Name: Kade Nelson Position: Freshmen Representative Date: 04 September 2019 Position Assessment: We got off to a good start at Core Camp. All of the Freshman Representatives from all the schools who attended core camp were grouped into one classroom to learn about facilitative writing and how we could impact our school as incoming freshmen. I personally really enjoyed the experience and I feel that I learned a lot from it. All week we were preparing for our “gift to camp”, which we had decided was going to be a bunch of funny random awards that we handed out to students, teachers, and schools. Our gift to camp went really well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Before the beginning of the school year we had Pow Wow. We split up all of the hours equally among the freshmen representatives and worked two people shifts. Overall t-shirt sales went really smoothly other than the fact that we could not order extra large or extra small sizes due to a miscommunication between the freshmen representatives and another asb group. Our most current event was Club Rush and BBQ. Club Rush tables were quickly set up and ready before students came to get their lunch from the BBQ. The BBQ was great other than the long lines to get food. So far all of the events have gone smoothly.
Standing Committee: I have not yet joined a standing committee but I plan to join one soon.
Special Committee: The special committee that I worked on was the BBQ. I was unable to help serve the food to students because I was working the freshmen t-shirt booth but I was able to help transport the food from the grills to the tables. After the BBQ was over I helped take down tables and the freshmen went to the MUB to wash dishes. We had a very efficient system going and we ended up finishing the dishes with plenty of time to get to class. Overall the event went really well. My only concern that I had was that the line to get food was too long.
Concerns: My only concern so far is that the line for the BBQ was very long so people had to wait in a long line for food and by the time most of the people got their food it was already cold.
Positive Comment: I think that Natalie did a phenomenal job on the black light rally. I was very entertained by the rally and a lot of the people around me seemed very entertained as well. She did a very good job of making sure the audience was engaged by adding games that involved audience members and by having each class cheer as a group. I think it was a very intelligent idea to give the audience members tape to put on their phone flashlights so they could show their class colors. I heard a lot of positive feedback from friends about the rally.
Change: One Change that I would like to see in leadership is a more connected work environment. Most of the freshmen sit with other freshmen and most of the seniors sit with other seniors so it makes it really hard to feel like we are one big class when we are separated by not only seats but by grades as well. My Impact: This year I want to impact my self by learning from my mistakes, by taking a break when I know that I am going to burn out, and I want to learn to respect the unexpected. I want to impact the school by giving off a positive vibe everywhere I go. I want to help others whenever I can. So far I have been doing my best to make sure that all the freshmen feel welcome at Ripon High.
ASB Report September 2019
Name: Kade Nelson Position: Freshmen Representative Date: 22 October 2019 Position Assessment: So far for the months of September and October the freshman class has been in charge of setting up many events. The freshmen representatives have had a few mistakes with our class t-shirt sales but we are currently fixing our mistakes and getting class t-shirts to people who have not gotten theirs yet. The theme of homecoming this year was “road trip”. The freshmen representatives chose the state Oregon and the theme hippie to go along with the theme. Three weeks prior to homecoming, the freshmen were at Makenzie Loechler’s house making decorations for the school and the float. Two weeks prior to homecoming the freshmen were at Gabby Delgado’s house making decorations for the float. The weekend before homecoming the freshmen were at Gabby Delgado’s house finishing their plans for homecoming. Overall homecoming was a success. The freshmen class got third place in spirit and fourth place overall. After the stress of homecoming was gone, the freshmen representatives had to start planning for the Halloween dance. We teamed up with the Ripon High School drama club and they put on a haunted house for the dance. Set up and clean up were both done very quickly and efficiently. The Halloween dance turned out really well and with more people than we initially expected. We had a few issues with get chaperones for the dance, but other than that the dance was not super challenging.
Standing Committee: I was a part of the fall sports senior night committee and I helped with a small part of the coronation committee. The fall sports senior night committee went really well. I was able to go to the water polo game and the volleyball game and I heard a lot of positive feedback from the seniors. I helped set up for the coronation committee a few minutes prior to the rally and filled in for gabbi to help clean up after the rally because she had an urgent lip sync battle meeting that she needed to attend to.
