The following are interviews between members of The Spartan Forum and the 2024-25 Executive Candidates.
2024 ASB Executive Position Candidates
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2024 President
Archita Chopra – 11th Grade
What’s prepared you to take on the role of president?
I’ve been in ASB since I was a freshman and I’ve done a wide variety of positions. I’ve been on class council, class council executive, class council appointed. I was on ASB exec as a sophomore as well as this year. Being able to serve in a lot of different positions has allowed me to get lots of experience with that, and I feel like I can serve the student body best because of that experience.
How has your experience as vice president prepared you for your presidency?
It’s fun to be vice president and see how the class is run, and you learn about how all the cool systems like the sports and the clubs and how intricate all these systems really are. It’s been really cool getting firsthand experience on how to plan all these things and that’s how I feel really qualified for next year.
How do you plan to fulfill previous and future goals?
I want to make sure that we continue everything that the student body receives well and enjoys, because that’s what matters and what we’re here for, and if they don’t like it then there’s no reason for us to continue it. I want to make sure that we do a lot better with student feedback. It’s hard right now for students to tell ASB what you want unless you know someone, which isn’t okay. [We need to] make sure that it’s super easy for the students to be heard, and that way we can do the things that they really want to see.
What’s your plan to get more students involved in school events?
What ASB should work on is, we stick to tradition. That’s great for things like homecoming, Tolo, but I think it’s important to change things when they’re not working. Sometimes a lot of our events cater to very specific groups of people. We need to expand that. We need to do a better job of creating new things, that’s something I really want to work on next year, and making sure I get ideas directly from people, rather than just brainstorming what I think would be great. We need to host things people have said they want to see.
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2024 Vice Principal Candidates
Juanito Yi – 10th Grade
Elsa Huber – 11th Grade
What are your expected roles as vice president?
Juanito: What I expect coming into this is basically assisting a wide variety of events and school responsibility. I’m not expected to have a specific job. I want to have diverse activities that [students] can participate
Elsa: My expected roles as vice president clubs here at skyline and running the ASB Instagram page.
What makes you qualified for this position?
Juanito: I don’t really want to promote myself, because to be honest, a lot more people are more qualified in terms of their skills and traits compared to me for this position.
Elsa: I’ve been in ASB for 3 years, a freshman, and this year I am currently on the executive board as the director of assemblies.
What is your motivation for running for this position?
Juanito: I have a goal in what I’m trying to do and it’s meaningful to me. I see that my identity is not really represented and reflected in leadership positions, mostly because of my ethnicity, again I don’t care about school that much and because the nature of that most people don’t take the initiative and try to sign up for leadership positions. I should take my time and express their opinions in our school. I see most of the ASB positions are female students and most of them are not my ethnicity which is Asian American. I just want to step out there and try to represent my community
Elsa: My motivation is that I really wanted to feel umm without having any close friends at skyline and communicating with … and creating an Instagram for the clubs just like so that they can be successful in working with ASB.
What changes do you hope to see take place at Skyline?
Juanito: This is one thing I’ve not really thought about, because I’m not fully informed of what changes I can be of influence so I’m not currently able to answer that question.
Elsa: Next year, like I’ve been saying that this communication is wonky here in school, so I want to continue building that up and I just want to make sure that thing… have been you’ve had one present everywhere this year, so continue doing that next year so that everyone has a place here at Skyline.
What separates you from the other candidates?
Juanito: “I’d say I’m, at least to my knowledge, I’m more connected to my community than the other candidate, and I’ve had past experiences, I won’t say I’m better than them, but I have a lot of experiences from the past. I participated in a council in my last school, which was in Canada. I was part of a music council; I also was a valedictorian of that school, so I have experience with speeches and everything. I also participate in extracurricular groups. In the past I was in a Chinese society which helped elders get familiar with culture here.”
Elsa: What separates me is just that I had this ASB experience for my 3 years here at Skyline and I’ve been able to learn the insides and outs of being in a leadership role, I know what it takes to be a good leader.
What does being a Skyline Spartan mean to you
Juanito: This school has a lot of high expectations, everyone here is striving to be their best and everyone is trying to be a part, and being at skyline means to put out your best effort to do everything you can do to help people around, not only yourself Which I find very different from my past experiences, my past schools. Everyone here is helpful and caring, and that’s just one of the important things that skyline Spartans stand out from others.
