Running for class president in sophomore year

ChopinsMuse

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Hey there,

I have a character who wants to become class president. She's been part of the Student Council since freshman, and I'm wondering if it's realistic for her to actually become president / run for president in the sophomore year. (So she's fifteen)

ETA: I'm from Australia, so please excuse my ignorance.
 
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cornflake

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Why wouldn't it be realistic for her to be class president? Or did you mean student council president, not class president?

Same as your other thread, it's entirely dependent on the school.

My school didn't have a student council or officers; I know people who were class presidents, student body vice presidents, etc., and stuff like student advisor... in other schools; their schools positions totally differed depending on the school.

There is NO universal school anything in the U.S.
 

ChopinsMuse

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Why wouldn't it be realistic for her to be class president? Or did you mean student council president, not class president?

Same as your other thread, it's entirely dependent on the school.

My school didn't have a student council or officers; I know people who were class presidents, student body vice presidents, etc., and stuff like student advisor... in other schools; their schools positions totally differed depending on the school.

There is NO universal school anything in the U.S.

I'm confused. So student council president and class president are different things, and not connected? So you can run for president without being on the student council. Or if the school doesn't have a student council... I don't know. I'm just going by what I read online.
 
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cornflake

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No... you'd be in the student council, as sophomore class president. That's not president of the student council. There's also junior class president, freshman... etc.
 

cornflake

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Stuff online is the same as stuff on TV -- it's likely the case for some schools, but, as there's not really an overarching authority w/re U.S. schools, some schools have no such thing.

Have you seen the show Glee? My small high school had no glee club, no band, god knows no cheerleaders, though we did have a couple of sports teams. A friend of mine went to a much larger school, but I still think there wasn't a glee club, and they had a bunch of sports, including fencing and crew (rowing) which a lot of schools don't.... some areas are very big on some sports, like football, some areas the schools don't have football teams, but might have crew. Some schools have a student council with class presidents, student body president, etc. Some schools have nothing like that, or have some rotating group of kids or randomly chosen from interested kids who serve on a student/faculty advisor committee.

Depends.

In general, student council and class presidents is pretty normal, ime.
 

Mclesh

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At my son's high school, any student could run to be a class officer. If they won, they would automatically become part of ASB (Associated Student Body, or student council) the following school year. ASB would also have their own election each year, and the ASB president position was only open to seniors. So each class would have its own president, then there would also be an ASB president.
 

Siri Kirpal

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I was raised in San Diego, and the system was much like what McLesh described. The head of the entire ASB (Associated Student Body) Council was the ASB President, and you had to be a senior to run for it. Or actually, you were voted in at the end of your Junior year for your senior year. (I hope that made sense.) You also had to keep your grades above a certain level. The guy who won for ASB president in my senior year failed one of his junior classes and so the guy who won the ASB VP position became President.

But each class year also had it's own President, Secretary, etc. For that, you had to be a member of that class. Again, the rule about grades applied, but otherwise anyone could run.

Popular people were more likely to win, but unpopular people could and did end up on ASB Council if they ran unopposed or if the position was appointed. Both happened to me. I was not popular, but ended up on ASB Council in both Junior High (equivalent of todays Middle School) and High School.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

frimble3

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I'm in Canada, and my high-school experience was decades ago, but, for comparison's sake:
In my jr. high school (grades 8-9-10) there was only one 'student council' for the school, no individual class officers. As far as I, or anyone I spoke to knew, the chief purpose of the council was arranging and advertising dances and other social events, and encouraging, by their own presence, clubs and sports. It was pretty much one big social activities group, and run by the kind of people who enjoy that kind of thing. The out-going, popular kids. There were 'elections' and such, but in general, once you got on the council, unless you really messed up, you were on it 'til graduation or you left the school. So, you might run for one of the 'lesser' positions in your first year, but by senior year, everybody pretty much knew who to vote for.

I knew one girl who took it seriously - she was smart, diligent, had good grades, but was neither social or popular, and thought the student council should be about actual issues - at the all-candidates meeting, she had an actual platform of reform, student rights, consultation with the school board, and letters to the provincial authorities. Everyone was polite enough not to laugh. She got a few votes from her friends, and some protest votes against the (pre-ordained) winner.
I also knew the winner, she was no wicked 'queen bee' type - she was also smart, diligent, and had good grades, but she was fun, social and knew how to throw a party. Just the unspoken qualities the job required.

I stopped paying attention in senior high school, but I got the impression it was much the same: basically something a kid could stick on a college application.
 

frimble3

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Unless it's a small school, and most students come from the same elementary school, I'm thinking that the chief obstacles to your character's becoming class president in her second year are 1) not enough of the other kids know her to be the kind of person who can run things and boss older students and 2) she'd be running against older kids who have put their time in, see it as their earned right, and who want the position for their college applications.
You'd have to really show why the other students would vote for her over people they've known for years. (Not that it couldn't be done. I can think of a few scenarios, but most would be votes against the other candidates, rather than votes for her. i.e. spite votes.)
 

cornflake

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Unless it's a small school, and most students come from the same elementary school, I'm thinking that the chief obstacles to your character's becoming class president in her second year are 1) not enough of the other kids know her to be the kind of person who can run things and boss older students and 2) she'd be running against older kids who have put their time in, see it as their earned right, and who want the position for their college applications.
You'd have to really show why the other students would vote for her over people they've known for years. (Not that it couldn't be done. I can think of a few scenarios, but most would be votes against the other candidates, rather than votes for her. i.e. spite votes.)

Most high schools, especially public ones, have most kids starting at the same time, in freshman year (9th), so someone running for class president in any grade is just as known to the other kids as anyone else. I mean some kids do end up at the same schools with kids they went to previous schools with, but in a general sense, you get thrown in the hopper again for h.s.

I know a bunch of private schools in which a lot of the kids start at kinder or pre-k and stay through 12th, but I can't think of any public school with that setup, at least in my neck of the woods.
 

ThunderBoots

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As you're learning, the situation varies. In my high school, we didn't have presidents for individual classes (freshmen class president, sophomore class president). There was a student body president, and that was it. You could be a freshman and run for president, but you would be unlikely to succeed.