After four years of working as the activities director, Tiffany Ayala decided to take on a new position as assistant principal, which meant someone needed to take over for her. That new person is Natalie Richards. Ayala left the position because she felt that she would have more time to spend with her baby having that new job. When leaving her ASB director job, Ayala felt sad. “I felt that it was a bittersweet move. I was sad to leave my students because 4th period was the best part out of my workday and I always put a lot of time and effort into preparing these students for the activities, but I also felt excited to work at a new capacity.”

Richards attended Monte Vista Christian high school located in Watsonville, CA. For college, she attended Azusa Pacific University which is near Los Angeles. The other two universities she went to were the University of San Francisco and San Jose State University. While at those schools, Richards majored in liberal studies, Spanish, and educational leadership. Those majors are very helpful for her job, especially educational leadership. “My experiences at those universities were very life changing. That was the time in my life that
I grew as a person the most,” said Richards.

Before becoming the new activities director, Richards was working at Castroville Elementary School as an assistant principal. She worked there for seven years, right after getting out of college and worked there as a teacher too. “I loved my previous job. I really liked the community and the students. It prepared me well for running activities here at this school,” she said. She left because she wanted to work with older kids at a high school. Knowing Ayala, from being classmates at San Jose State University, allowed Richards to hear about her work and experiences as the activities director. Richards thought she would like the job and she ended up applying when she heard that the position was open.

Starting this job, Richards knew that she was going to like it because she always saw herself working with students, even if it wasn’t particularly in ASB. The reason for her working here is that she is passionate about developing AHS leaders. “I chose this position because I had previously worked with AHS students and loved it. I wanted to work with AHS leaders and invest in them because they are so invested in their school,” she said. After working here for some time, Richards saw how well she liked her job. “I really like it. It’s more challenging than I expected, but when your job is what you love, it doesn’t feel like work,” she said.

Plenty of the ASB students approve of her as their new Activities Director. “I think Mrs. Richards is a very nice person who has the potential to better improve leadership in Alisal,” said senior, Anna Moreno. “Mrs. Richards is such a little person with a big goal. She wants to make Alisal better than it already is, she is determined and so energetic. With Mrs. Richards here, Alisal is going to have an amazing future!,” said senior class president, Timothy Maravillo.

Richards’ responsibilities include Link Crew and organizing the events for this school with the help of her students. Some events she organizes with her students, are rallies, school dances- such as the Back to School Mixer, Winter Ball, and prom- and more events, like homecoming. She is responsible for Link Crew, which is a group of students that try to get freshmen more open to becoming less shy and participate in school, like in clubs or events,such as rallies and going to dances. She enjoys her job so far because of her students and the school. “I like how much pride there is at Alisal. It makes me feel like I am a part of something bigger than myself. The students from Alisal are very impressive,” said Richards.

This year, Richards did something different. She broke

up the ASB students into commissions and each commission plans different events for the students to enjoy throughout the year. She did this to be more efficient in their work. “For the most part it is new students and I felt like breaking them up into commissions would allow for the returning students from last year, best lead the groups more efficiently,” said Richards.

By Patricia Orozco