Nancy Pelosi’s assembly garnered a wide spectrum of student responses. Staff Photo by Lauren Yang. 

By Lauren Yang and Cameron Kay

Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoke at an all-school assembly today, prompting discussion about gender equality and various political issues. Many students felt as if they left the assembly with a deeper understanding of politics and government in general.

After Editor-in-Chief of the Coat of Arms Davis Rich and Design Editor and Outreach Director Denna Nazem, both seniors, interviewed Pelosi, students had the opportunity to directly ask their own questions.

Many female students felt inspired by Pelosi’s words. “Our government in all of its history has been old white men, [but] she obviously has a huge role of our government [and] I think that’s awesome,” senior Ellie Schley said. The ‘huge role’ Pelosi has assumed in politics includes a variety of offices — most notably as the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives (the first woman ever to assume that office) and her current position as Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.

“I thought it was inspiring to hear her advice and experiences of how to lead a group of men,” senior Renée Girard said. “[I liked] how she was saying that she did a lot of listening instead of trying to argue with them because that was the best way to get stuff done.”

Junior Sunia Sadeghi remarked on the importance of her messaging in such a male-dominated profession. “I think she had a real powerful message about women in politics and how it’s important that we have equality [in gender representation] in government because it’s dominated by males right now,” Sadeghi said.

Across the board, students seemed to concur that they found her comments inspiring. “I thought she was definitely really encouraging towards people to strive to do things they never would have thought could be,” freshman Megan Reinstra said.

This feeling of inspiration was not limited just to students who shared her political ideals either. “I think it was inspirational for a lot of people and I think she did a good job articulating her stances — even if they are very different from mine,” said Scharff. Scharff identifies as a libertarian and though he said he disagreed with vast majority of her political views, he commended her for her rhetoric.

Pelosi’s oratory skills, especially as someone in her position, impressed some.

“Strategically, as a politician, you got to be able to relate to your audience, so the fact that she kept on drawing attention to Silicon Valley [was good],” junior Danny Weiss said.

Pelosi’s strong stance on many political issues — specifically, of the presidential candidates — piqued the interest of many.

“What really stood out to me was her discussion on Trump,” freshman Braiden Young said.

Sophomore Sebastian Abadi felt that she helped clarify some of the more logistical facets of government jobs and processes. “I feel like when she talked about [her duties as Speaker] it definitely widened my perspective and [broadened] my scope of understanding [pertaining to] what actually happens in the government because I don’t really have a notion of what’s going on when someone gets elected.”

The fact that Pelosi was a political figure contrasted with other presenters, who have been mostly in the tech, science, or business realm. “It was really interesting to have a diverse speaker because I feel like a lot of time we’ve had less humanities-focused speakers and […] it was cool to have a change,” Girard said.

Although Pelosi was diverse in that respect, the political beliefs of recent speakers seems to be too one sided for some.

“I would feel that it’s a little bit unfair that they don’t have many conservatives come in,” Senior David Farnham said. “I do think it’s getting a little bit ridiculous that it’s [around] 100% liberal [speakers], but at the same time, I understand why they’re doing it — because it appeals to most people.”

Pelosi’s talk sparked discussion on numerous fronts and left students feeling inspired to break glass ceilings, be more active as citizens, and venture out into uncharted territory.