The annual LLC elections are right around the corner but under a different name. StuCo election season is in full swing now, with the elections taking place on Friday, May 3rd during Networking, candidates are preparing their campaigns and speeches. To learn a little more about this process, we interviewed a few of the StuCo/LLC officers and candidates.
One of the most notable differences about the Learner Leadership Council (LLC) elections this year is the name: StuCo. According to Kadin Maxey (10), a StuCo member running for secretary, “[We] transitioned from LLC to StuCo since [StuCo] is more internationally recognized.” Being internationally recognized has its benefits, primarily being able to collect solicitations (asking for donations from companies and other organizations) without explaining the “Learner Leadership Council.” Khushee Vora, the StuCo treasurer added, “Some people thought we were a business LLC.” Furthermore, Gabriel Baquero (12), StuCo president believes that “The reason why we’re transitioning from LLC to StuCo is that when we went to conventions and conferences with the Texas Association of Student Councils, we’re more recognized as StuCo than LLC.” Gabe believes that one detriment of the transition is that New Tech’s Student Council does more than your average student council, and deserves a name that’s different from other student councils to recognize the hard work and effort that’s put into the student governmental body.
With this transition, StuCo had to modify some of its principles to encapsulate the name student council: Represent ALL students. To do this, StuCo completely reconfigured its election format, allowing all New Tech students to vote instead of just StuCo members. This drastic change completely changes the way candidates campaign. When Gabe was asked about his campaign strategy for LLC president last year, he simply stated, “[My] campaign strategy as a president is that there was no campaign strategy. In the previous years, only StuCo members were able to vote, for me, I just talked to every StuCo member.” After a few seconds of consideration, he added, “I also had a great speech and poster.” Khushee Vora (11), the current StuCo treasurer, who also campaigned for the StuCo Vice President today further explained the drastic change in the election process. “Campaigning last year was way more low-key, I just had to have a little poster and have it by me while I gave my speech inside LLC itself. It’s kind of what NTC does now. However, this year, it was school-wide. We were told about the changing campaigning in March and were allowed to start campaigning two weeks before the elections. There were also a lot more due dates this year, with the officer interest form due by a certain day with posters approved before that. Posters were due Tuesday [4/30/24], and we had a hard 3-minute speech time instead of between 3-5 minutes. We also could only run for one officer position instead of multiple.”
Speaking of campaigning, this year’s StuCo election has seen an enormous amount of campaign posters plastered in every place imaginable. With so many posters hung up, certain candidates have been using “unorthodox” methods to stand out from the crowd. Most notably, Izyan Sultanali, running for StuCo treasurer, not only hung up posters in the bathrooms above urinals but also printed two large high-quality posters that were hung from the cafeteria ceiling and on a wall in the media center. Mandaar Vaggar, seeing the benefits of the large poster strategy, decided to create his own poster made out of smaller 8.5×11 inch pieces of paper taped together, thereby starting the “big poster wars.” When we asked Gabe about his thoughts on the poster, he said, “I like it, interesting way of doing campaigning.” Maanas Rastogi (12), a member of StuCo chimed in, “It’s an interesting way to spend money.”
All this time and effort for what? Well, there are 5 leadership positions in StuCo. Firstly, there is the StuCo president who is according to Gabe, “Basically in charge of everyone.” The StuCo president assigns tasks, oversees events, and coordinates with administrators, staff, and sponsors. On top of that, they are in charge of learner and staff member of the month. Khushee Vora (11), a StuCo officer summarized the rest of the positions. The second position is vice president. The StuCo vice president works closely with the president to make sure StuCo is running smoothly, plans leadership lessons, and fills out paperwork for the Texas Association of Leadership. The next StuCo officer position is secretary. This predominately administrative position is in charge of attendance, meeting notes, giving StuCo updates, and is expected to attend PTSO meetings. Another important StuCo officer position is treasurer. The treasurer is responsible for filling out financial paperwork, updating financial records, and getting all the purchase orders when something needs to be bought for StuCo. Lastly, the publicist is in charge of social media, the officer board, and oversees all posters.
All this effort is in exchange for an incomparably rewarding experience. As summarized by Gabe, “I learned a lot in my 3 years as LLC, I’ll miss it when I leave, I love LLC, it was a great experience and I learned grown a lot.” Tejas Bhatia, StuCo secretary elaborated upon that by summarizing, “StuCo has given me countless opportunities to grow and develop as a leader. Firstly, organization is incredibly important to my role as not just the Secretary, but as a Senior Student Council Officer. I may be managing 10 different tasks at once, and utilizing methods such as Google Calendar or a Spreadsheet to organize my tasks allowed me to work more efficiently. In addition, my attention to detail increased through StuCo. As a perfectionist, I seek out any opportunity to fine-tune even the smallest details in what I do, and StuCo has allowed me to build on this trait, especially when working on the Silent Auction for Spring Fling. On this note, I would also emphasize that StuCo teaches you to have a growth mindset — which is critical to leadership. You have to be receptive to feedback from your sponsors and peers to ensure that you can always improve your skills as a leader.”
Congratulations to all the new LLC officers for the 2024-2025 school year:
- President – Angie Mawani
- Vice President – Vishwas Vijayan
- Secretary – Jessica Bunting
- Treasurer – Sahana Vijayan
- Publicist Jimin Park
