By – Larry Liang

August 23rd, 2014

On August 19th, 2014 9:00 AM at a local Peet’s Coffee and Tea, a group of students from PLAY interviewed San Ramon mayor Bill Clarkson. The interviewers included William Fang, Andi Mo, Larry Liang, Edward Yu, David Si, Wesley Wang, and Michelle Mu.

Interviewing Mayor Clarkson gave us some very intelligent insight on how to expand the club, foster good leadership in our members, and accomplish the goals of our club. The very first question he asked us was what we wanted the club to do, or what we wanted to accomplish with the club. Although we knew that we wanted to promote this somewhat nebulous concept called leadership, we still had no concrete ways of bringing that goal to fruition. Mayor Clarkson said that we should figure out exactly the issues that we care about in the city of San Ramon, or even the Trivalley in general. He says that comparatively, our city is one of the least problematic in the bay area. We have a wonderful education system, income inequality is lower, and overall citizen happiness is high. In fact, our idea of initiating a tutoring service may not be all that useful, considering the standard of living that we already have in San Ramon. Thus, it is up to us as future leaders to know what we want to change about our environment, what could be improved in the city.

Mayor Clarkson suggested that we construct a survey to give to the club about what issues concern them the most. For example, he himself goes around the city every week interviewing one business in San Ramon, and he talks with them about things that are bothering them, or things that he could improve on as a mayor. I think that the next step after that would be to see how we could accommodate those concerns, and how we could help our club members to initiate projects to change the world around them. Whether or not they succeed, they will have had the experience to lead in a project of their own about an issue that they want to solve in their local community.

The mayor also suggested we look at some TED talks on leadership. TED talks are seventeen minute long lectures on one particular subject that may have the power to change the world as we know it. I think that finding the talks that not only provide a useful dearth of information, but also are accessible to kids in middle school and high school, will be something that is very important to the club as a resource for further development. Even with skills like leadership that depend mostly on practical experience to learn, having a good theoretical framework to base the experience on would definitely make learning easier and more efficient.

Here are two TED Talks on leadership to help you get started.

TED TALK: Simon Sinek tell us how great leaders inspire us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI0cJdOzUcQ

Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw