Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a class officer? Do you want to run to be a class officer in the next election? This is a huge leadership role that relies on votes, posters, speeches, friends, and more. Benjamin Wei, a freshman officer, states that his speech was a big part of his campaign: “The speech is the most effective way for me to speak to the largest audience, and I humbly and respectfully think that I have a lot of charisma, so that definitely helped with my speech standing out… I think even if one messes up, if the mess up is bad enough, it might be comical enough to get them voted. Any press is good press.” Here is the speech he made in its entirety, if you want to see how he did it: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PkSVZgCpEuWy3N3v9.

Giya Agarwal, a sophomore officer, agreed with the idea of utilizing speech but with a specific theme, “I re-wrote some of the lyrics to ‘You Belong With Me’ by Taylor Swift and then I sang it. I ended by getting down on one knee with a poster as if I was proposing.” It seems like the sophomores did enter into a contract with Agarwal by voting for her nonetheless, but not a marriage contract

Palak Kumar says that she spent a good “ 8-9 hours prepping” and wrote [her] speech at 5 AM the day it was due, fully structured around comparing herself to the Rock.Similarly, Rodrigo Panigassi, a senior class officer, spent 5 hours total for posters, speeches, and class officer packets.

If you’re going to run for class office, you should know that ASB requires you get 50 signatures to run as an unofficial endorsement.

Also, campaigning is pretty strictly limited by ASB to only Instagram story reposts, posters, and speeches. Miles Xing says that a lot of his campaigning was done by mouth, just talking to people and getting to know them better and trying to earn their vote.”

Arantxa Mata Jaime, another senior class officer, adds that knowing your audience is important, stating that “I was advocating for g-ed and used water as a motif” and wishes future candidates good luck.

Sometimes people don’t need crazy campaigns. Alexandra Hui, a junior class officer, wanted her campaign strategy to be simple, stating that she “ mostly just tried to be as open and friendly as possible.”

There isn’t a perfect election strategy and different strategies work for different people, but people should still work hard on speeches, be open to others, and believe you can be elected.