As the lights dim and the chatter stops, senior and Student Council President Alex Soliz enters the stage and screams at the top of his lungs, “LET’S GET STARTED!” Students rise to their feet, clapping and cheering. In the eyes of the many, Soliz looks like an experienced leader and someone who has led assemblies for years, but in reality, this is Soliz’s first year in Student Council ever.
Only a year ago, Soliz thought he could become a larger leader on campus. Apart from his role on the varsity soccer team and other extracurriculars, outside of school, Soliz felt that his schedule was unimpactful and boring.
“Last year, the only things I did outside of school was watch movies and do homework,” Soliz said. “That was it.”
With a couple months left in school last year, Soliz became interested in Student council and how it operated.
I went to the student council meetings for a few months just to see how things work,” Soliz said. “They were very helpful and inviting to me.”
As he kept going to meetings, Soliz became more intrigued in possibly running for president. Sal Hussein, the former president of the student council, was a large role model to Soliz and ultimately inspired him to run for president.
“I think Sal is a role model for me,” Soliz said. “I very much look up to him and what he did last year. I feel like last year was a lot better than in years past.”
Throughout his tenure as president, Soliz has spent a lot of time throughout the summer and on a daily basis planning and organizing events for students to enjoy.
“There is a lot more planning than you think,” Soliz said. “We plan events a week to two weeks before they actually happen. As far as ideas go, I choose ideas that I think would be fun for students like assemblies and football games which require managing and organizing. I spend an hour to two hours organizing these things every day.”
Throughout his first couple of weeks as president, Soliz has shown no signs of backing down from his role, and he feels that the importance of his work will be shown not through his own leadership, but rather the entirety of the senior class.
“I want my legacy to be tied to our class,” Soliz said. “We are all friends, and I want us to be the most unified class.”
