It was early August when Jesse Richmond received the news that his 2024–25 school year would be changed. When he hung up the Facetime with CHS’s Dean Marci Tuzinsky, he felt an overflow of excitement and trepidation for what lay ahead of him – taking over Maneesha Mankad’s forum.
With many changes in the Ann Arbor Public School district this year, the forum program at CHS was not promised to remain the same. This year, a change in leadership has occurred in three forums: Jesse Richmond, Marcy McCormick and Liz Stern are stepping into the roles of previous leaders, Maneesha Mankad, Luciana Qu and Dianne Dudley.
When Richmond learned he would be leading a forum, he began to wonder what path he should take for his group. Encouraging all of his students to take on leadership roles and be involved in the forum was his first priority.
“I’m never going to be Maneesha, and there’s just always going to be things that she does better than me,” Richmond said. “I have some concerns about that, but I also see it as an opportunity to do something new.”
He is especially excited about the introduction of the TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Life of Students) program CHS brought into forum this year. TRAILS focuses on the mental and emotional health of students through lessons and activities.
“I think that it’s important to get the opportunity to talk about different tools and strategies when you’re in high school, so you can be prepared for them when you grow up,” Richmond said. “[TRAILS offers] valuable skills that I’ve seen help my own life, and I’m excited to spread awareness of them with high schoolers.”
Mankad, a forum leader and math teacher for the past decade, made the difficult decision to step down this year and hand off her forum to Richmond due to personal reasons. She sees forum as one of the backbones of both students’ and teachers’ experiences at CHS and misses the opportunity to keep up with her group of students.
“Forum is where the students start to feel a sense of belonging,” Mankad said. “It’s a very relationship-based school, and forum is what cements those relationships.”
She deeply enjoys seeing the development of students throughout their high school career. For Mankad, seeing how each student grows in confidence and maturity is one of the most fulfilling parts of being a forum leader.
While trusting someone new with her forum group was an initial concern for Mankad, she has nothing but confidence in Richmond’s ability to lead.
“Jesse has such a great personality,” Mankad said. “He’s such a thoughtful individual; he brings thoughtfulness and kindness to everything he does, and he’s very generous with his time and spirit. I have absolute confidence that he will do the best job.”
Another change in leadership came to the Qu Forum, with McCormick taking over while Qu pursues a master’s degree in computer science.
For McCormick, forum is based around three themes: connection, leadership and service.
She feels that connection comes from feeling that there’s a space for you. There are people that care about you and that you’re going to get to know on a deeper level than just your classmates.
Leadership comes from the opportunity to be a leader in a small group. McCormick feels that by 12th grade, students have taken a huge leadership role in their forum, including leading forum bulletins and introducing younger students to the complex atmosphere of our school.
The last theme McCormick has observed is service. Students are given the opportunity to give back to the community, engage in service programs and be of service to each other in many ways.
As McCormick navigates her new role as a forum leader, her forumettes have guided her the most.
“They have been so supportive of helping me figure out how to run a forum,” McCormick said. “I’m kind of like a student in that aspect. I’m going to learn from the formettes what worked, what didn’t work and what they want their forum to be. We’ll all figure it out together.”
Unlike McCormick and Richmond, Liz Stern has been a forum leader in the past. This year she leads her fourth forum, taking over Dianne Dudley’s Forum due to Dudley’s switch to exclusively teaching online.
“I love teaching all the classes that I teach,” Stern said. “But forum is definitely the only place where you’re going to see kids running around in the woods playing sardines.”
Similarly to Mankad, Stern deeply enjoys seeing and being involved in students’ growth and development throughout their time at CHS. Stern also enjoys how each forum differs and how students with different backgrounds come together to create a unique group.
“It’s so interesting how every forum has their own personality,” Stern said. “They kind of come together in a way that is different from all the other forums.” Stern said.
She hopes to expand on each student’s uniqueness and foster a supportive environment for each forumette.
While the 2024-25 school year comes with many changes, including to the beloved forum program, students have nothing to fear as three new strong and supportive leaders are full of anticipation for what this year holds.