Elsa: I think being here at Skyline means being involved, being committed to doing something to help the school which a lot of us do.
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2024 Director of Student Activities Candidates
Tanush Bhatia – 10th Grade
Eshaan Emani – 9th grade
Abi Gallinger – 10th Grade
What inspired you to run for the Activities Coordinator?
Bhatia: “So what inspired me was that last year I tried to make a club and I was wasn’t able to cause of that I kind of got inspired to like I don’t want anyone who like want to further um their interest to um well I mean it depends on like the club requirements are I still want them to be encouraged to like making that club. But also, what in courage me was I want to create a more diverse community I want everyone to be heard seen and appreciated for their contributions”
Emani: “The clubs are such a vibrant part of the school culture. I’d like to expand on that and make it more welcoming for students because right now some students are confused about what to do and what options they have and sometimes there’s clubs that aren’t available to them and being the director of student activities I could help guide those students or even introduce clubs that might like continue their interest in school.”
Gallinger: “I wanted to run in general because this year I joined ASB, and it’s been super fun, I’ve really enjoyed staying involved and getting to go to all the events to see kind of what my peers do in school and outside of school, I like to see their extracurriculars and talents. I wanted to be director of student activities specifically because I’m super involved in Skyline already. And I already have a lot of ideas to make clubs and activities even better. I also have a lot of Ideas for fun advertising for sports events and new activities in school. I have a lot of personal experience as a student athlete and someone in clubs.”
What would you do as Activities Coordinator to get more people involved?
Bhatia: “regarding student engagement well obviously at skyline there’s obviously a huge diverse activities to choose from like there’s like 80 plus clubs which you can join but mainly I want to do is mainly bring more diverse more inclusive, environment no club or no association is going to deny some based on sex, gender, um race or anything like that attributes that they currently have. I just want it to you know open equal I’m just trying too make it more inclusive”
Emani: “For activities like capture the flag, I noticed that there weren’t as many people in attendance as I expected. There were still many people but I was expecting a huge event. [It was just introduced using] fliers around the school. I feel like that isn’t the best way to introduce something to students because many people that attend the events are going to be freshmen because its their first time experiencing this. For example, the volleyball event that’s something that’s about to go on. There are better ways to gain people’s interest than posters. Emails are doing kind of playing their part, but not really. It should be advertised in a different way. Right now people think they need to be really good at volleyball. I feel my primary goal is to make it more clear that it’s open to everyone in the school. It needs to give you the feel of being more open and introduce freshman and everyone to the event and make them feel welcome. Many of the freshman might be willing to participate but they feel like they need to be good at the sport to show up.”
Gallinger: “I think we could work on advertising. I think something we need to do is advertise earlier for events, and then also going around and talking to people during lunch to personally connect with them and get them to come to events after school or participate in after school activities.”
How would you accomplish these goals as Activities Coordinator. ?
Bhatia: “Right now at the moment I don’t have a clear exact plan cause like cause once i get onto the ASB executive board then I need to know what the plan, what the their guide lines like what their goals is and based on that like I can I can align my blue print and make it more of a like what their trying to achieve”
Emani: “I feel like there needs to be a point of interest especially for upperclassman. I know a few upperclassman that I’m friends with and they all have other commitments that they need to work on so they have other out of school commitments and possibly, generally, when i organized something in past years, or in middle school I’ve generally tended to take a poll from other students to see what is working best for them. The majority of people think about “ok yeah maybe Friday after school is best for the majority of students”. Also organizing it where before the event is finalized, there is interest, you understand the interest behind it because for example capture the flag, the great idea was doing the form, but it should’ve been before actually finally planning it out.”
Gallinger: “I think having more events for recognition in general for clubs would be important, because I feel like a lot of times that happens for sports, and not for clubs. I think posts on Instagram or just like posters around the school recognizing clubs’ accomplishments and appreciation for green team and other important clubs would all be good. I would also like to see more food trucks and more socials, like with our monthly activities after school.”
What else are you involved with within skyline other than ASB?
