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Since many of the current coordinators of our community service groups and other student organizations are graduating, a new generation of coordinators are elected or selected to fill their spot. As many of the old coordinators are well known in the community, the new coordinators are not as well known. To learn more about them, I made a brief profile for some of the new coordinators based on my interviews with them.
Roots & Shoots People: Maggie Ma and Minting Young will become the new coordinator of Roots & Shoots People, replacing me, Jacky Liu, and Alice Fiorito, who are graduating. Maggie and Minting both have been in the group for about a year.
For Maggie, her vision for the group is to have more opportunities to help the people in need in our community. She stated, “I also hope that we will be able to organize more trips to different parts of Guangzhou and more directly help out the people in need.” When asked if she’s nervous or not, Maggie replied that “I’m definitely nervous about being the coordinator because this is my first year leading a community service group. Additionally, our community service has very [few] people, so my job as the coordinator is to bring more people into our group.”
When asked about her vision for the group next year, Minting said, “I really hope that we can help build a stronger awareness for the lives or living conditions that others in our local community have. This group aims to allow students like us to truly connect with the locals, and in doing so, relate it to a broader context, perhaps to other people with similar living conditions all around the world. I hope that we can organize more group outings to give members the opportunity to interact with the community in and near Guangzhou.” Minting also admits to being nervous about being the coordinator, saying, “I was quite nervous at first, but adopting the role of a leader and assuming the new responsibility means that I must be confident, so with this mindset, I’m determined to be self-assured, motivated and passionate in order to properly lead this group.”
LIPHY: Jennifer Yang will replace Sara Quattrocchi and Nina Sepahi as the coordinator of LIPHY next year. Jennifer Yang has been in LIPHY for two years. Her vision for LIPHY next year is to “expand the type of publications that we make to create more variety, especially for those in Liphy who aren’t comfortable with writing and for the readers to have different material to use as entertainment and for learning English. Finally, I’d like to involve the AISG student community in projects such as photography contests or illustration submissions to accompany the articles and to make each edition of Liphy available for our AISG student population to read as well.” When asked about whether or not she’s nervous, Jennifer said, “I am a little nervous about being coordinator. I can be a little nervous around those that I am not comfortable with, and I want to be a good coordinator to keep the group moving in the right direction. There is some pressure that I have put on myself to perform well and that makes me a little nervous/anxious.”
Roots & Shoots Animals: Cindy Wu, Alison Liang, and Sung A Kim are the new coordinators of Roots & Shoots Animals next year, replacing Eileen Jeong, Dabina Seo and Nina Sepahi, who are all graduating. Cindy, Alison and Sung A have all been in R&S Animals for about two years and have been working as coordinators since this quarter. Their vision is to “keep working hard and raise more money to help more animals. Also, we would want to promote our group further for more people to join our group.” They all stated that they were nervous in some ways given that it’s their first time as coordinators; however, since they have a small group, they are not as nervous.
Crossroads: Agnes will continue as the coordinator while Javin Liu is replacing Gino as the other coordinator.
Javin Liu has been in Crossroads for about three years now. His vision as one of the coordinators is to “make Crossroads bigger and more popular to the AISG community. I want to expand—by that, I mean I want to make sure that Crossroads will be known in more places and we can raise more awareness for this service group.” When asking about whether or not he’s nervous about being a coordinator, Javin replied, “I am nervous in some ways. For example, nobody can know what challenges we are going to face in this following year.”
Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA): Nick Gennuso will be one of the new coordinators of GSA next year. Nick has been in the group for about a year. He envisions that GSA can continue to be “safe space for all people to be themselves” and also “educate the AISG community on LGBTQ+ issues and raise awareness. Nick also stated that he is somewhat nervous in that most of the other coordinators are already strong and responsible leaders, the expectation for him is higher and he worries that if he will reach it.
Media Crew: Beatrice Mai, Raven Hipolito, and Chantal Germain are the new coordinators of Media Crew, and will be replacing seniors Vedika Savalani and Ryan Bott. I interviewed Raven and Chantal about their thoughts.
Raven Hipolito has been in the group for about a year. Her vision for her group is to become more “confident and gain more experience in photography and film projects.” She stated she’s a little nervous because she’s not “the type to lead a group or assign tasks to people; however, activities involving photography and videography are things that I love doing.”
Chantal Germain has been in the group for about a year. Chantal’s vision for Media Crew is to do more projects which can be shown to the school. Chantal also stated, “I am not really nervous about being a coordinator next year because I have two other great coordinators that are very fit to lead, and I also think that the members we have are committed and willing to work hard.”
