As Ida B. Wells High School students gear up for the Associated Student Body (ASB) election this week; they’re curious about who and what they’ll be voting for. This article breaks down the roles of each ASB position, and you’ll get the opportunity to meet each candidate and decide who you’ll cast your vote for this Friday, March 3. 

Abigail Griffin, freshman English and leadership teacher at IBW shares that our new ASB team will be responsible for “serving our student body through their ability to hear student voices and improve our school community.” 

ASB Co-Presidents

Griffin highlights changes we’ll be seeing to the way that ASB is composed this year, including the shift from having both a president and vice president to increase efficiency by incorporating two co-presidents. As the “face of ASB,” Griffin says their responsibilities will involve “managing ASB meetings and tasks, being central representatives between students and district level administration, as well as talking to the media.” Below, you can read about our candidates for ASB president: Lucia Donovan, Amelia Garrahan, and Cole Schmidt.

Lucia Donovan (she/her): Lucia was motivated to run for co-president by community encouragement. As president of Positive Charge Club, she has spearheaded multiple activities including our winter clothing drive, making valentines for senior citizens, and participated in the Southwest Hope food drive. She also organized a voter registration drive earlier in the year through her position as school captain for Tina Kotek’s gubernatorial campaign, as well as organizing and speaking at the school wide Measure 114 rally which was attended by over 120 IBW students. She’s been a member of both varsity golf and lacrosse throughout her time at Wells. Her campaign headers are: improving school supports for sexual violence survivors, increasing opportunities for affinity clubs to hold schoolwide cultural events, as well as changing flex time to be a full hour to increase student support. She is excited to work with the rest of ASB to create an exciting school environment next year. 

Amelia Garrahan (she/her): Amelia’s passion for invoking change and desire to improve the school climate, as well as her ability to connect with students led her to run for co-president. As a Girl Scout, future co-captain of IBW softball, and co-lead of IBW’s Communicare club –which grants money to local nonprofits– she has plenty of experience in leadership roles both inside and outside of school. She hopes to break the barrier of communication between the leadership program and the rest of the student body, make school events an opportunity for class bonding, and increase student involvement in clubs, athletics, and other school activities. She hopes to start up regular news video broadcasts to increase student awareness and involvement in school events. She is excited to work with the rest of the ASB team and connect with the rest of the student body. 

Cole Schmidt (he/him): Cole’s passion for improving the experience of IBW students led him to run for co-president. He is a member of IBW’s varsity snowboarding team, and is currently serving as captain of the team, which has grown under his leadership to include almost 80 students — which is the biggest snowboard team in Oregon’s history. Cole hopes to strengthen communications between student leaders and faculty through maintaining regularly scheduled conversations where they can address issues from both perspectives. He also wants to work on equal opportunities for students to be involved in different clubs, classes, and school programs. His last campaign header is improving the roadways around IBW to increase safety in the school community. He is excited to improve everyone’s high school experiences next year. 

District Student Council Representative

Another new role IBW’s ASB will be introducing this year is the District Student Council representative. Our student council representative will “serve as our chief liaison between us as a school and the district” says Griffin. As PPS is a considerably large district, meetings with all the student council representatives will “help to centralize the most important issues to address.” Below, you can read about our candidates for student council representative: Cale Barlett, Rory Daniels, Mackenzie Deveraux, and Eesa Taylor. 

Cale Barlett (any pronouns): Cale’s desire to see our inclusivity and diversity celebrated inspired them to run for district student council representative. They are determined to eradicate instances of racist language, hate speech, and lack of respect for gender identity in order to increase the feeling of safety for all students at school. Cale believes this role is all about using the platform to the best of their ability, and plans to ensure that all student voices are heard. They are honored by the opportunity to and feel empowered by being a consistent advocate for the school community regardless of the response from others. Their time in YOUTH ERA gave them the skills to discuss issues such as racial injustice in a non judgemental space, as well as effectively listen to the experiences of others, which will be a major asset to bring to this position. Cale is ahead of the game, having already initiated conversations with many students and members of administration they would be working with if elected to this position. They are hoping to make the gender neutral bathrooms a more accessible and safe space for students who need the space. Cale is most excited to be a consistent advocate for students in a way that hasn’t been done before at IBW. 

