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The Student News Site of Beverly Hills High School

Highlights

Highlights

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Student leaders take on responsibilities

Eleanor Bogart-Stuart culture editor
Lauren Hannani feature editor
Rinesa Kabashi staff writer
With many clubs and extracurricular activities at school come many determined leaders. As their interests later became their passions, some students took over the responsibilities of big groups with big goals.
One of the extracurriculars that requires a dedicated leader is Watchtower. Senior Andrea Di Battista, who is now editor-in-chief of the yearbook, was a sophomore when she first realized she was interested in joining the yearbook staff without knowing too much about it.
“When I was a sophomore, I came into Ms. Herbst’s room not knowing at all that I would discover hidden hobbies that are now passions of mine,” Di Battista said. “After joining yearbook, I discovered my intense interest for design and photography. These were things that I had in my life before, but never realized I was so interested in them or could even implement in school.”
Di Battista now helps the staff with yearbook pages, makes sure the other editors are doing their jobs and tries to maintain a “happy and fun” environment for the class where she can devote all her time to helping others. Although all this work can become overwhelming at times, Di Battista appreciates the challenges that come with taking charge of a large class.  
“I think being a leader at a young age can be very challenging as we are just learning how to deal with real life issues and situations, but it’s still so rewarding to make mistakes that I know would cause more damage if I was older with more responsibilities,” Di Battista said. “Being a leader can be considered hard, but I appreciate the chance to make all [of] these mistakes and learn from them now rather than later.”
However, the role of a leader is a position that has always come easy to ASB senior co-president Maytal Sarafian.
“For me, I think leadership has always been one of my strong suits. I have always been able to take charge and get a group of people together to accomplish a goal,” Sarafian said.
Despite being seemingly born to lead, running the student council hasn’t come without its hardships.
“Being in ASB is an extremely demanding job. As a member, you are expected to attend all events, fundraisers and plan dozens of school activities–all while facing a lot of criticism,” Sarafian said. “With that said, nothing compares to the feeling you get when an event you have been working on turns out to be a success. After a successful event and while receiving positive feedback by students, teachers, administration and parents, you feel thankful for having such a supportive community.”
Sarafian decided that she wanted to become president of ASB because of her desire to change some things about the school in order to make it better.
“I wanted to become president of Beverly because throughout my first two years in ASB, I was able to directly see the flaws of our school,” Sarafian said. “Because of this knowledge, I knew as president I could actually make positive change at our school.”
Many leaders, including DECA co-president Jessica Moghaddam, can’t imagine their high school experience without the clubs and extracurriculars in which they can learn from real-life situations and solutions.
“It’s a really surreal experience. I am so grateful to be able to lead a club like DECA, one that actually teaches kids about the real-world. I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Moghaddam said.
For Moghaddam, along with great leadership comes hard work and dedication.
“I’m making sure all the kids are good on the trips [by] verifying paperwork for all the students, managing funds and fundraising activities. Overseeing all other officer positions and keeping them in check; it’s really important our Secretary takes notes, our Communications is posting on social media and our Competition rep is teaching the kids how to compete,” Moghaddam said.
Senior Jonah Pourat, president of Service Learning, found it difficult to maintain a fun and interesting learning environment at all times.
“I was president for all of first semester, and it was a lot of work and preparation keeping the class engaged while making sure that there was always something for the students do,” Pourat said.
As Pourat sees his classmates grow every day, he feels like his position is definitely rewarding. He is able to be by the students’ sides as they discover what they want to do to help the world in the future.
“My favorite part about being a leader is seeing people want to be the change in the world and making a difference,” Pourat said. “It really makes me happy when I see a student take action and do the things that matters most to them. They can make a difference while doing something they love at the same time.”
 

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