As the 2024-2025 school year came to a start, the Class of 2028 entered the campus as Bulldogs for the first time. From August 26 to August 30, a select few students from the freshman class decided to run for a position as a class officer. The campus was decorated with campaign posters and flyers, buzzing with excitement as representatives presented their speeches and their peers voted for who they felt was best fit for the role. During the process of promoting themselves to the school and advocating new ideas, the campaigners showed their loyalty to improving campus life while developing several important skills that could be carried on to other leadership opportunities. 

After the votes were totaled, the Class of 2028 officers were released:

President: Ava Park

Vice President: Madelyn Akari

Secretary: Sophia Horan

Social Chair: Alice Diep

Akari expressed that she enjoyed the process of running for her position as vice president by creating posters, flyers, and other pieces of advertisement to support her campaign. 

“My motivation for campaigning was coming to school everyday during campaigning week and seeing all the student’s hype and having fun,” Akari said. “It made me even more excited to meet and talk to new people.”

Akari’s motivation to build her strong campaign was driven by her desire to improve campus life, specifically by encouraging more students to participate in school activities. Her goal is to create traditions that freshmen and other classes will be able to carry on in rallies and other memorable events. She aspires to broaden the amount of involvement students have access to by collaborating with her other officers. 

Other than the aspect of interacting with new students on campus or spreading fresh and innovative ideas, there are several responsibilities that come with the role of a class officer. With these duties comes the stress of managing a headstrong campaign while monitoring the pace and speed of other’s efforts. 

“In general, running against anyone is quite intimidating,” Park said. “But in the end, it was still a fun and joyful experience as I got to connect with my fellow freshmen peers during the campaign and share my vision for the year ahead.”

Despite all of the strenuous hours campaigners put towards promoting their ideas and the demanding standards other students had set, many of the participants had someone who encouraged them to run or who they looked up to as an inspiration. 

“Madelyn and I were officers together at Canyon, so we both thought it’d be fun to run this year,” Park said. “As for my sister, she was class president at Ayala all four years, and her attempts to persuade me ended up working.” 

As students continued to promote themselves for their specific officer positions, the advisor and teacher for the leadership class, Ms. Hayley Thompson, kept the officers organized and well-prepared. She encouraged campaigners to keep their focus throughout the week and emphasized the importance of remaining consistent. 

“As I grow in my role as the USB advisor, I hope to be able to support all of their goals for improving campus culture and activities,” Thompson said. “I want to help them bring their ideas to fruition so that students will be able to see all the possibilities out there.”

Alice Diep explained how she took this advice and kept her motivation as the week progressed by encouraging herself and engaging her audience in her original ideas. 

“I knew there was no guarantee that people would vote for me, but I focused on putting forth my best effort and giving it my all,” Diep said. “My mindset remained consistent throughout the week because I believed that, regardless of the outcome, it would be for the best.”

After the confirmation of the Class of 2028 officers, the students who were elected and those who ran were further encouraged to keep pursuing their goals as leaders by building the school’s culture and striving to take on similar roles in the future. Even for those who were not appointed, they were able to take away valuable skills such as communication, advertisement, and public speaking that can be useful in other aspects of their life. With another successful campaign week for the Class of 2028 officers, Ayala’s campus is ready to experience more enthusiasm and spirit in the upcoming elections.