Two students hope to be your Student Council President next school year, 2024-25. Voting will be conducted IN PERSON during history classes on Monday, June 17. Only high school students, including seniors, are eligible to vote.  Send questions or comments to Mr. Figueroa at [email protected] or Mr. Weaver at [email protected].

Both candidates made a short video and were asked three questions by the Journalism Club. Below are their videos and answers to the questions, unedited, and listed in alphabetical order:

JAYDEN PAZ

• What qualities make you stand out among the candidates?

There are many things that make me stand out from other candidates, but the main and biggest reason is that I’m result-driven. Other candidates might only run for president for their own personal gain or for their friend group, but I always ask myself “what can I do to help out students and the issues they’re struggling with?”. Everything I do by becoming president will be in favor of the student’s experience and issues that will result in a less stressful environment and I will continuously work on that.

• If elected, what is the primary concern at Prep that you hope to address?

I would like to address the lack of transparency between the student council. Student council represents the body of the school & students and yet there’s a very small window to even join the council every beginning of the year. Most students don’t know this and by the time they feel like joining it’s too late for them. That’s why I want to give an opportunity to those that couldn’t join or just can’t join to still be able to get their ideas and concerns with the board and in student council decision making.

• What new events would you bring to Prep for the students?

I have many ideas of events that I could help bring to students, many of them involve fundraisers though won’t be like the same fundraisers we’ve seen all year. These events include things such as movie night where you get to vote on the movie you watch or Pie-in-the face where you’ll be able to purchase pies that you could throw at any teacher you’d wish. Other events include, prom, spirit weeks, “Bring anything but a backpack” day, and possibly pep rallies.

ALISON RAMOS

• What qualities make you stand out among the candidates?

I have a number of qualities that make me stand out among the candidates. The first thing I would like to mention is my smile. Many parts of my personality and body have changed since I was younger, but my smile remains the same. My smile represents the me of the past, present, and future. It presents my playfulness when I was younger, my optimism of the present, and my hope for the future. It’s also pretty hard to miss my unique smile with a dimple on the right side. Another quality that makes me stand out among the candidates is how youthful I am. It is true that I am almost a senior, but when it’s time to have fun, I love to have fun. I enjoy the fun activities we as students get to participate in. I like doing things that some of my peers may think I’m too old to enjoy, like playing freeze tag with my friends. I hope to take this love of mine and put it into the events we host as a student council in the upcoming school year.

• If elected, what is the primary concern at Prep that you hope to address?

The primary concern at prep I hope to address if elected is prep pride. I mention this topic in speech, but it’s a lot deeper than how I made it sound. School pride goes into more than just wearing the uniform and the ID. While it is certainly important to wear our uniforms, we have to tackle the root of the problem. Students are out of uniform because they don’t feel like wearing what is required of them. School pride will give the motivation to abide by the dress code. For example, since we began allowing students to wear shirts that relate to extracurriculars, more fall into the category of being in uniform because they find that these are favorable. I am one of those students who wears shirts of the extracurriculars I have whenever I can. It is a way to show what I am involved in, or have been involved in. Passaic Preparatory Academy as a whole has become open minded when adapting the dress code policy, and that’s something that can be respected from the student standpoint. Addressing the issue of why students are out of dress code is just one of the many ways we can begin to increase school spirit.

• What new events would you bring to Prep for the students?

The events that I am interested in implementing aren’t necessarily new, but I haven’t seen them in quite some time. Last year, as a vice president candidate, I stated that a goal of mine was to get high school field day back. There were so many problems in the planning process that we couldn’t make it happen this year. However, my friend and vice president candidate Jessica brought up a point that is sure to increase our chances of having a successful field day in the spring of 2025. I have also come up with solutions to common problems that teachers have with hosting a high school field day again, such as the amount of students we had sitting around or not doing anything 2 years ago. One thing we could do is encourage students to bring blankets to act as picnic blankets and they can relax in the warming sun. Students can take a break from being on their feet and teachers can feel at ease knowing that all students are doing something. Another one, as I mentioned in my speech, is a talent show. I would love to bring back the way it was run during my sixth grade year. It was a professional event held in the evening with tickets and posters. In addition to being able to put myself out there, I got to witness the talent of people I hadn’t met before. I would like to change a couple of things though. For example, I’m not sure about judges or the types of prizes we will be handing out. I do know that some people have talent without an outlet to show it off in. I know plenty of talented musicians, dancers and singers who would thrive at a talent show, and maybe they’ll get recruited for something because of their performance. I’m very excited to put these ideas into practice because they mean a lot to me.