Bhatia: “Yes so other than ASB I’m involved in the technology student association, I’m the secretary in that club and funny enough I actually have that today”
“I also play chess last year there was like Washington state championship and with luck I somehow won 1st place in that. I love chess, I also do math club and enjoy that as well, and debate club”
Emani: “For freshman year I took robotics and forensics and I have a passion in robotics, so that’s something I wanted to pursue and it’s a really welcoming club. Anyone can join. You can start from anywhere whether you’re advanced or low-level. I’m personally somewhere in the middle. I took forensics because that was one of the clubs that interested me. I had never seen that anywhere in other districts, anywhere and it’s something I had an interest in. I do some competitive coding but that’s only some weeks of the year so that’s not going to affect any duties I may have. I have that all managed. If I were to get into ASB I’d be allocating one of those time slots to that while also continuing my other extracurriculars.”
Abi: “I play soccer at Skyline, and I play soccer outside of school. I’m in Deca, and I’m a new member of the Women in Leadership Club. I also do track and I do a lot of volunteering with the food Bank and Breakfast Club in Seattle. Well I am a working member of ASB, so I’ll work in class to make sure I have everything planned because that will be my committee for next year. I will use that time towards planning club and sports stuff. I will also make sure to dedicate time after school and have it be a priority in my life.”
Do you have anything unique that you want to bring into activities?
Bhatia: “Well one of the things that are unique just to me is my prior leadership experience that I can bring to this skyline leadership team to basically enhance it and like that includes being on the secretary of major nonprofit empowering I also I am the secretary of TSA .I also currently have my own non-profit which has impacted over 130 students in India”
Gallinger: I’d love to do a tailgate sometime in the spring, because I know March and those months in the spring are just not really fun. I think doing another tailgate maybe before a boys soccer game or something. We only have one tailgate a year and it’s like the football one, which is super fun. It gets clubs involved and like there’s food trucks and a lot of activities for students. So I think having another one sometime in the year would just be something fun to look forward to.
What does being a Skyline Spartan mean to you personally?
Bhatia: “A Skyline Spartan that’s a great achievement you could be cause skyline, skyline is known for its academics it’s sports its known a lot of good things so being a skyline spartan is, is to me a honor and that’s one of the reason why I am going for director of student activities so that I can pursue that”
Gallinger: “A Skyline Spartan that’s a great achievement you could be cause skyline, skyline is known for its um its academics its like sports its known a lot of good things so being a skyline spartan is, is to me a honor and that’s one of the reason why I am going for director of student activities so that you know I can pursue that”
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2024 Secretary Candidate
Ethan Qin – 10th Grade
What do you expect to do as Secretary?
I’m planning on implementing a thing called “The Secretary Seconds” Whenever we have a committee or a meeting, I’ll post there (on Instagram) a short summary of our discussion, so people know what you’re doing
What makes you qualified to have this role?
As someone who has not been in ASB previously, I bring a new perspective to the table that can help us figure out some solutions.
Do you participate in any extracurriculars outside of Skyline?
I’m in the boy scouts and I play tennis, and I run.
How do you plan to balance them overall?
I think that time management is one of my strengths so using your morning effectively and schooltime effectively to get all your work done so you can focus on your roles after school. It’s using your morning and nighttime effectively as well as the school time that I’m given
Why is having this role important to you?
It’s not only an opportunity to improve the school but to gain some new skills myself so I want to get better with my leadership and my public speaking and especially my organization because secretary is a role that deals with a lot of organizing.
What does a secretary do?
I manage clubs so when clubs have their meetings; they have to coordinate their times and I’m the one who records that and takes notes during committee meetings, and I approve requests for money for clubs.
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2024 Treasurer Candidate
Avery Clayton – 10th Grade
What do you expect to do as Treasurer?
Clayton: I expect to manage the funds and holding more fundraisers to collect more money for ASB and distributing that out for clubs and putting in more money for events so we can hold bigger events
What makes you qualified to have this role?
Clayton: I think I’m qualified to be treasurer because I’ve been involved in leadership and ASB for about 7 years now and I’m very familiar with how everything runs in terms of money and finances.
What is something you would like to improve/change in regard to the ASB budget?
Clayton: I would like to delegate more money to clubs, and we have a lot of extra money at where we don’t need right now, and I’d like to switch around so that we can put more money towards holding more events. One example is putting more money towards out monthly events cause they’re free to students
Do you participate in any extracurriculars outside of Skyline?
Clayton: I’m on the Skyline soccer team. I’m also on the Skyline track team and I play for Liverpool Soccer Club.
How do you plan to balance your extracurriculars with school and ASB?
Clayton: I’ve been into leadership positions before and I’m conscious on how much time I’m spending towards each thing and not spreading myself to thin, and I like to schedule out everything and plan ahead to make sure I have time to complete all my tasks.
