ASFM’s slogan, “Open Minds, Caring Hearts, and Global Leaders” sounds like it encourages us students to join in arms and fight for a better future, yet we are many times overlooked, and our opinions forgotten. While researching for this opinion piece, a fellow peer confidentially told me that one of her teachers stated on numerous occasions that our opinions are “worthless”. How should we strive for greatness when our own mentors think our judgement doesn’t matter?

I am thankful for this school. Thankful for the many opportunities it has given me. Thankful for the friendships I have created here. But as an important part of ASFM, I genuinely believe that we students should be considered before deciding on many different aspects regarding the school. It might seem insignificant, but were students ever asked if we wanted the 9th grade graduation cancelled? If we liked our baby pictures being removed from the yearbook? Were our entrepreneurship skills taken into account when negotiating the cafeteria contract? If “number” grades should be replaced by standard based grading in the near future?

The lack of student voice is partly admin’s fault, but I attribute this loss of communication to the students just as much. Most of us whine and complain but that is as far as we’ll go. There have been several times in which students’ voice has echoed through the office  such as Andrés Guerra’s scholarship criteria proposal or Gender Studies’ wording of the dress code, but how many more had to be rejected for those to be considered? There should be some middleground, a focus group created by students that advocates on the countless issues at hand. A group that represents the broad spectrum of the student body that would work with admin to choose what’s best for this school by the people who attend it.

When I watched Emma Gonzalez’s emotional speech after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, I began to reflect on the many unheard voices of ASFM students. Her viral speech at a gun-control rally serves as a call to action not only to authorities but also to scholars everywhere. We must not just demand, we need to act. If there is something we don’t like, then we should do something about it, not wait for someone else to do it for us. I believe that we have succumbed into a state of passivity that prevents us from taking action against anything that might seem a threat, but that must change. Student leadership is important, with well fundamented claims, because who are we to judge others when we ourselves refuse to act?