Candidate Raj Raghuwanshi

“I want to keep things transparent between the events of what class council and the ASG board are doing and between the members of the class.”

Joy: If you could summarize your campaign in one word, how would you describe it? Why?

Raj: Transparency. I want to keep things transparent between the events of what class council and the ASG board are doing and between the members of the class. I come to realize how the general body does not know what class council is doing or anything class council does after homecoming week, so I want to keep transparent as the events occurring.

J: Why are you the best candidate for class officer?

I like to think I am the best candidate because first of all, I am going to increase general awareness about class council in general. I am also social and outgoing, and I’m fairly easy to talk to. I am an approachable person, which is really important for someone with place of authority and power.

J: What is one way you would gain input from your class?

I was planning on enacting a feedback form between the general class, so class council and ASG can receive direct feedback so it’s not just face to face. It can also be wherever you’re at, so if you are at home, you can fill out the feedback form. If you have any complaints about what ASG has done, instead of having individual forms after each event, we have a form we consistently post throughout the year, not just for event but in general to get feedback on events that ASG and class council are running.

J: What do you want to get done as class officer?

As I mentioned before, I really do want to increase awareness in what class council does, and I realized that almost no one except people in class council know what class council is doing. Half the time even they don’t know what we are doing, so I want to increase the awareness. I also want to reduce stress on campus. It’s a very ambitious goal, but I plan on doing it by enacting stress relief fun days. For example, bringing a petting zoo during lunch, bring game trucks, and stuff like that.

J: Do you believe your class has unity? If not, how would you improve it?

I do not believe our class has unity at all. On our spirit days, there’s like 10 people dress up for them. Half of them, actually everyone, of them are in class council. That’s because they are mandatory. No one attends any of our events except class council because it is mandatory. I want to improve that by basically instead of having people go to the events, have the events come to them. What I mean by this is to have more events during the school day or during afterschool because conveniency is a huge factor when people attend these kind of events for unity. If it’s more convenient, then more people will attend and do stuff.

J: What ideas do you have for homecoming?

For homecoming, honestly I like what we did this year. For bench schedules, we always buy our bench stuff way too late. We buy them at the beginning of June. If I get the position, I’m planning on doing it somewhere around April or May as I feel like that’s a better time, and class council will be chose around the same time. I want to really make sure they understand this is not just something they should take for granted. It’s a position that you work for. It’s a position that you earn.

J: How will you organize class dances? How will you get the class to participate in them?

I have zero dancing ability, but I do have very talented friends who I will ask for choreography tips. In general, I will make it more fun and make it seem like a thing that’s not just for people in class council. I noticed the only people who participate are class council members and their friends. I am going to reach out to different groups of people and different friend groups. During our dance meetings, it’s going to be a lot more entertaining. It’s not just going to be focused on the meeting. It’s going to be more of a bonding, where we happen to learn the choreography and have free food and free games.

J: How will you reach outside of the “popular kids” bubble?

I actually have several friends who are not in class council. My friend group is not just constructed to class council members, so I can reach out to them on my own. I also will make sure to make effective use of networking on relatively unused social media. We always post on Instagram and Facebook, but I plan on reaching out to people by using Discord. A lot of my friends who aren’t in the popular circle and are the gamer types, they heavily frequent Discord, and there’s a large portion of them too. We will reach out to them on their preferred social media.

J: How will you recruit students for class council?

First of all, I will say it’s good for college apps. Two, I will post on social media and reach out to my friends in person. I want to reach out to different groups, not just the people we had two years in a row. I noticed that they barely change, which is partially due to the fact that our class officers have stayed the same. I want to reach out to different groups of people through word of mouth, social media, etc. 

J: What are your plans on the applications for class council?

Application wise, we had good applications last year. I read some of my friends’, and I noticed that they wrote some random stuff down. They knew they were going to be accepted. In order to make it less biased and not have people take it for granted, I want to ignite blind auditions. If I like their ideas, then I will be sure to note that down. The application I will keep it the same, but I’ll make it mandatory page amount.

J: How are you going to organize and manage this large group of students in your class council? How will you delegate tasks?

I want to bring back commission heads because we actually removed that this year. Without someone telling them what to do, and the other class officer and I can’t maintain all thirty something kids, so I would like to bring back commission heads because I feel like people won’t do anything until they’re being told to do something. Also, have commissions. That’s a big thing.

J: How will you push to increase school spirit with class council?

I want to make it so that members of class council are required to have at least one or two friends attend class council events and come to the class dances, especially getting those people who aren’t in class council already and people in general who don’t attend these types of events.

J: Typically, class events end after homecoming. Do you have plans to have events for your class throughout the year?

I would like to have several class bondings throughout the year, where we invited the entire class to hang around, play board games, watch movies, and have chill time. We will have several of those throughout the year, maybe six. Also, I want to have monthly fundraisers because I notice that after school, all the fundraisers we have after school tend to sell out. That’s a great way to bring in money and encourage class spirit.

J: What are some ideas you have for spirit weeks?

Last year, we had Superhero day, and I thought that was kind of cool. Disney day, I’m pretty sure we did that at some point. Things that people don’t have to buy things to participate in. Nothing too specific. During multicultural week, we can have a multicultural fashion show, where people dress up in their cultural stuff. There’s no winner, just for fun.

J: What plans do you have for prom?

We need a lot of funding for prom because I understand that it costs a lot to rent out a place. For venue, I’m assuming we are having separate proms this year. I want to start looking earlier for venue because I know if we look to late they will be booked. I like to look for a large and maybe ballroom type venues. Although very ambitious idea I have is a yacht.

J: Will you have a combo prom with the seniors next year? 

Based on research, we are having a separate prom, which we will fundraise for heavily. Reason for this is that junior and senior prom should be two different experiences. It’s not the same if two different grades are there. There’s a reason, junior and senior prom.

J: How will you raise money for prom? 

I can look into grants. I think grants and fundraisers are the only ways to do it.