Q&A: Class of 2021 Presidential Candidate Lawin Villena
PHONG HUYNH | APRIL 16, 2018 | Q&A
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) — The 2018 election season is here, along with an incoming group of class officer hopefuls. Be an informed voter and learn about your potential class officers.
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: What is your motivation for running?
LAWIN VILLENA: I chose to run because after seeing what the Parkland kids did about taking changes into their own hands, I felt motivated to do something like that on a much smaller scale.
DA: Why should the rising sophomore class elect you into office?
LV: I feel I could bring a lot of new ideas to the table that have not been done before. These ideas could really change how we look at our problems as a class and how we could solve them.
DA: What does being a leader mean? How would you embody this definition as freshman class president?
LV: It means being able to organize a group of people so that you can accomplish a common goal. I’d organize us as a cohort of sorts and make sure we can get everything we want to get done, and hopefully accomplish our goals that we as a class want to do.
DA: What personality traits that you possess do you think will help you be the class officer?
LV: I’m very easy to talk to so communication should not be a problem. I’m able to schedule myself well and keep pace so we don’t rush ourselves into anything — to make we are on track and do things as we need them to be done.
DA: What are some ideas you have for next year?
LV: After doing Multi, unity is one thing [I would improve]. I’d like to implement a system that rewards people who do extracurricular activities because it promotes unity throughout the class. A stronger, unified class means you perform better as a person inside and outside of school.
DA: How would you structure that system?
LV: We get a list of everyone who is signing up for extracurricular activities such as Multi, sports, clubs, etc. And then we reward those people for doing certain activities for those clubs, [such as] performing for Club Unity or Multi, winning meets, etc.
DA: What are some weaknesses you have and how would you work on them in order to be an effective leader?
LV: I can be disorganized with certain things, especially things I’m very disinterested in. I can get off topic just a bit — procrastination is a thing I struggle with. I’m very hesitant to new ideas but all it takes is just some convincing. I can be a bit of a pushover at times.
DA: What are some class issues that need to be addressed? Why?
LV: There seems to be a lot of responsibility put on to student for things they cannot control, such as sleep or being late and penalized for it. So trying to convince our teachers would be definitely difficult to let us solve [these issues], but that’s something in the school and it’s just coherent. Class unity, I feel like we could come closer as a class right now. Personally, I feel like it’s very divided and “clique-y” if you catch my drift. It seems like there is a lot of tension in between the groups that came from different middle schools [that] isn’t not cool and kind of lame.
DA: How would you balance the responsibilities of this job with other schoolwork and extracurricular activities?
LV: Schoolwork would always come first before extracurricular activities. If someone is struggling [academically] in a certain class, we could use that opportunity: if someone is doing well in that class and understands it could gain service hours by tutoring that person.
DA: What experience do you have that makes you fit for this position?
LV: In James Weldon Johnson College Preparatory School, I was one of the lead members of the swim team. I helped some of the new sixth graders on the team and people new to swim in general in technique and what they could do better to improve. I focused not on the negative but everything that we’re doing better and to amplify that.
DA: Who is a leader that inspires you? Why?
LV: My sister — she is the head of the [Stanton] dance team currently. She is a really great person. She is able to organize herself very well and others. She can really get things done with a group of people if she has the motivation to and she is an awesome person.
DA: How will you communicate with the rising sophomore class?
LV: Remind101 is currently working very well for the current freshman government, so I plan to use that. Google Documents and Drive are great [tools]. Straw Poll is great to get a survey of what people want to do.
DA: How would you improve the chances of winning pep rallies for your class?
LV: Out-of-the-box and really outrageous ideas seem to be what sophomores and seniors win with pep rallies. I’d like to organize some really “trying” ideas but I feel like in the end, they’d be worth it because it seems like the more effort you put to into winning it, the more reward you get.
DA: What were the problems that the current freshman class officers did not solve this year?
LV: Well, it seems like they didn’t address any problems so that was definitely a problem in itself. If you want to solve something, you have to admit that it’s there; and it seems like the class officers didn’t see any problems to solve but that in itself is kind of wrong because there is always problems you can try to improve, fix, resolve, etc.
DA: That is all. Thank You!