On Wednesday, Nov. 8, Pleasanton Mayor Karla Brown visited Amador to take part in a Q&A session with students. AV Librarian Erik Scherer and Journalism student Leo He (‘25) collaborated to host the event.
“I started planning the event with Mayor Brown in late September, and she agreed to come and talk about city affairs. Then shortly before the event, we found out that Mr. Scherer was planning on hosting a similar thing. We decided to cooperate and roll it into one event,” said He.
Many students signed up for Access in the AV Library to attend the panel and ask questions. The Q&A started off with a list of student-submitted questions, before going out to the crowd afterward.
“We gathered student questions through a form sent out a few days before the interview. Interested students could fill out a form to attend and ask one question. After the student questions, Mrs. Sklar’s civics class also had many great questions,” said He.
The mayor was happy to share her knowledge and interact with Pleasanton’s students, even preparing a short presentation to share after the Q&A about what her job entails.
“Hopefully, you’ll learn something. Hopefully [you’ll be] inspired [and] want to get involved,” said Pleasanton Mayor Karla Brown.
For many, the panel was a chance to learn more about Pleasanton and the workings that go into the town’s policies.
“I thought it was interesting to meet the mayor and hear her thoughts on different matters. It was overall a pretty nice opportunity to learn more about Pleasanton’s government structure and such,” said Shambhavi Singh (‘24).
Besides learning about its foundation and community goals, the Q&A also covered some of Pleasanton’s history, further connecting students to their town.
“I didn’t know that our city council put so much emphasis on keeping a rustic downtown. But I guess that’s why Pleasanton’s downtown feels so quaint. I live kinda close and don’t visit that often so the meeting the mayor inspired me to go check it out,” said Fengyi Ruan (‘24).
Mayor Brown was happy to interact with Amador’s students and share her experiences as mayor.
Many students signed up for the Q&A and prepared questions about Pleasanton’s foundational structures.
Competition Civics students asked further questions about Pleasanton’s government workings to tie into their class.