Rory Daniels (she/her): Rory’s goal of creating and maintaining a positive and safe school environment was her motivation to run for district student council representative. She’s been serving on the school climate committee throughout this year and hopes to continue fostering students’ passions for ensuring that their peers feel welcomed at school. Since working on school climate is such a big part of the role, Rory feels grateful to have the opportunity to be in this position and is hopeful that she would be able to share ideas and concerns from IBW students on a larger scale. She is determined to hear student voices and respond effectively and efficiently, and understands that her ability to impact our community in this way will be increased should she be elected. Rory takes school climate seriously and intends to leave lasting change following her graduation. She is most excited about getting things done on a district level, educating more people about the importance of school climate, and impacting as many PPS students as possible. 

Mackenzie Deveraux: was not interviewed

Eesa Taylor (he/him): Eesa’s passion for evoking direct change inspired him to run for district student council representative. He prioritizes ensuring that student voices are heard and action is taken to implement programs that have students’ best interests in mind. By confronting issues head on, Eesa is hopeful that the DSC position will change issues within the school, as well as impacting school climate on a larger scale through the district. He wants to build a strong legacy around the new position and enact beneficial changes for students and faculty alike. Eesa emphasizes that this position is irreplaceable and hopes to give the role an important legacy that allows for and facilitates change. As a member of leadership, Eesa knows the foundations of a charismatic leader who can listen to the experiences of those around him. As a past member of No Place For Hate, he understands the importance of uplifting voices of underrepresented communities within school. Eesa also plans to create a ranking system for issues that members of our school community experience. Giving us an outlet to voice concerns, he will be able to address each experience and collaborate with the district to improve our school climate. He will use this opportunity to brainstorm how to best support students, like himself, who feel strongly about changes we need to make regarding issues befalling all school community members. Eesa is most excited about enacting change on both a school-wide and district level, as well as collaborating with his peers to create solutions to district-wide concerns. 

Communications Director

The communications elect will be focused on our social media presence as well as Trivory and sending out weekly newsletter content for Leanne Van Horn. Griffin says she hopes she can spread some of the responsibility among multiple ASB positions in order to increase efficiency. “Instead of having a few people do everything, I want to have more people doing small things with more attention.” Below, you can read about our candidates for communications: Georgia Fleschner, Quinlyn O’Neill, Sebastien Porter, Maimuna Saeed, and Cadence Shaver. 

Georgia Fleschner: was not interviewed

Quinlyn O’Neill (she/her): Quinlyn’s passion for graphic design, as well as her experience as an athlete on the volleyball team at IBW has led her to run for communications. She’s hoping to expand our social media presence to include extracurricular events and after school activities. She wants to be a source of information about weekly events occurring at school for curious community members. She is a current member of leadership on the spirit athletic and rose court committee, as well as creating posts and posters for the volleyball team. She’s excited about maintaining attendance at spring sports games, as well as promoting non-athletic events on the leadership page so there’s a wide range of events being publicized. She hopes to be accessible to students who want to share information and promote events students can be involved in and attend throughout the school year. She’s excited to see the results of her hard work be recognized through higher attendance at school events. 

Sebastien Porter (he/him): Sebastien understands that to foster a positive environment surrounding social media, we have to use our large platform to amplify the voices of historically underserved communities. His extensive experience running social media for IBW includes four different accounts which has taught him to develop templates for posts, as well as maintaining social media calendars. He has been a consistent member of leadership throughout his time at high school, and believes that providing information surrounding events should be simple for both the creator and consumer of information via social media. As a member of No Place For Hate, Sebastien is hoping to take down accounts such as the IBW posture check and confessions which create negativity and hopes to produce more positive content to spread throughout the school community. He hopes to help the athletic and spirit commissioner(s) to centralize sports themes and create attendance records for all home games. Sebastien is also excited to work with and advocate for the affinity clubs so we’re able to showcase their activities via social media. He is determined to show other PPS schools that Ida B Wells is and will continue to be a powerhouse. 

