With the new year comes a new wave of school-wide, student body-wide issues, and four new representatives to tackle them. The class representative serves as the voice of their entire class, so what prompted freshmen class representative Tyson Upshaw and sophomore class representative Amy Ernst, to run for such a large responsibility?Upshaw, originally from Canton, Ohio has no prior experience in student government. However when he arrived at NYU Shanghai this year, he fell in love with the diversity on campus.“Back home, there wasn’t much diversity, so once I got here, I immediately knew I wanted to play a larger role in such a diverse school,” Upshaw said. He didn’t have much knowledge on what it meant to be a class rep prior to running for the position. He did know though, that being in such a position meant acting as a leader for his class and being able to reflect on what his class wants. Even though he’s only been at NYUSH for about a month, he’s already noticed some things he wants to work on. “In the freshmen class, cliques formed quickly. I’m not saying having a foundational group of friends is a bad thing, I would just like to encourage my class to stay open minded when it comes to friendship. I want to advocate for people being open. Secondly, I don’t think First Year Dialogue (FYD) is taken seriously enough. There is so much value in what our Orientation Ambassadors share with us and not many freshmen realize that or take it as seriously as I think they should,” Upshaw said. Amy Ernst, originally from Grapevine, Texas, also is taking on her first student government experience with her class rep position. She didn’t know much about the position, but she wanted to be in a leadership role so she could help with the growth of the community. Last year, she ran for a position in the events committee, but ultimately wasn’t chosen, another factor that drove her to run for class rep. As class rep, Ernst really wants to focus on the NYUSH community. “This year, I want to work on class integration so that seniors can meet freshmen and vice versa. I also want to open up the community more so that even study aways feel more a part of it,” Ernst said. This article was written by Isabel Adler. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: NYU Shanghai