Ninth grade
Gwyn Petersen – “Vote Gwyn again!”
Why are you running?
“Because I really care about my class. These are my friends, and most of them I’ve known from second grade. So, I really want them to have something to be proud of.”
What sets you apart from other candidates?
“Well, I have a year of experience being secretary, so I know all the responsibilities inside and out. I know what’s required and what’s expected. I also have neat handwriting, which I am very proud of and have been working on for so long. And, I am a fast typist.”
What new ideas will you bring to the table?
“Well, there are a couple that I am really excited about. I’ve been talking to AMF Bowling, and they host bowling nights sometimes. You can get up to 75 percent proceeds made from that night if you mention Pine View class of 2020. I would like to start something with them because I know that a lot of my peers like to go to AMF to hang out. Also, we are hoping to have class of 2020 throw the first soccer tournament, and we are hoping to have more with that.”
What do you hope to accomplish if you win?
“This past year, we have had a lot of problems with class involvement. Our class seems to think that the class officers are solely responsible for raising the money, but we need class participation to help raise money. So, my main goal for next year is to help get my classmates get involved with helping out our class.”
Ben Sweirdek – “Ben’s the best, forget the rest”
Why are you running?
“I’m running for secretary because I want to get involved with our class and everything that we’re doing, like raising money, and things like that. At all the meetings, our sponsors and members talked about how we needed to raise money and they need help, and I thought one of the ways I could help was to get involved.”
What sets you apart from other candidates?
“I’m just going to make sure I do my best to help the class accomplish its goals.”
What new ideas will you bring to the table?
“I think that I will be more active and aggressive than others have previously been about getting things done, and I really want to accomplish everything we want to accomplish.”
What do you hope to accomplish if you win?
“I want to assist the President and we need to accomplish things like raising money.”
Tenth grade
Sadie Vitkus
Why are you running?
“I’m running because for the past two years, I’ve bugged the previous officers about when I can help out. I’m eager to be involved in class or school wide fundraiser and events. This year, I decided that I would step up and run for office because I want everyone to get involved and be excited about our class, too.”
What sets you apart from other candidates?
“What sets me apart from the other candidate is that though I don’t have experience in this position, I can bring in a new perspective. I think our class needs some new fundraising ideas, and I want to get everyone in the class involved. If I am voted into this position, I feel my job will be to be the link between our class members and our class office.”
What new ideas will you bring to the table?
“I will make it a point to attend meetings and class fundraisers because from experience, the events really do help you meet new people, and as a candidate for secretary, my job is to communicate with everyone. I’m not usually one to run for class office or do a speech in front of a big group of people, but I’m excited for the new possibilities.”
What do you hope to accomplish if you win?
“As I’ve talked about with other candidates, I think many of us want more class involvement. In recent years, I’ve felt that class officers haven’t reached out beyond their social groups to get more people involved. My goal is communicate ideas from class members to the class office so we can have more perspectives and create change where many people want it.”
Maya Weerasooriya
Why are you running?
“I’m running because I love being secretary, and I have loved it for the past two years. As people probably know, I’m kinda nerdy and I like taking notes and I like the things a secretary gets to do. And I definitely love helping out our class. And I love the fact that at the end of high school, ‘yeah I was part of the reason that our class was as great as it was… I may not have been president or vice president but I made a difference in our class raising money in our prom and in our graduation”
What sets you apart from other candidates?
“I think definitely my experience. Part of my speech says that junior year is a time for taking risks but not with something as important as our graduation or something important as Prom. You want people in office who know what they’re doing, who have had time to perfect their skills and whatever their position is, and who knows what needs to be done. You know I’ve been doing this for two years already so I know what I have to do to as secretary. There is not going to be any getting me up to speed. And I think that if well elect new people into other positions I’ll be able to help those people.”
What new ideas will you bring to the table?
“Definitely my experience. I want to be able to help new officers. If we get new officers I want to be the experienced person that they turn to to help get them up to speed and I want to know what I’m doing the first day and I want to make sure that I keep performing my job to the level that have I been performing it for the past two years.”
What do you hope to accomplish if you win?
“I hope to make junior year better than all of the years we’ve had already. I hope to keep building on the strong foundation that we had already and keep earning money for our class and I think that’s been really important. I feel like I’ve worked really well with other officers we’ve had in the past, so i look forward to new people being in office and look forward to seeing familiar faces hopefully. And so I think that I just want to accomplish lots of fundraising and I want to accomplish planning a great Cobalt.”
Eleventh grade
Ali Ahmed
Why are you running?
“I feel like last year when we ran we had a pretty good, successful year, and we were pretty efficient, not only in fundraising but working as a board together. This year we’re hoping to recreate that, so that’s why I’m running for secretary.”
What sets you apart from other candidates?
“Right now, my only other candidate is Madison Hannon. I know that we’re both really well rounded, but the one thing is that right now I already have a form established of working together with the current officers that are running. So that’s the only comparative advantage that I can see, because she is also well qualified.”
What new ideas will bring to the table?
“Right now what we’re working on is basically making class events include more people within our own class. We’ve been pretty successful this year, so next year what we’re doing is opening communication to other grades and working together to help them do the same things we did this year.”
What do you hope to accomplish if you win?
“It’s senior year, and we’re pretty much good on funding. This year has been pretty successful, so the last thing is just wrapping it up. A pretty successful year is forming a bond. What we see in our current senior class is that they’re all working well together, not only as a class but as friends. I’m hoping next year that’s the kind of environment the office can put forth.”
Madison Hannon – “No idea left behind”
Why are you running?
“I want to make it the best year at Pine View. I want senior year to be the best. Also, it would be very cool if it was an all female office. Plus Sy, he’s cool too. I just want to make it the best year that we’re going to have.”
What sets you apart from other candidates?
“I talk to a lot of people. I know I talk to a lot of different groups of people. I want to work hard and make sure that we have the best year, obviously. I will make sure every voice is recorded — you know secretary records what happens at the meetings — so I want to make sure that every voice is recorded and that everybody is heard no matter who they are in the school.”
What new ideas will bring to the table?
“I will have new ideas for senior Fridays and new ideas to dress up. I can bring new ideas to get the class together. I know maybe we could have a lock in … maybe we could get that approved. That would be fun, a big class sleepover. We could have movie nights. We tried to do that a while ago, but I think we can try and do that again. Just new fun ideas to get the class pumped and to get them together so that we’re all talking together, and we’re not a separated class.”
What do you hope to accomplish if you win?
“Have a really good graduation. Just to make sure, again, that everybody is heard and that everybody feels like a part of the 2018 class. I want to make sure that everybody feels included next year, and they’re having a great time.”
Read about the students running for class office and learn more about them. Elections will be Friday April 7, so keep visiting for more updates on the rest of the candidates from grades nine to 11.
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Story by ANNIE HASSAN, SUZANNE BROWN, TRICIA SAPUTERA, and MANNY REA