Special Committee: I have been a part of the tri tip special committee, the freshman homecoming committee, and Halloween dance committee. Recently I have been working on the tri tip committee. My team has done a great job at selling all of our tickets and going out as a team to sell our tickets. We communicated well, and I feel like I have grown closer to the other members of my group because of this event. The freshmen representatives have made a small committee with some of our fellow freshmen to get various events done. The freshmen representatives did not do a very good job at publicizing or planning the event weeks prior to the dance but we managed to have a fairly successful dance with more attendants than expected. Concerns: A major concern that I would like to address is the lack of help from upperclassmen in the leadership program. A number of times throughout the month of September and twenty-three days of October we have asked the upperclassmen for help and the information has been incorrect, causing multiple mistakes to be made. After seeing this happen multiple times, the freshmen need to do a better job of making sure that their sources are correct.
Positive Comment: I would like to give a positive comment to Kate Villegas. She has been extremely helpful to all of the freshmen representatives and to me especially in our journey so far. She is constantly texting us and checking up with us to make sure that we don’t forget anything and to make sure that everything is going well. I don’t know what we would do without her.
Change: One major change that I would like to see is much better communication with the freshmen class. I would like to see more balanced work between everyone instead of one person doing a majority of the work. Not only because it is unfair to the one person who is doing a majority of the work but because it is also unfair to the other freshmen who are not able to learn how to do things because they don't have the chance.
My Impact: Through the month of September and most of October I have made an impact by encouraging others to keep pushing to get their grades up (before the end of the first quarter) because the first quarter was about to end. I have tried to stay positive through my busy days and I tried to help others be positive as well. I have been trying to take some of the weight off my fellow freshmen representatives shoulders because they are all busy as well, and they have been doing a phenomenal job at getting work done and pushing through this month. I have been doing better at sticking to my core principles and I will continue to do so as the year progresses.
ASB Report November and December 2019
Name: Kade Nelson Position: Freshmen Representative Date: 15 December 2019 Position Assessment: As a freshman representative, I have worked with my fellow freshman class representatives in the past months of November and December to design and make our freshman class tree for the Holiday Night Rally and to prepare for winterfest. I was put in charge of one of the groups for the Holiday Door Decorations and it went really well. All of the wrapping paper, ribbons, and personalized pictures were cut a week prior to the event. Everyone showed up on time the morning that we were decorating the doors. We split into two groups so that we could divide and conquer. We finished all of our doors before the bell rang to get to class. I also helped student senate prepare for warm and fuzzy week. From my point of view, the week was a huge success. Every day I saw people dressed up and I only heard positive feedback from my peers. The freshman class tree turned out really well and I heard a lot of good things about the Holiday Night Rally. The freshman class representatives could have done a better job of getting our plans organized earlier so that everything would run smoother, but other than timing everything went well.
Standing Committee: During the months of November and December, I was only able to be apart of one standing committee which is the fall senior nights committee. I was able to make it to the senior night for Football and Cheer. It turned out well and I enjoyed seeing the families walk out on the field together and all of the posters that were made for football and cheer players.
Special Committee: During the months of November and December, I have been a part of many committees including, the Dude. Be Nice committee, the CASL Application committee, a committee for the creation of slides for the Valley Christian High School Presentation, the valentine heart committee, the annual yearbook rally poster committee, and the Door Decoration committee. The Dude. Be Nice rally went better than expected and I personally really enjoyed watching LJ (our Dude) get praised for all of his hard work. The CASL application committee worked well together, and evenly spread all the work between the members of the group I was in. The slides presentation for Valley Christian High School went really well but unfortunately I was not able to present my slide because we ran out of time. My partner and I have not finished the valentine heart project yet but it is going well. My groups yearbook rally poster turned out really well and so did the yearbook rally. As I have said above, the Door Decoration committee went really smoothly.
Concerns: A major concern that I have is lack of communication between the freshman class and with the freshman class. The freshman representatives need to do a better job of communicating and evenly distributing the workload. Some people are doing a lot of the work, while others get away with not doing much. This hurts everyone because the people who have too much work are always busy and the people who don’t do enough don’t get the chance to learn how to do things and they have a harder time accomplishing things when they do not have anyone to help them.
Positive Comment: The Holiday Night Rally went really well for the freshman class. I am proud to say that we were the only class to get a vote from the judges. The freshman class has started to grow closer with each other and we all get along really well so we work well together.
Change: I would like to see the freshman representatives and the upperclassmen interact more. Morty does a great job of making sure that the freshmen are not always sitting next to each other, but even when the freshmen and upperclassmen sit next to each other, they still don’t interact much. My Impact: These past two months I have made an impact by spreading positivity to everyone that I come across. I have done this because I know that this is a stressful time for everyone because of how close we are to finals. I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to donate my time for Community Hospice at the Gallo Center of The Arts on the first weekend of December.
