Aragon’s Service Commission is taking on new initiatives such as providing academic support for students and cleaning teachers’ classrooms.
Service Commission is a student-led group that assists with various duties, such as organizing and volunteering at school events and jobs including sports games, orientations and parking duty. The commission aims to teach students important life skills such as coordination and organization.
In Service Commission, the students are divided into five squads, each with one leader who ensures the jobs are done on time. The co-presidents, seniors Michelle Liu, Evan Yang and Elizabeth Ashdown, are in charge of running and organizing the whole commission. They hold a meeting with the entire commission once per month to explain members’ jobs for the upcoming weeks.
Liu’s experiences within the commission led her to believe that proper communication is crucial.
“[W]e have a new advisor and three [new] co-presidents … this year so communicating with each other and receiving feedback from the members is key to … having a successful service commission,” Liu said.
With the challenges presented by the pandemic, the commission has been working on several new ways to support Aragon staff and students. Over the summer, the commission worked with the leadership classes to help teachers clean their classrooms.
“Communicating … and receiving feedback … is key to … having a successful service commission”
“With COVID-19, a lot of teachers are really busy,” Liu said. “We noticed that it would be helpful if service commissioners could help [them], especially since in the past, we’ve never had an event related to helping teachers.”
Service Commission’s goal is to help everyone at Aragon, and its latest plan is a collaboration with the Homework Center to help students academically during Flex and after school. Although helping students is something the commission has always done, this is the first year it is working with the Homework Center.
“In the past years during FlexTime, we have students come in to make up [assignments] that they missed, and [the commissioners] would tutor the students based on subjects that they need help on,” Liu said. “We’re planning to work with [the Homework Center] this year because we were a separate thing last year and the year before.”
In the afternoon, three to six tutors are usually available to help in different subjects. Ashley Parham, the overseer of the Homework Center, has previously worked with Aragon students in the special education department and currently serves as the student success coordinator, a new role.
“[This position was created] because of the pandemic and the learning loss that happened over the previous 18 months,” Parham said. “School shut down in March 2020, so there’s a big concern of trying to help students recapture their lost time. “
However, tutoring isn’t an easy job, and there are many challenges that come with it.
“[The] number one [skill] is patience,” Parham said. “It can be frustrating … to teach someone who doesn’t see things the same way as you do, so having the patience of seeing or trying things a different way to help people understand the material … [is necessary].”
Despite the challenges, Parham believes that the help provided through tutoring has been beneficial for the students who are willing to cooperate with their tutors.
“School shut down in March 2020, so there’s a big concern of trying to help students recapture their lost time”
“We are seeing a lot of great changes,” Parham said. “We have a [reduction] of athletic probations. All the students who were on probation made their way off of [it] by having at least a 2.0 GPA [and] no more than one F. All of them were successful in … working their way out of the program.”
Parham also noted that students benefit in more ways than just learning school material.
“At first [students] typically have a shut-off energy,” Parham said. “Then all of a sudden, they start to understand it and … they gain confidence. They start to learn and it’s a rewarding feeling.”
Sophomore Bryan Villanueva comes to the Homework Center three times a week after school to work on the subjects he is most behind in. He has benefited greatly from the learning environment.
“[The tutors] have had an impact on me,” Villanueva said. “[It’s] how cooperative the tutors are [and] how willing they are to help me. I give most of the credit to them because without them, I don’t think my grades would be where they are now.”
Service Commission hopes to continue serving the Aragon community.