Maimuna Saeed: was not interviewed

Cadie Shaver (she/her): Cadie was inspired by attending Ms. Griffin’s informational lunch and her previous role of head of yearbook department at South Salem high school. In this role, she created and authorized posts for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for the entire school community. Her additional experience working as floor guard at an indoor playground was another role in which she gained important leadership skills. Cadie plans to grow our social media presence by curating our social media accounts to be a place for community members to efficiently find information regarding school events. She is hoping to amplify student voices and hopes to work with the spirit and athletic commissioner(s) in order to increase community excitement surrounding clubs, theater productions, and sports games. Cadie is most excited about working with new people to achieve her goals and seeing students get excited about community events. 

Treasurer

Our new treasurer, Hunter Robertson will be creating a centralized budget document to clearly record, organize, and manage all of leadership’s expenditures and income in order to create an up to date balance sheet for ASB. He has extensive experience in budgeting for the Student Store and will be an important asset to ASB next year. 

Hunter Robertson (he/him): Hunter has extensive experience managing budgeting at the student store at IBW as well as being a varsity athlete on multiple sports teams, where he serves as a leader for younger athletes. He was encouraged to run for this position by Kevin Muroaka; the marketing teacher here at IBW. His impressive organizational skills will be a major asset to ASB next year as they create resources specific to leadership’s financials. Hunter is excited about getting more involved in the community and learning more about budgeting in multiple leadership positions. Hunter is excited to work with everyone and get started in ASB.

Secretary

“I think of the role of Secretary as my TA,” Griffin says. Responsibilities of their position will include taking minutes, managing to-do lists, as well as updating all the committee agendas. Below, you can read about our candidates for secretary: Eden Evans and Paxton Foster-Kramer.

Eden Evans (she/her): With Eden’s familiarity with leadership and passion for teamwork, she is hoping to contribute and give back to the community she knows so well. As a member of theater, she feels strongly about her ability to hear from everyone because she has so many connections through the many extracurriculars she’s involved in. She feels strongly about prioritizing student voices, because she understands how students can feel ignored or misheard by leadership. She emphasized the importance of community coming out of a pandemic, and hopes that she can include more students in school activities. She’s excited to work with everyone, and represent students to the best of her ability. 

Paxton Foster-Kramer: was not interviewed

Events Coordinators

Another change being implemented in ASB this year is the addition of a second events coordinator. Our events coordinators for next year are Jade Marotta and Delaney Starr. Both of them have impressive backgrounds in planning and organizing school events with experience in IBW leadership committees. They will be planning school dances, assemblies, movie nights, and other events, such as the recently founded Ida B. Flea. 

Jade Marotta (she/her): Jade’s passion for leadership expands outside of her ASB positions to her experience being a youth ambassador for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation as well as her participation in Speech and Debate and DECA. She has been a student representative for the past two years, and has served on site council which addresses school climate recently as well. She emphasizes that high school is an impactful time in people’s lives and hopes she can create the memorable experiences people will recall after graduation. She is the founder of this year’s new event: Ida B Flea and wants to brainstorm more new events to host as a student body. She hopes these events will build community among our school. Jade understands the importance of teamwork and how collaboration between community members can improve our student involvement. She is so excited to see the impact of her work as well as helping to manage committees and work with her friends on ASB. 

Delaney Starr (she/her): Delaney’s previous experience in IBW’s leadership program led her to be interested in event planning. She’s been the lead of the assembly committee this year, worked for a catering company for the past year, as well as being a captain of the JV soccer team. She’s currently a varsity track thrower and serves as an example for younger athletes. She hopes to make school events as enjoyable as possible while making the process of planning them as seamless as possible through collaboration with other ASB members. She is excited to get started. 

