Thousands of ASB students, hundreds of Disneyland rides, tens of sessions, millions of memories. Bonding with schools from all over California, ASB students attended CASL, a conference for the California Association of Student Leaders. To help students’ leadership abilities and learn from bonding with different schools, 19 leadership students flew to Ontario, California, from April 13-15. Along with the students, Mr. Jesse Armas, Mr. Anthony Muscarella and Mrs. Kari Ustaszewski volunteered to chaperone for the leadership group. 

Working in workshops at the convention, students participated in activities where they taught and learned leadership skills from each other. Attending a Meet the Pros session where students presented their strengths and activities of their schools, they shared different ideas with each other to bring home. Additionally, students attended meetings that discussed how to grow as student leaders and compared ideas to go through the planning for different ASB events. Students also reused old T-shirts to make them into blankets to be donated to animal shelters.  

“I think the best part [of the conference] is that the group of students that we take are all going for a reason,” Armas said. “Their goal is to make our school better. We’re in it to get ideas and looking for ways to tweak what we do.” 

Getting recognized for awards on the last day of the conference, the leadership program brought back the Outstanding Leadership Program Award and the Excellence in Service Award. Along with the leadership team, Student Visionaries of the Year also got recognized with the Outstanding Leadership Program Award. 

“It’s nice to apply for awards and get recognition,” Pranathi Sudharshan said. “That’s a way for other schools to showcase what they have and things we can bring back to our school. It shows us how privileged we are because some schools don’t have what we have.” 

Throughout the trip, leadership students connected with each other and other schools in California through various hourly sessions and activities that required working together on new ideas to improve their school’s leadership program. Getting out of their comfort zones and putting themselves out in a new experience, the students had the opportunity to grow closer to each other by listening to music and playing games prior to their sessions. During their sessions, students had to create a business in groups and present it to their peers, such as Brooke McKean, who created a fashion business called CASL’s Closet. In addition, they participated in other non-school-related activities, spending time at Disneyland and having a dance party in the hotel lobby.

“Before [the trip], Mr. Armas went around and asked people ‘How comfortable do you feel around this person?’ and ‘How well do you know this person?’ about everyone who was going,” Maddie Heap said. “And by the end of the trip, everyone’s percentages drastically improved. Everyone kind of grew closer to each other, and now everyone has inside jokes. Everyone will come up to each other in the class and outside of the class, and now we’re all kind of like a more close-knit family.”

Not only did the students improve their leadership abilities, but they also learned about themselves and experienced personal growth. Students learned to deal with negativity and non-welcoming situations by spreading positivity to others, and they presented themselves as valuable members of the leadership program. 

“My main takeaway learning from the workshop is how I can improve my mental health and translate that to being the leader so that I can improve myself first to help improve the student body,” Arnav Sapru said. “The main thing we learned was how being a leader is like a service to your community. So working to find better ways how we can best serve the school and the community is what I took away from it.” 

by SARAH CHOI