Meet your Junior Class Officer Candidates for the 2021-2022 school year! Read on to learn what they're all about. Student Council Elections will take place next week, so get ready to cast your votes!
Wendy Flores
Why do you want to run to be a class officer at ICA Cristo Rey?
I’d like to run for class officer because, now more than ever, having a connection between the student body and staff is so important and I’d like to be a part of helping our school grow. I’m only one person, but I still have so much to share and offer. From my personal experiences to new unexplored ideas! My main goal is to have the staff and teachers listen to us so our needs and feelings won’t go unnoticed - to have us be heard. Although this is my first time running for student council at ICA, I’m still so determined to help us grow as a school and community! I make it sound simple, but I know it isn’t, but I’m still ready to jump in and tackle the obstacles and problems we face.
How do you plan to increase school spirit and participation among your class next year?
I’ve met many different types of interesting and talented people while at ICA and with them come different interests. While at ICA, I’ve noticed a bit of a lack of diversity regarding activities and clubs so I’d like to push activities and clubs that are open to their different interests! Making people feel included and represented has always been something I’ve cared about!
Gabby Ponciano
Why do you want to run to be a class officer at ICA Cristo Rey?
I want to run for class officer because I want to expand on my roles as a student. Meaning, taking on roles that require more responsibility and commitment. I’m hoping that by taking on a leadership role like class officer I will be able to apply the qualities I have and learn some new ones. I know that it’s not a simple task, and I’m willing to see how adaptable and creative I am. Of course, just like any other student applying for these roles, I want to involve myself in the school more. Experiences with CLIP and the Ambassadors club have really helped me improve on certain aspects of myself. For example, speaking, whether it be on the spot or a form of public speaking, I have been able to exercise my capabilities. I’ve definitely made many mistakes, but from those, I learn more about myself. Knowing some of the job descriptions, I know that there will be trial and error, but also a lot of learning along the way. Hopefully, those small mistakes can save me from some big ones in the future. There are many qualities I possess that could help me if I became class officer, and one of them, that I confident in, is my creativity. If it’s trying to come up with a solution to a problem or for things like public relations work, I have seen that my creativity can be quite flexible. I am also able to appeal to my “audience”, meaning it’s quite easy for me to translate someone’s ideas into a feasible plan or as tangible work. Although, I’m not saying I am a phenomenal artist because there are many areas that I can improve on. I do like to dabble in graphic design specifically because I’m not the biggest drawer. To segue into another one of my qualities, even if I physically can’t accomplish a certain task, I still have the capabilities to adapt to what I’m working with. Here my creativity can also take play, I have no problem keeping things simple or making do with what I can. A prime example would be with this pandemic, unfortunately, we won’t be able to get back to the regular but that won’t hinder me entirely from accomplishing or planning things.
How do you plan to increase school spirit and participation among your class next year?
Something that I think would help is having more class of 2023 student representatives, which is hopefully happening already. From our class, there was definitely a lack of representation, but I’m hoping with this upcoming year things will change with our new student leaders. Just having representation means more outreach to our classmates, which can hopefully lead to more outreach to the other classes. Since we will be upperclasswomen, it might encourage the lower classes to participate in school spirit if they see us doing it. As for the outreach specifically, taking into account what students are genuinely interested in. This year there were many successes when it came to relating with the students, like the Among Us events. I remember attending those and having a lot of fun. With the people I talk to and what I’ve seen in class, there’s quite a diversity in interests around the student body. Some interests that we could integrate into the plans for increasing participation are anime, gaming (any of the popular games at the moment), music (genre examples - rap, indie, alternative, Kpop, Latin, etc.), social media trends and memes, anything TikTok, and so much more. One last thing to mention is allowing the different classes to interact with each other. That can look like promoting clubs and school-wide events, planning times where students interact with everyone in the student body. Even making one new acquaintance from a different class can increase connection, outreach, and importantly sisterhood.