ASB Report January 2020
Name: Kade Nelson Position: Freshmen Representative Date: 12 February 2020 Position Assessment: For the month of January the freshman class representatives had to work together to tackle the task of winterfest! Three weeks before winterfest we started to design the cart and get an idea of what we wanted the cart to look like. We began to organize our decorations so that we could see what we had and what we needed to buy. Freshman representative Abby went to Save Mart to talk to the manager about us using one of their shopping carts for winterfest. While she was there she also talked to the manager about the drop off date for the shopping cart. Two weeks in advance to winterfest, we had a meeting with Mr. Perez, who is the freshman class advisor, to make sure that we were on track and doing everything correctly. We asked Mr. Vigil if we could use his window for winterfest. We finalized our ideas for the gym decorations and the shopping cart, and we planned decorations for our window. The week of winterfest we Decorated the shopping cart at Freshman Representative Jaydin Krotil’s house. We made posters for the gym and for our window. And finally we decorated our section of the gym and our window. I went to the school early the morning of the judging of the windows to make sure that all of our decorations stayed up and unsurprisingly they were all still standing when I arrived. Overall, winterfest was a success even though the freshman did not win it was a great way for us to bond and grow as a class. Towards the end of January we contacted the company in charge of match-o-matics. We requested a social media post for match-o-matics so that we could publicize the event. We pushed out the surveys and had around two-hundred and fifty people take the survey. We began to sell them in early February and we are still in the process of selling the surveys. We met with the freshman class advisor, Mr. Perez, to start organizing the students vs staff basketball game. Once we are completely done with match-o-matics we will continue to work on the students vs staff basketball game. Standing Committee: I was able to go to the boys varsity basketball senior night against Riverbank which was a huge success. And I also went to the girls varsity senior night game against Hilmar which also turned out very well. I think that senior nights are a really great way for the seniors to get to enjoy their last year at Ripon High School and I hope that it will continue for years to come. Special Committee: I was a part of the talent show special committee during the month of January. We had to set up for the talent show a few hours before the talent show started. Mrs. Mortensen has said that she thinks that we should not buy food anymore for the talent show because of how expensive it was. It took around an hour to set up and forty-five minutes to clean up. Overall, it turned out to be a successful event. Another special committee that I was on is the Valentine Crew. I think that this is a very good event and I hope that we are able to do this for years to come because it is a positive thing that we can do to affect every student. It took me a little over an hour and a half to Finnish all of my hearts but I think that they turned out well. My partner, Emma Phelps, helped me a lot through this process by cutting out some of my hearts and putting the names of the people on them. Concerns: A concern that I would like to address is the lack of spirit from the freshman students at Ripon High. During winterfest we received third place out of four in spirit. This was not because the other classes did an extremely amazing job of being spirited but it is because the freshman class has a major lack of spirit. On the last day of winterfest only twenty-two percent of the class dressed up, this means that roughly sixty-six freshman out of around three hundred dressed up. Positive Comment: I would like to give a positive comment to the whole class. While I was listening to the speeches that Mrs. Mortensen gave to the class I really enjoyed what everyone had to say. They were all really thought out and they did not seem to be rushed at all. A lot of them made me laugh and I feel like I learned a few new things from most of the speeches. Even though I was nervous to say my speech and it kept me very busy, I am glad that we did this because I feel like it helped my public speaking skills a lot. Change: One change that I would like to see is a way to create more responsibility in the freshman class. I am not sure how this would work but I think that after the second semester the freshman class should get together and vote on a president and a vice president. The freshman would have time to get to know their class so the class would be able to vote for the president and vice president. These two positions would be filled by two freshman that are already in leadership. I think that this would create a lot more balance between the freshman class representatives because there would be people who are actually in charge of things instead of having to balance everything equally among all eight representatives. This would also allow someone to take the blame when something goes wrong instead of having one person mess up and everyone sharing the blame. My Impact: During the month of January I tried my best to be a positive role model to everyone around me. During the begging of the month, a lot of people were struggling because they just got back from a long break. I did my best to help my peers so that they could get back on track. I also tried to help out more within the freshman representatives. I decided to do the winterfest procedure form because I had not done one yet and everyone seemed busy. We ended up getting a surprisingly good grade on it.