With the Associated Student Body (ASB) elections right around the corner, many people are starting to wonder who is running and how these elections will affect them.
The ASB elections are a chance for students to become a part of the South Salem High School student body. Any student enrolled at South can run for an ASB position, all a student would need to do is get an election packet from Kathy August. These packets can be picked up in August’s office. Campaign week was Sep. 27 through Oct. 1. Voting will be held tomorrow during Advisory on Oct. 5. The winners will be announced during the football game on Friday, Oct. 8.
Katie Corner is a senior at South. She is running for ASB president. Corner’s motivation for running is making her senior year a great year. She had been considered running in the past, but this is her first time participating. COVID has messed with student’s interactions quite a bit. As Corner put it,
“To me, it feels like there is a lot of division between the upper classmen, and I think a lot of that is stemming from the fact that we haven’t been together. I’m hoping we could create student events and service opportunities to bring everyone together.” Her goal if she gets elected is to create a sense of unity among the grades. Some advice from Corner is to “Go for it. The worst that is going to happen is you lose. You still put yourself out there and you tried, and it’s a good way to make sure that your voice is heard and to make sure your peers are heard too.”
Lindy Rybloom is a senior as well and is running for Corner’s vice president. Corner and Rybloom have been best friends since elementary school. Like Corner, this is also Rybloom’s first time running. The motivation for running is the same as Corner’s.
“I feel like our student body doesn’t feel as connected as it has in the past. We want to make some connections with underclassmen and upperclassmen together to make more of a South community.” Rybloom stated. As vice president, Rybloom’s jobs include supporting the president and “making decisions together and then work alongside each other.” When asked what advice she would give to a student considering running for an ASB position, Rybloom said “just go for it. Win or lose, it is a great experience. It takes courage and I think that even if you don’t win it’s a great learning experience. I think you should do it.”
Another candidate for ASB president is Jolie Rice, who is also a senior. She has run twice in the past, but she has stated that she is ramping up her campaigning this year. Rice has a strong motivation to be a part of the student body. Her main motivation for running in her own words is,
“I have always wanted to do my best to try and help people and I feel like having student government positions can really help with that and give you a platform to really create some lasting change and to create a lasting change for everybody. I really want to carry the torch and carry it on.” School spirit is also something very important to her. Community is a large part of what South is known for, and Rice feels like the morale as a whole has been down since the return to school. “I feel like the senior class was really the last class that had the opportunity to experience that sense of community and that sense of pride in your school. I just want to help bring that back. I think that it’s just a really positive environment to be in.” When elaborating on the subject, they also stated “South in the past has been known for having really high school spirit. We have been a really unified community.”
Some advice that Rice has for anyone wanting to run for an ASB position is “to go for it! Stepping outside of your comfort zone and putting yourself out there can seem scary, but life is about taking risks for rewards. I know something like running for a position that the whole school votes on can seem daunting, but it’s such a positive environment, and everyone will make you feel welcome. I know for me personally, class elections have always felt like a popularity contest I couldn’t win, but all it takes are people dedicated enough to change that narrative. ASB is different from class elections because you can reach the entire student body and that means something to a lot of people… You never know what’s going to happen, and literally the worst that could happen is that you lose, and take it from me, it’s not all bad. There’s always next time!”
Samuel Garcés is the third candidate running for ASB president. He is a senior this year. Garcés wants to change
“the culture. Just the involvement around school.” Garcés is really enjoying the campaigning, which is one of the main reasons he is running. “I feel like this is really bringing out the social in me.”
August is the head of the student council. Her tasks include organizing the elections, deciding when the events are held and creating the packets that students have to fill out in order to run. August lets the student body have a lot of say in different decisions.
“Sometimes I get asked ‘are you doing cancer awareness’ and I will always say ‘I don’t know if we are or not’ because my philosophy is that it isn’t about what I think is important, it is not what I think kids should do, it’s where their passions lie and what do they think,” August said. August’s goal is to find what she can do to help kids feel included. They want to try and ‘celebrate’ the kids at South. The students at South are an integral part of the school’s community. Behind the scenes, the student body gets to fund different clubs and programs at South. “They [the students] have a big voice, more than any other school I know of.”
There are no longer restrictions on who can run. In the past, there was a grade restriction and a requirement that students who wanted to run had to be enrolled in August’s leadership class. Now all a student has to do is fill out a packet and turn it in by a given date. The ASB positions that students can run for are president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and historian for each grade level. If a student was interested in running this fall but was not able to, the elections will be held again this April for the following year. If a student is interested in running, just go for it.
