Senior Vijeta Arora is the vice president of a student-led volunteer organization, PASATA. She took up this role due to her interest in management. She keeps all of the new members that join in check and makes sure they are working well with older members. 

Q: What is PASTA? 

A: PASTA is a non-profit organization and it stands for peers and students taking action. Pretty much of what it does is community projects, and we create kits for kids. 

Q: How did you come across this organization? 

A: My sister used to be in PASTA, and she was also on the leadership board. 

Q: What is your position in this organization? 

A: I am the new chapter vice president, so I monitor and make sure everything is running smoothly with all the new chapters that come into PASTA.

Q: What steps did you take to achieve this position? 

A: Last year, I was a mentor and PASTA really liked how I was as a mentor, and pretty much how PASTA works is that every new chapter there’s a mentor; after that, there’s a pod leader, and after that, there’s the new chapter’s vice president, which is what I am. They chose to make a new chapter vice president because they thought I could fill that role well. 

Q: What inspired you to take up a leadership position? 

A: Last year, I helped with the entire leadership process and I really liked that, just because I like the management aspect of things rather than the actual making of the kits and projects, and so [I was] really motivated to do PASTA and my entire role this year is management. 

Q: What are your personal goals as a leader? 

A: For me personally, my main goals are making sure all the new chapters are behaving properly, that they are punctual, creating high-quality projects, and making sure their mentors are actually helping them. When new chapters return next year, [I want them to] actually create projects independently and make them good projects. 

Q: How do you balance PASTA and being a senior? 

A: I dedicate a few days specifically to PASTA; for example I dedicate my entire Sunday to PASTA and I’ll dedicate an hour every other day to PASTA. 

Q: What is the process of new members joining the organization? 

A: First, they’d have to find a group of people to work with — around 4-6 people — and then after that, they have to do an interest form and attend the interest meeting. While they do the interest meeting, I analyze how they are, I’ll look at their body language, see how they are as a chapter, and how their dynamics work. I see if they meet my standards for joining PASTA. 

Q: How do you handle problems that occur with being student led? 

A: A lot of the problems are that people don’t trust us, and how we combat that is we like to make little to no mistakes, and we are very efficient. For example, for new chapters, we have mentors looking over them, the pod leader looking over the mentor, and I’m looking over the pod leaders, the mentors, and new chapters to make sure everyone is doing their job.

Q: Do you plan to continue helping PASTA after you graduate? 

A: Yes, I do. I either plan on interning for PASTA at some point, or being a part of Spiral. 

Spiral [a after graduation program specifically for PASTA alumni] is for students who want to be a part of PASTA and have graduated high school. This allows for past leaders, like Arora, to still be part of the organization. Being in a leadership position of a student-led organization has its challenges, but, in the end, for Arora, helping kids in need comes out on top.