BOARD SPOTLIGHT

Affinity Council

Throwing multi-colored powder into the air, students participate in the South Asian Student Association’s first Holi celebration at Hockaday. Hindus celebrate this festival every year around March, signifying the beginning of spring. On March 24, SASA invited all Upper School students to join them in this cultural tradition.

“I really enjoyed the experience and had a blast celebrating my culture with the school,” sophomore Dithyae Devesh said.

Starting as an Eastern Religions and Philosophies special interest group, SASA has been a student association for the past two years. To showcase their culture, SASA hosts events and assemblies throughout the year. On March 28, SASA planned an interactive assembly for the Upper School student body.

“We have students from every grade running different parts of the assembly,” Senior CoPresident Jayna Dave said. “We want to talk about the South Asian identity, but mostly we are going to focus on the fashion show and dance to showcase our South Asian culture in a more artistic way.”

SASA hopes to continue spreading awareness for their culture across the school community.

“Especially in a predominantly white school, it’s so important to have this community that celebrates our different traditions and our culture with each other,” Co-President Nina Dave said.

Hosting the fashion show at the assembly, sophomore Anya Ahuja said she loves being a part of SASA and is excited to bring more diversity to the community through assemblies and future SASA events.

“SASA not only provides immersive experiences for others to learn more about South Asian culture, but it does so in a way that allows the South Asian students themselves to be involved and take pride in their traditions,” Ahuja said.

By Ambyr Baker | Sports Editor

Since its founding in the 2021-2022 school year, the Affinity Council has served as a liaison between the student body and administration regarding diversity and inclusion.

The council sits as one of the boards on the Upper School Student Council and its leading chair is elected internally. In total, the the council comprises 12 representatives who are established leaders of their respective affinity groups. Claire Cothren and Aisha Ashraf are faculty sponsors for this school year.

Affinity Council Chair senior Princess Ogiemwonyi said she values facilitating important conversations to create change for future students.

“I was inspired to apply for chair last year because I want to advocate for more student representation and give my peers a place to voice their opinions in a productive manner,” Ogiemwonyi said. “I have learned so much about myself by being on the council over the past two years.”

Senior member Nina Dave noted the differences between the Affinity Council and the Student Diversity Board.

“The main difference between us and SDB is that SDB effects change through discussions and bringing mature subjects for the students to talk about,” Dave said, “whereas Affinity Council effects more active change through taking issues from the students and reporting them to administration.”

Dave said her favorite aspect of the council is problem-solving with a group from various identities and backgrounds while she discusses issues that directly affect the student body.

Ogiemwonyi said affinity and connection among members of the student body is important to building a cohesive community. Thus, the council hosted multiple events this year to encourage this attitude.

“Recently, we hosted the Affinity Council Stop-by to hear what students wanted from Affinity Council and how our group could better help the student population,” Ogiemwonyi said. “We had questions on poster boards and people answered them for a cookie, and the data we received was very helpful.”

Using this data to see the school from the student perspective, the council works with administration to improve the student experience.

Dave said she continues to look forward, even past her time in high school.

“I hope that in the future we can connect individually with students, not just through affinity groups,” Dave said.