President Josh Byrd

1. How do you feel about this win?

I’m really excited. Like I said in my speech I’ve been on SCA for the past two years, so I’ve seen the issues we’ve run into as a council, and I’m really excited to be able to lead the council and address those issues such as homecoming and just overall school spirit.

1. Why do you think people voted for you?

Because I kind of laid out in my speech exactly what I was going to do. I gave examples of the three main points of what I want to address next year, and I think that something voters like to hear is just, have someone who will say this is what I’m going to do, this is how I’m going to do it, and just very straight forward about it.

1. How confident were you that you would win?

I was nervous, I’m always nervous when it comes to SCA elections. I was nervous last year, I was nervous the year prior to that. So I don’t know. After voting and stuff I had multiple people like yell down the hallway, they were like ‘I voted for you’ and I don’t know, that gave me some confidence going into the meeting where we found out. But, I didn’t know how it was going to turn out that morning.

1. How do you feel about working with the others that were elected?

I’m excited, to be, I’ve known Karan from class. … Yeah, it’s nice to know someone and I look forward to also working with Mina Koo. I think it’s going to be a really great council next year.

1. Why did you want to be elected to this position?

Kind of like what I said before, I just want to make this school a better place, I want to bring back school spirit, because it seems to have gone on like a steady decline since I’ve been at the high school my freshman year. So, that’s really why I wanted to run is just ‘cause I know exactly what I want to do … and I know how.

I ran for this spot because I’ve been on council since two years before, and I’ve seen like the issues we’ve run into, and I see ways we can fix those issues. And the President is kind of the person who helps leads the council in a way. That’s why because I want to be able to do things I expressed that I want to do like bring back school spirit, make a better homecoming, and just working with the Red Sea also to promote school spirit too.

1. What will you attempt to do while in your position?

There’s not necessarily any other things I plan to do, but I have a few ideas. That I want to begin open dialogue with the principal and all of administration to discuss to see if we can possibly do certain things. But as of now the three main points that I’ve highlighted already are really what I’m pushing for, but there are other issues that I’ve heard that I will try to have an open dialogue with administration. Maybe get our foot in the door if possibly changing it. If not, next year. Then just allowing for future counsels to be able to obtain those certain issues.

1. Who helped you the most and how did they help you?

I don’t know… I did a lot of the campaigning myself. I went and bought the candy, I bought the … Tollhouse cookie mix to make the cookies, I made the cookies. But I had friends who helped, look at my speech gave me ideas of possibly things I might want to include in there. Ava Reynolds, the drum major for the band, she looked over my speech right before I gave it. Like edited and .. adjusted my points to make it flow better and stuff like that.

1. How much preparation did you do for the elections?

I don’t know. This is kind of bad but I recycled the posters I used last year because my last name is Byrd. Last year I didn’t put it on my posters the office I was running for. So it was just like vote for and then a picture of a random bird. It was either a duck, blue jay, cardinal, turkey, eagle hawk, it was one of those. I kind of recycled those and on some of them I added Josh Byrd, because a lot of people didn’t understand ‘Byrd’ at first like the picture of the bird, what it meant. So I started to add Josh Byrd and I had other posters were just like, were just plain saying “Vote for Josh Byrd for SCA President.” That part I had down, but I thought I was going to be campaigning two weeks ago but the campaign week got pushed back a week to last week. So the night before I had gone and bought candy and stuff like that, and then we ended up not having to campaign. So then I just waited a week … Ever since the sheets came to sign up for SCA, I started brainstorming and buying a few things to run a campaign.

1. What was the hardest part preparing for the elections?

Just the time and commitment of getting all the stuff together. I’m a junior and junior year like a lot of people say is the hardest year. … People tend to take harder classes, but also you have to prepare for ACT’s and SAT’s and all this other stuff, and … like getting ready for senior year. The hardest part is just committing time to running for the office.

1. Will you do anything to celebrate this win?

I don’t know … not really. No, I’ve told like family members who have asked but other than that I haven’t had like a celebration per se.

Vice President Karan Chalaishajar

1. How do you feel about this win?

I feel really good, I feel I can like really help the school out and … make the school better.

1. Why do you think people voted for you?

Because I’m hard working and …people like me and I actually want to do something that’s good for the school.

1. How confident were you that you would win?

I was pretty confident, honestly.

1. How do you feel about working with the others that were elected?

I think it will be a nice experience, honestly. They’re both … exceptional individuals and … they’re up to fulfill their positions in the SCA.

1. Why did you want to be elected to this position?

Because I feel like I can really help the school out by talking to people and like make a difference.

1. What will you attempt to do while in your position?

First of all, … having more school spirit… like having more pep rallies, stuff like that. Opening up the library in the morning to seniors and juniors who need to like get work done.

1. Who helped you the most and how did they help you?

I would say just like normal people, just being in contact with them. That’s what helped me the most…

1. How much preparation did you do for the elections?

I did like a medium amount I would say. I didn’t like go all out, but I definitely worked on my speech, and just like talk to people.

1. What was the hardest part preparing for the elections?

Writing the speech was pretty hard.

1. Will you do anything to celebrate this win?

Not really, I’m just like happy to be representing the school.