Candidate Victoria Vera

“I wouldn’t want to be part of the senior class not being able to appreciate and admire something because I never had a chance to participate in it.”

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

Victoria: I want to involve more students in what we’re doing. I feel like a lot of times, a lot of executive decisions will be made by class council and class officers but there’s a lot of bad reactions to these things like the fundraisers that we pull off. I think we should ask what the class thinks about it in the first place. I think we should include others’ opinions, beyond class council, beyond the ones who run things. 

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

V: I think that I’ve had so many years of experience and I’ve had so many roles at this point. I’ve been a commissions chair, I’ve been a commissions leader, and I think I just know the patterns that occur at this school. If I’m given the opportunity to be in a position where I have more to do something, I think I’d definitely do something to change. I think I have a lot of potential and that electing me will be a good way to make a change. 

A: What is one way you would gain input from your class? (How will you reach outside of the “popular kids” bubble?)

V: I would have more firsthand interactions with people, I think those are the best way to talk about thing[s]. You can only make so many fliers and videos and though that will reach a decent amount of people, you will always have these little nooks and crannies of people who have not gotten the chance to hear about or participate in these events. I’d like to reach out to those people and also ask them who else they know to do something or participate in the event.

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

V: I want to increase bench building session attendance, and I want to win homecoming week because I know that seniors get to win because they are seniors but honestly I want a bench that actually looks good that people are impressed with. I wouldn’t want to be part of the senior class not being able to appreciate and admire something because they never had a chance to participate in it. 

A: What would you do differently than what is being done this year?

V: I don’t want to change class council-I have people who like and want to keep the ones I know are productive and responsible students. But, I want to increase the demographic because class council these past few years has been the same people over and over again so if we get a chance to include more people then I think that would be a big contribution to our work.

A: How will you recruit new students for class council?

V: I’m looking for students who have this generic set of qualities and I want them to be responsible and spirited, I want them to be hardworking, that’s my main few things. You want people who will come to the bench and work hard, you also want people who are fun to be around and create a fun attitude. Overall, responsibility and spirited.

A: How are you going to organize and manage this large group of students in your class council?

V: I want to have chairs of committees, so that they can oversee it, because managing that big of a group can be hard. I also want to have more class council meetings. People sometimes, without the meetings, kind of lose the sense of responsibility that comes with being a part of class council, because there’s not much going on and limited communication.  Part of the process to increase spirit is the selection process, so we will have people who are committed to school spirit. I know that there are quiet people who have amazing talents, but I definitely want a majority of class council to have spirit, and raise publicity and get class council excited about the events as well. 

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

V: I think there’s a good sense of unity for the class of 2021, I honestly think there may never be enough because there are some people who just won’t participate in those types of events. I think the unity that we have is a good example of unity but its very limited to a certain demographic of people. It’s a unity of like 50 people. 

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

V: I was thinking, we should have ad hocs, like winter week, which I was in charge of, I think that next year we should have class council hold one ad hoc, like a week for IHS students to enjoy. I think this could be something for the class council to do, rather than ASG, it may even be more efficient since class council contains more members.

A: What ideas do you have for class bonding events?

V: A key factor might just be food to connect people. I want to have events that are food centered, though that may not always be something that is affordable. If we can, I want to use food as much as possible to make people more willing to come. 

A: What ideas do you have for homecoming?

V: I want to do a bring a friend thing where the class council is required to bring at least one new person to go homecoming. I want this to be a way to get more people to participate with homecoming- even if it is forced, it leads to more and more people to go because they know that someone’s going to be there so they want to go as well. I think that’s a huge factor, the more people there are, the more chances you have of finding someone you can talk to. 

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

V: I want to have a more detailed itinerary, a lot of people walk in on rally day and are really confused, so I want to make it more clear, and a specialized itinerary for the class of 21, whether that is through a specific account or a general post on Facebook. This way, people can know what events are occurring and participate.

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

V: I think there’s a lot of talented people in class who know how to choreograph and dance so I definitely want to give them the mic; obviously, I want to oversee and participate in the dance, but I want to give them regular practices and maybe send out a video so that people can practice at home.

A: How will you encourage school spirit in your class? 

V: I think that’s a hard thing to do but I think appealing to what the people want and putting out surveys of like, what music would you want to hear, what decor do you want to see. It gets people to think about these events and they will look forward to it. Even if we might not necessarily like, be able to incorporate everyone’s individual ideas, it shows that we care about their opinions. 

A: What plans do you have for prom?

V: I want to have students with more of a say on the decisions. This year, students are kind of upset about the decisions that are being made, like the prices, the combination with the senior class, and more. Maybe there could have been a compromise, I feel that there could have been more of a better location idea, I really want to avoid giving the class surprises, like something that may make people wary of going. I want to ask them, I think it’s more important that everyone can decide. 

A: Will you have a combo prom with the seniors next year? (or do you anticipate this happening?)

V: I would want it to be just our class. But if circumstances come to that, we will just have to push through that. 

A: How will you raise money for prom? 

V: Fundraisers where people kind of suggest beforehand, rather than last-minute saying “we need to raise money, let’s go to I-tea”. That being said, we could even do a bake sale… we have many talented creative people, so something involving their skills might work. Like business day, in sixth grade. 

A: Thank you Victoria!