The 2023–2024 freshman elections recently occurred, with Miles Moore elected as freshman President, Mina Buhr elected as Vice President, Pardis Aghatehrani elected as Secretary, and Henry Schwab elected as Treasurer.
Each year, Woodside elects a board of freshman class officers to plan activities and coordinate school spirit. All the freshmen voted for the candidates—this year, twelve people ran for office. According to Student Activities Director Leslie With, elections only start once school has started and everyone has settled in.
“Once all the students are here, we open it up to any freshman who wants to run for office,” With said. “The freshmen have to complete an online form and get 25 signatures of fellow classmates that say ‘I support this candidate.’”
Candidates have to prepare a brief candidate statement and candidate video, which are posted before elections for students to peruse.
“Students are allowed to campaign on campus,” With stated. “We primarily use the quad for posters, [and] we try to discourage handouts. We do allow students to campaign online, but we do ask that they promote and not demote. We can’t monitor everything.”
Elections happen on one day only, and all students are encouraged to participate.
“We push out [the election] via Canvas and social media,” With said. “It’s open the whole day from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm.”
This year, about 40%, or 150 out of 375 students, of the freshman class participated in the election, a number in line with participation from previous years—last year, for example, participation was at 44%, slightly more than this year. Such high participation indicates the importance of the role the freshman officers play on campus.
“Their main responsibility is running freshman class board meetings, getting input from their fellow classmates, and holding fundraisers to raise money for [later school events],” With said. “The first big [event] is homecoming. The freshman officers have to work behind the scenes on getting students to participate in the skit, putting together the freshman skit, [and] working on the freshman flag… the freshmen [] also design [and sell] their class shirts.”
In the past, as many as 18 candidates have ran for freshman office. This year, 12 total students ran for office. Seven ran for President alone, three ran for Vice President, and only one each ran for Secretary and Treasurer.
“I thought it would be a pretty fun experience and a good opportunity to represent my school,” newly-elected freshman President Miles Moore said. “I will try to do the best job I can.”
Vice President Mina Buhr echoed a similar sentiment.
“I thought it would be nice to get involved more [sic] with the school, especially at a young age,” Buhr stated. “I [will] definitely help me later on.”
Moore and Buhr are excited to get involved with school affairs and make an impact.
“I definitely want to inspire people to just get out there,” Buhr said. “I’m looking forward to all of the events that we have to plan… it’s a sense of accomplishment, and it just feels nice.”