Connect4Cancer (C4C): Prerna Kanji and Alison Liang will be two of the new coordinators for C4C next year, replacing seniors Vedika Savalani and Jennifer Zhang. Prerna has been in C4C since the very beginning when Jennifer started it last year. Her vision for next year is to “gain more members and basically promote C4C as a group because we will lose a lot of our [senior] members. I also want to promote CHF [Children’s Hope Foundation] more so we know who we’re supporting.” She’s not really nervous about being a coordinator because “[existing coordinator] Jee Su and Ms. Navis are already there to support us. Jee Su already knows exactly what we need to do and how it’s been previously, and Mrs. Navis is really involved and supportive during all meetings and events run by the group.”
Peer Tutoring: Jimin Lee will replace Iris Xu as one of the coordinators of Peer Tutoring. Jimin has been in the group since the beginning of her sophomore year. She stated that her vision for her group in the future is “for people to help others who are in need in our community and learn the importance of cooperation.” Additionally, she hopes that by helping peers who are in need, students in Peer Tutoring can also learn how they can benefit from working and helping each other. When asked about whether or not she’s nervous, Jimin replied that “I’m not that nervous because I know that Peer Tutoring is such a welcoming group with the students who are willing to help each other.”
The English Connection (TEC): Prerna Kanji and Megan Harwood will become the new coordinators of TEC, replacing Michelle Zhuang, Karan Vasdev, and Aakaash Kanji.
Prerna Kanji has been in TEC for almost a year. She stated that her goal next year is to “promote TEC as a group which does meaningful service every meeting and that it’s different because the main purpose of it is not to raise money; instead it’s to help and engage with our local community.” When asked about whether or not she’s nervous, Prerna replied, “I was a bit nervous to be the coordinator as TEC requires a lot of work beforehand to organize trips and a lot of structure during our time at Lingnan which I didn’t really know how to do, especially in comparison to other groups who mostly do fundraising. But, after running a few meetings with Megan, I’m not nervous anymore.”
Megan Harwood has also been in the group for about a year. For Megan, her vision for the group is to see a greater consistency between the members of the group and the number of people who shop up at the university for their lessons. She believes that TEC is important because, through a variety of activities, TEC is able to “educate non-English speaking students in engaging ways.” Megan also stated that she’s more excited than nervous about being the coordinator because she’s can help to improve the group based on what she has learned as a member in the past year.
Migrant Link: Elizabeth Kim and Michelle Chen will replace seniors Queenie Hsiao and Soo Kyung Hwang. Elizabeth and Michelle have both been in Migrant Link for about two years. Their goal for the next year is to recruit more members and increase the number of outings. They both said that because of their participation in the group for the past two years, they are well aware of how it functions and therefore not at all nervous about becoming coordinators.
Pulse: Tanya Khanna and Winnie Choi will replace seniors Amy Choi, Dennis Liao, and Belle Feldmayer. I interviewed Tanya about her thoughts on her new position.
Tanya has been in Pulse for about three years. Her vision for the group is for the members to put as much effort as they can into events and to create experiences that our students will enjoy and remember as part of their high school experience. When asked about whether or not she’s nervous, Tanya said that she was nervous at first because coordinators have many responsibilities and she worries about something going wrong at the last minute; however, she also feels honored that she’s been trusted with the group that offers her support when she needs them.
NHS: Andy Jeong and Lisa Mo will replace Tiffany Chan and Eileen Jeong as coordinators next year. Andy Jeong and Lisa Mo have both been in NHS since March of this year. Although they are fairly new, they are both confident about leading the group. For them, they wish to emphasize and build on the importance of character in the upcoming year not only among members of the group but also throughout the student body. They admitted that they are both nervous for being coordinators since they’ve been newly inducted into the group; however, they are determined to keep the expectations of the group high, and are willing to put in time and effort.
HSU: Richard Van and Bonny Chuang will replace senior Iris Xu as coordinators of HSU. For this article, I interviewed Richard and asked about his thoughts on his new position.
Richard has been in the group for almost a year. He stated that his vision for the group continues being a light club that is relaxing but efficient. When asked about whether or not he’s nervous about being the coordinator, he said that “standing in front of group members doesn’t make me as much nervous as the responsibility that I carry on me as the coordinator.”
Business Club: Stanley Wang will replace Grace Tang as the CEO of Business Club.
Stanley has been in Business Club since he was in 9th grade. For Stanley, his vision for the club next year is for BRICS café to continue to provide a place where students can buy food and drinks, as well as provide a place where students can join to learn about business and practice running one. Stanley isn’t nervous about being the CEO; in fact, he is excited, adding, “I can shape the club for the better as well as contribute positively to our community.”
There are, of course, many other new coordinators that I was unable to include here. I encourage you to reach out to them and wish them the best of luck in their new jobs, as well as say goodbye to all of the coordinators that are either leaving or graduating, and thank them for doing a fantastic job.
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