For Cambridge Rindge and Latin School seniors Eva Asraf and Zihaam Jama, receiving their diplomas also marked completing their year of service as student representatives to the School Committee.
Cambridge high schoolers have served as student advisors to the School Committee for decades. The role was made official in 1971 when Massachusetts established a student advisory council as part of a broader student empowerment movement in education. Glen Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, was a member of the School Committee when the first cohort of student representatives served, and said he has witnessed students be “terrific and effective” in their advocacy.
For some former student representatives in Cambridge, serving on the School Committee was the first step in their political careers, Koocher said, including Bill de Blasio, former Mayor of New York City.
Jama and Asraf decided to run for school committee as juniors, motivated by their experiences in other extracurriculars and a bond they shared from playing sports (Jama participated in softball and basketball, Asraf fencing and tennis).
Jama was the president of the East African Club and held a leadership position in the Students of Color Coalition. She said the latter taught her public speaking skills integral to serving on the committee.
Asraf was president of the South Asian Club and was a part of the Cambridge Youth Council, an organization of Cambridge teenagers dedicated to discussing city policy and designing projects to affect change. She said the CYC was her “first introduction to government” and it piqued her interest in the inner workings of school systems, the city council, and the school committee.
They ran as a slate — students can run together or as individuals — and made videos of elaborate skits where they interacted with students in different grades, which Jama said set them apart from other candidates. Asraf said she thought running jointly with Zihaam “really helped us secure our roles.”
Milestone moment
One of the milestones Jama cited about their tenure on the committee was their advocacy for non-binding votes for student representatives. The two became the first cohort of student representatives in many years to exercise a non-binding vote on the committee, a decision that was made in 2021 but solidified in a motion from a committee meeting last October. Jama and Asraf could cast symbolic votes on committee policies without changing the outcome directly.
David Weinstein, current School Committee Chair, has served four terms on the School Committee and was a part of the group that first instituted the non-binding votes, as well as a member of the committee that reinstituted the policy. He said the non-binding votes are a way of “acknowledging that our student members really have a valuable perspective to share.”
Asraf called them “a step in the right direction, because it already showed how much more our voices mattered.”
Asraf and Jama were also instrumental in discussions surrounding substitutes for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), after a statewide vote eliminated the exam as a graduation requirement in the fall of 2024.
“Eva and Zihaam were also very thoughtful about connecting with other students and really trying to understand what the experience was that other students were having,” Weinstein said.
Other members of the School Committee also spoke highly of the student representatives. “One of the things that I really appreciated is their willingness to engage in difficult topics, and always with a positive view, a constructive view,” Vice Chair Caitlin Dube said.
Dube spoke to the importance of continuing to elect student representatives to the committee. They are the “main line to what’s happening in classrooms, and also their experience as people who’ve grown up in the schools is invaluable,” Dube said.
In the fall, Jama will study behavioral neuroscience, initially at Northeastern’s California campus. She said her time on the School Committee imbued her with the confidence and desire to spend her first semester of college across the country.
Asraf will study political science at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She said, “I’m really interested in educational policy specifically and I think a lot of that stemmed from School Committee.”
The Committee’s next student representatives are rising seniors Imme Goode and Maia Shen. “They’re great people, and they’re very smart, and they have such good ideas,” Asraf said, adding that “it can be a lot” to join the committee as a senior and it’s important to “learn to manage your time.”
Jama’s advice for her successors is: “Don’t stand down. If there’s something you need to say, say it, don’t feel shy and don’t feel nervous about being up there,” Jama said.
A stronger
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