AI-generated transcript of Harvard senior by day, city councilor by night

[Justin Tseng]: My name is Justin Tseng. I'm from Medford, Massachusetts. I am in the class of 2022, and I study social studies and East Asian studies. Growing up in Medford is actually a very rewarding experience because I find Medford very salt of the earth. It's also very diverse. And so you grow up with people who, neighbors who look different from you and who have different lived experiences from you. That I think really broadens our world perspective. And so that's why I decided to run for office is because I think that that lived experience is super important for our politicians and our leaders to know about and to take into account when they're creating policy for a city. Even if I wasn't going to win the election, it was important for me to step in there to try my best to shape the conversation. As a Councilor, you have these priorities when you're writing for office and they don't really change, right? They're still core issues to me. But then you have the daily issues at City Hall, legal services or budgeting, the services we provide for our residents. And so for me, the way to kind of marry these two sets of priorities is to really apply the issues that I've run on as a lens to the daily workings of City Hall. When it comes to racial justice and racial equity, for me it's about seeing, you know, what is the city doing now in terms of providing services and how can we make those services more equitable. I decided to run NOW as a student because I really think that I can bring a lens to the issue, a perspective on the issue, that really takes advantage of the now. I looked in the mirror and I realized if we didn't take advantage of the moment in terms of responding to climate change, in terms of responding to racial justice issues in Medford, I would feel like we missed an opportunity there. As we all know, we are facing a climate emergency, not only in our city, but this is a problem that affects every single one of us. For the next two years that I'm in office, increasing the everyday quality of life is really on top of my mind. How can we, in the next two years, tangibly improve our school system? And how can we relieve that financial pressure off of our families when it comes to paying rent and being pushed out of our city? My hope is that in the next two years, we'll be able to address some of these issues. The truth is, change takes a while, but I'm optimistic that we're heading in the right direction.

Justin Tseng total time: 2.37 minutes total words: 459