Spirit and Athletics Commissioner(s) 

This year, Griffin observed an “overwhelming overlap between the tasks of athletics and spirit commissioners.” While there are candidates campaigning for the position together, the election of this position will be done through rank choice voting. Once voting is completed, the top two candidates will be given the opportunity to serve in the position. Responsibilities include mapping out spirit weeks, collaborating with athletic staff, creating momentum beyond the fall sports season, as well as pushing attendance at events such as plays, concerts, and art shows. Below, you can read about our candidates for spirit and athletics commissioner: Sawyer Connel, Claire Dixon, Avery Dorfman, Skylar Livolsi, Dana Savage, and Justin Weinberg. 

Sawyer Connel (he/him): Sawyer’s passion for the position comes from his desire to increase attendance at sports games. He’s planning on ensuring that spirit week themes are relatable and easy, while maintaining enough variation to keep community members engaged throughout the week. Sawyer can’t wait to implement new incentives for increasing attendance at athletic events and non-athletic events alike. He understands that the best methods for getting community members involved in different activities depends on the event and plans to keep this in mind in order to keep momentum going throughout and after the fall season. Sawyer is excited to lead chants and see the results of his work showcased within student enjoyment at school events

Claire Dixon: was not interviewed

Avery Dorfman (she/her): Avery’s experiences as a student athlete and love for spirit weeks inspired her to bring that same love and energy to other students here at IBW. She looks forward to planning and promoting spirit weeks around holidays and big sporting events. Avery has an extensive resume as a highly involved community member and hopes to encourage other students to participate in school events as well. As a member of many different clubs, including being a co-president of both SAFER and Student Demand Action, Avery has a unique ability to use resources and connections from those programs to inspire the student body and establish an understanding for what students want. Avery hopes to incorporate more school spirit and energy into our school climate. She is excited to get others excited and increase participation in athletics as well as spirit weeks. Avery can’t wait to involve more students than ever and bring the energy next year. 

Skylar Livolsi (she/her): Skylar’s involvement with the athletic community at IBW inspired her to run for the position of spirit and athletics commissioner. She hopes that by providing a variety of options to participate in spirit weeks, she can bring more attention and positive energy towards the sports teams and games in order to build a strong community. Sky is determined to come up with creative, fun, and universal spirit themes to include as many community members as possible. She will be accessible to everyone to respond to feedback appropriately and issue polls to gauge interest and student ideas for new themes. Sky is passionate about finding new cheers, and incorporating new traditions into the experience of being in the student section. She hopes to add interactive and engaging elements of non-athletic events in order to increase attendance and enjoyment. Sky is most excited about bringing students together and seeing school pride increase. 

Dana Savage (she/her): Dana’s passion for making sure that all athletics teams receive attention and support as well as her love for community involvement helped inform her decision to run for spirit and athletics commissioner. Dana plans to collaborate with administration to brainstorm school-appropriate themes and ensure leadership was prepared by pre-ordering prize items for spirit week winners to be shown off during the spirit week assemblies. As a student athlete, Dana understands the importance of promoting athletic events beyond the fall season. She plans to make posters and announcements during the school day about upcoming games to ensure attendance and participation remain high. Dana also emphasizes the importance of increased attendance at non-athletic events. She wants to engage more students by offering prizes to attendees and having audience members participate in interactive games at these events. Dana is most excited about creating a community where students are proud to go to Wells and are enthusiastic about supporting their peers at school events. 

Justin Weinberg (he/him): Justin’s inspiration comes directly from the school community. Justin wants to empower both students and athletes when it comes to spirit weeks and sporting events. With a decrease in student attendance at sporting events this year, Justin feels there needs to be more student involvement and more community discussions on what the majority of people think is best. By bringing in incentives to sports games, such as raffles and halftime competitions, Justin hopes this will lead to an increase in school spirit and participation. Justin also notes that it is not just athletics that need an increase in participation, non-sporting events are also in need of advertising and school spirit. Justin plans on tackling this as well through talking to students and people directly involved in such events. Justin is excited for the opportunity to make the school a more fun and enjoyable environment for students. 

With new insight into the past experience of our candidates, hopefully you feel prepared to confidently cast your vote this morning. Good luck to all the candidates!