What is your main goal or a couple of your main goals as all-school president, and how do you plan to put them into action? 

My main goal as all-school president is to make it so that Student Council is capable of accomplishing a lot and to prove to the rest of the school that Student Council can do a lot more.

The first thing that I want to do as all-school president is going to be something over the summer, but I want to work with the current executive board and formulate a general document or Excel sheet that lists all the different Student Council “things,” responsibilities, events, meetings, so that Student Council are encouraged to start thinking about the different ways that they can change the school. 

And then, opening up Student Council into something that can be used to greater effect by all students. In freshman year, I was in a club that essentially fundraised for other clubs and did research on fundraising methods so that it could be shared with other groups and clubs around the school so that clubs can learn how to better fundraise. I had originally wanted to integrate that into Student Council and now that I am all school, I’ll try and push for that in Student Council, so that we can have students who are not on Student Council doing things constantly, and we can spread the word out different clubs and give clubs an excuse to constantly be gaining money and funds to better support their cause. 

You’ve been on Student Council in the past. What are some examples of connections you’ve built between faculty and the student body or between the administration and the student body? 

Well, I would say that the most clear example was Mr. Beekmeyer and Ms. Campos. For one, I love them dearly. They are very fun and very cordial. They’re there to listen. And, while I was working with them last year on Student Council, I got the opportunity to interact with Mr. Beekmeyer more. Over the course of our interactions, we got to really understand how, what we both want to do in the school. We got to this point where I was typically going to him and asking for his advice on other bills and things I wanted to pass, and then one day, he came to me about something that he wanted to start. And that was probably that moment where I had realized that I had developed this meaningful connection that I was going to be able to use to better the school next year.

Many students don’t see eye to eye with the administration. We’ve often seen this students-versus-administration kind of mindset. Why do you think that is? 

I think that is in large part because of a lack of communication. I know that that’s kind of a very big buzz-word and umbrella term that can be used to describe a lot of problems at Lab, but a lack of communication makes it so that it is difficult to understand the goals of both bodies. When it comes to communication, I have done a lot in the last year in regards to administrative transparency and making sure that we can put all the things that administrators and faculty members are doing in one document, and then I’m sending that out to the rest of the student body to be transparent and help people who are interested in getting involved can get involved and can know what things are going on. 

In your mind, what role does Student Council serve and what effect does or should Student Council have on the student body? 

I’ll say Student Council should have two separate effects. The first effect should be general spirit and happiness promotion. And the second one should be making sure that students are being represented in important changes to the school in general. As a Student Council member you have a power and responsibility that most students don’t. If you were to email any person in the school and state at the bottom blurb of your email, “I’m on Student Council,” it is very unlikely that a person will say, “Oh, I’m not going to talk to you,” or they are not going to respond to your email. You have a responsibility. I’ve been able to contact people like Ms. Noel and someone from the charter school, and they both responded with “of course, let’s meet,” and it’s all because of that fact that I was from Lab and I was on the Student Council. Because not every single person at Lab has that ability, that means that we have a unique responsibility to make sure that with that power, we are completely, constantly using it.

Many students, as I’m sure you know, sort of see Student Council as a popularity contest or an ineffective organization. How do you plan on addressing the concerns of these particular students? 

Student Council has a lot more ability to make change than students may imagine. I was able to complete eight separate things this year alone. And when I say things, it’s important things like connecting with the charter school, I’m starting a sex-ed forum initiative organization, I filed bill being passed, a bunch of different things that I was really able to do alone. When it comes to that level of engagement, if every single Student Council member was producing that level of work and was going in depth that much, Student Council could literally be not only one of the most effective bodies at the school, but the most effective bodies at the school, because those don’t have the support of the student body that Student Council would have because of the election.

Over the past year, the student body has experienced a significant amount of division, both by nature of everything going on in the world, but then also almost a full year of distance learning and some students continuing to remain on distance learning through the end of this school year. How do you plan to address this? 

The most important thing that I can stress is communication and transparency because a lot of these decisions are going to be changing on a dime. I can’t promise any specific policy that won’t be completely changed by tomorrow. Because of that, all I can say is that what I will try to do throughout the process is make sure that students are aware of meetings, where they can provide input, so that students know that these are meetings that are happening, so that you can give your input when it comes to connecting the grades. I do recognize that there is a lot of division and when it comes to addressing that division, I want to make it so that students can be proud of their school. In large part, because I don’t want to say that we should increase school spirit when people are legitimately dissatisfied and would not want to be happy about a school that doesn’t support certain things, or they don’t feel reflect certain things.

Even though there have been students of color in the role of all school president in recent years and black students in other roles, for you, do you see a significance in your election this year?

I like to quote the words of Obama in this certain circumstance where he states that, “I don’t want to be viewed as a Black president, I want to be viewed as a president who is Black.” I want to make it so that there is that level of understanding and respect that acknowledges that I am a Black man and I’m going to represent to the best of my capabilities, while at the same time, making sure that that is not the only thing that I bring to the table and recognizing that at the same time I still need to do is change and I still need to do stuff.

This year had very low voter turnout, especially among underclassmen. Even among current juniors, there was only 86% turnout. Do you think Student Council is representative of the entire student body or just those who vote?

Student Council is 23 people representing 610 students. There is no way in the world that Student Council is going to be able to represent that many people with just 23 people, which is why I want to make sure that Student Council is open to having people who either didn’t win or just didn’t run at all to come on Student Council and represent that level of just any type of idea. There’s no way that I can represent every single person, all the students in the student body, and there’s no way that even if I were the rising Senior Class president, I would be able to represent every single person. I would say that the best way in order to make sure that there is that inclusivity is to open up Student Council.