With planning pep-rallies, managing budgets, and fostering a supportive and productive environment within the student leadership team, working as a BOSA member is no easy job. With the BOSA election drawing to a close on March 15, the new students working in the Board of Student Affairs have finally been named: Malin Petersson as president, Megan Xu as vice president, Jessica Lin as treasurer, and Allison Shaffer as secretary.
“BOSA, or the Board of Student Affairs, oversees the entire student [body],” student activities director Leslie With said. “It’s all four grade levels.”
Junior Malin Petersson will be representing the student body as BOSA president next year, stepping into the role with several years of leadership experience under her belt. Following her past three years serving as class president, Petersson feels ready to take on the challenge of a tougher role.
“BOSA president is the main [member,] and [they have] the role of representing all students,” With said. “[They are also] a member of the shared decision making committee of SDMC.”
Historically, the student body chooses the next president between two running candidates. This year, however, Petersson found herself in a unique situation.
“Only a current junior can run to be BOSA president, whereas the other positions can be from other class grades,” Petersson said. “No one from my grade wanted to run against me.”
Unlike class board elections, Woodside does not allow candidates to run uncontested for a BOSA position. As the sole running candidate, Petersson did her best to uphold this policy.
“I tried to get my friend to run against me, but she didn’t get enough signatures,” Petersson said. “It just didn’t make sense for me to go out campaigning against myself by promoting my ‘opponent’ who didn’t want to run in the first place.
Left without much choice, Petersson and With came to an agreement: as a modification of Woodside’s constitution, a prospective BOSA candidate would be allowed to run uncontested with the approval of the current BOSA leaders. Now with the president position secured, Petersson is not only ready to work as a leader for BOSA, but also as a collaborating member of the team.
“We all obviously have our different positions, but a lot of it is just a label,” Petersson said. “There’s no hierarchy system or anything like that. We work as a team. No one feels like they’re above anyone else.”
With the collective nature of the BOSA staff, their main goals for the school are agreed upon by the group as a whole.
“Next year, a big focus is going to be on finding a way to increase the spirit of the school overall,” Petersson said. “Also to bring in some more school pride for the freshmen, because we understand that it’s hard for them when they’re coming into a fresh environment.”
BOSA’s new vice president, Megan Xu, has taken up the role as the next step in her long school leadership journey. Though her newest role comes with many new and difficult responsibilities, her experience and passion for leadership from a young age suggests that she’s more than up for the challenge. To support her campaign, Xu has been sure to reach out beyond her close community to find voting support.
“Outside of leadership, this year especially, I’ve branched out and talked to more people in other grades, including underclassmen,” Xu said. “It’s been great getting to know a bigger part of the Woodside community. That really helps with gaining support and getting the word out there that I was running.”
During her time next year as vice president, Xu wants to ensure that school projects and events can extend to benefit the entire student body. Often, leadership initiatives and school events only spread among smaller student communities, but Xu sees potential to do better.
“I really want to focus on connecting the whole community, and making sure that everyone feels like they are all in on what’s going on at school,” Xu said. “[It shouldn’t be] just the leadership kids who are really at the head of spirit.”
Jessica Lin, BOSA’s new treasurer, also holds wide-spread school spirit as one of her top priorities. An important role for BOSA members is not only to represent the student body, but to bring them together as well.
“[I want to] help build bridges, because we have such a huge community of different people from different backgrounds,” Lin said. “I think [the] spirit and pride of our school is going to bring us together rather than divide us.”
Much like Xu, Jessica Lin took an interest in BOSA following her abundant experience in student leadership, working currently as the junior class treasurer and lead of the school wide spirit committee. While the role of treasurer centers specifically around budget management for the leadership staff, Lin hopes to make a difference for the school community as well.
“I just want everyone to be heard. And I think the best way to do it is by like, making sure that we have the funds to have fun.”
Lin has also taken an interest in initiatives beyond school event planning. Cultivation of school spirit and enthusiasm is an important part of the BOSA team’s responsibilities, but Lin hopes to look out for the students at a more foundational level as well.
“My primary goal is to make sure that Woodside continues to be like a safe place,” Lin said. “I [want] to make sure that we have funds going into mental health resources.”
Junior Allison Shaffer makes up the final member of the new BOSA team, taking on the role of secretary. As another experienced leadership student, she hopes to use her skills gained from the past year to her advantage.
“I’ve been in leadership for two years,” Shaffer said. “I’m the lead of the social media committee, and I make all the posts for the Wildcat spirit Instagram.[ I also do] class board meetings, and make fundraisers for the junior class.”
Shaffer looks forward to adopting greater responsibilities with her role, as well as stepping into the public eye of the school.
“I just love the thought of being able to talk at rallies, or dance at rallies, or make some sort of change,” Shaffer said.
As current juniors, these students have seen three sets of BOSA members before taking on the positions themselves. With time to observe the varying team dynamics shown over the years, Shaffer has a better idea of what to expect for the new group.
“Two years ago, BOSA was super diverse. There were a lot of different people from different groups, I think that worked very well,” Shaffer said. “This [current] year is very different; they’re all in one friend group… For us, we’re kind of a little mix. We all know each other, but we’re not really best friends. So it’ll be interesting to see how we can work together just like they did, because it’s been successful so far.”
With expectations to uphold, ideas for change in mind, and a great enthusiasm for student leadership, the new Board of Student Affairs is well-prepared and ready for action. While their official responsibilities have not yet begun, the proactivity and eagerness of these new students offer promise for a great 2023-24 BOSA team.
“We start [in] June,” Shaffer said. “We have to do pre-BOSA work, because we have to get everything ready for the school year before it all starts. So that starts [officially] June, but we’ve been talking now.”
