Law, and Policy. We met with stakeholders, contacted trailblazers, then brought them in as panelists to address authorship and AI, community authors and cultural property, and more. During the event, I was in charge of checking in attorneys seeking CLE credit, referring to individual QR codes for each session, distributing CLE certificates as necessary, monitoring Zoom webinar sessions on the laptop to ensure no disruption, and switching the slides as necessary admist presentations.
Fundraising Drive
I coordinated donations stations around the city to raise canned goods and clothes for the food banks. For the first time, this annual canned food drive was extended past our school campus and into our entire community. I organized partnerships with Dollar Tree, Palladio Mall, and Grocery Outlet to host stations. I worked to promote the event across social media, with posters on campus, and directly to students. During the process, I organized family-run food trucks that incentivized free desert to those who donated. This raised money for corporate and family businesses amid the pandemic, and in the end, raised a record-breaking amount of donations.
Mista Vista
As Student Body President, I developed this event over the course of eight months. This entailed creating and overseeing 5 committees based on decoration, safety, and promotional areas then managing committee leads and planning documents. For the final event, I wrote and memorized a 15-page timesheet/script, then presented public speaking skills as the host of the two hour show. The event reached a record-breaking audience with a crowd of over 1,100 individuals and raised over $5,000.
Pictured: Me dressed as Effy from the Hunger Games for a promotional package.
Working on Wellness
I founded the Working on Wellness program with my school psychiatrist. This program is dedicated to generating accessible mental health resources in the form of informational videos with psychologist supervision. We conducted research into wellness strategies to cover in our videos. Topics target “reaching out”, “mindfulness”, “stress-management”, etc. We then gathered students to speak in the videos, before marketing them to the entire student body.
I Am A Teenager
Partnering with a psychotherapist, I spoke in a campaign regarding teenager hardships. Prior, we researched statistics regarding teenage mental health deficiencies, then wrote a script to empower our community to be more aware of the struggles teenagers are facing.
Credit/No-Credit Grading Policy & Color-Coded Waste Bins
I served as a liaison between students and the Board of Education. I gathered students’ feedback and concerns to give them a voice, promote unity with district-wide discussion/collaboration (e.g. planned a district talent show), and propose actions to improve the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. More specifically, during the pandemic, I drafted a 5 page proposal to implement a credit/no-credit grading policy to support students during the challenging time. This proposal overturned the district’s decision. In addition, I continuously lobbied for more sustainability practices within classrooms, such as color-coded with waste bins.