One by one, a quarter of the rising freshman class will give a speech to their class, having spent days writing and practicing, all for the chance to serve on the student council. All of them know that only four of them will be happy with the result.
Only a year later, there are only two candidates running for president, a few more for vice president, three for representative and one candidate running unopposed for secretary.
Diminishing enthusiasm for student council throughout the four years of high school is commonplace. Nobody wants to go up to the podium, give the same speech they’ve given two times already, just to find out that they lost again.
For Michele Santosuosso, the faculty sponsor of the student council, it’s a combination of stress and the fear of trying new things that keeps students from running.
“When you’re in eighth grade or ninth grade, people are trying to figure out what they want, and that’s fine. I love when a lot of people try new things,” Santosuosso said, “(It) takes a crazy amount of courage to go up there, because it’s nerve wracking. So that also could be part of it, not wanting to have to deliver a speech in front of your peers.”
For executive student council, eligible candidates have to have served on the student council before, whether during the year they’re running or before. Santosuosso wants to make sure that the people running know what they’re getting themselves into. Unopposed candidates don’t feel the same pressure to execute on them.
“The mindset of ‘Oh, this kid’s automatically gonna win so why even try?’ is what bums me out, because you never really know,” Santosuosso said, “I just would hope that if kids even had a glimpse of wanting to do it, they would do it.”