Why is having this role important to you?
Clayton: It’s important to me because I just love leadership and I want to get even more involved in the school and I just want to build a community in Skyline and make sure everyone’s welcome.
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Director of Assemblies
Lyla Myhre -10th Grade
How would you impact being the director of assemblies?
Myhre: I’ve been in ASB for two years and I have been super fortunate to have seen two really amazing directors of assembly in action, and I’m really, really inspired by Gabbi (?) and Elsa, and for me, my goal is just to take what they’ve created, which is so fantastic, and just build on that and just keep progressing, because I think, it’s so easy to keep things the way they are; but for me, it’s really important, to see things improve over time. And even after I leave this position, or leave this school, I hope that I’m able to set assemblies on the track of like, improving year after year. Because I don’t think you can ever really achieve perfection, but I think you can get closer and closer; every single time.
What would you like to build upon or change going into next year?
Myhre: I really love the structures of assemblies, for me personally, I think games are so much fun and I really love being able to see the student engagement with all of those. Just trying to come up with ways to make the boring parts of assemblies a little less boring, and trying to switch things around, to make them a little bit different and new for the students from the assemblies that have come the last couple years.
How can we balance having a fun assembly and sometimes more serious?
Myhre: I totally understand what you’re saying, at the start of the year we have homecoming, and week of welcome, and these fun assemblies which I feel are always a hit. And then we get into recognition assemblies, so, so important to recognize all the people in sports and clubs and everything, but I totally get it, as a student, I totally get feeling this way, you’re just sitting there and listening to peoples accomplishments, so I’d love to be able to make it a little bit more interactive, try and bring sports teams down on the floor, and have them play a game while we talk about all their accomplishments, just try and make it more interesting and attention grabbing for the students in the audience.
And then as for, more serious assemblies like we had an MLK assembly and I feel like that went really well, I really appreciated that we had a speaker, and we had the BSU involved, I think that was a really awesome way. So, I would totally be more interested in more clubs, and more really experienced knowledgeable people to help us out on assemblies like that.
Any extracurriculars and experience?
Myhre: I lead a Klahanie youth council in my neighborhood a couple times a month, and I’m also a camp counselor in the summers. I take what I do in ASB and try to apply that to the neighborhood I live in, try and help other middle and high school students find their place as a leader in their community.
What does being a Skyline Spartan mean to you?
Myhre: I think it’s super important for a well-rounded Skyline Spartan to just be involved in their community, and most of all, follow the passion that feels important to you. Trying to find the things that you love, and then incorporating that into your life, and trying to spread that with other people. We are in such a big school that we have the opportunity to impact so many people in different ways. Not necessarily leadership but just getting involved in different positions.
What makes you qualified for this position?
Myhre: I’ve been in school affiliated leadership programs since elementary school, student council, I was in ASB in my middle school, and then high school. So, I’ve been doing this for a really, really long time. And I’m so lucky that I found it because it’s something I’m really, really passionate about. Without ASB this school would be a lot more boring and a lot less colorful and fun. I take pride in a lot of what we do.
What is your role as Director of Assemblies
Myhre: Assemblies work in a committee most of the time, director of assemblies stays in the committee year-round, and other ASB students rotate. What a lot of people don’t realize about being director of assemblies is it’s not just planning games and planning the fun stuff, there’s a lot of stuff that actually goes into it, we have to make the slideshows, and then match it up with the script, come up with whoever is going be the Sparty, sometimes that changes, finding the MCs, and we have assembly rehearsals at least two weeks ahead of time. There is a lot of work for all of ASB.
Why do you want to be the Director of Assemblies?
Myhre: I was really drawn to director of assemblies for two reasons, one is the logistical, like planning side of things, I really enjoy information organizing and creating kind of plans. But I’m also so excited to plan games, I love student feedback, I love to do teacher involvement. I think people love that. I can have a great time with this, and this is something that completely aligns with my interests.
Sometimes I think we only represent ASB when we should represent the whole school really, and so I think that by reaching out to the rest of the student body, we have a better opportunity of achieving that.
I’d really like to be able to prove to students that they want to come to assemblies, and they want to be able to learn something, or to have a good time, or just be proud to be a Skyline Spartan. Show their school spirit
How can Assemblies be used to build school spirit?
Myhre: I’ve been doing research and trying to find some ideas, I think that I love the school spirit of seniors, senior power all that, but I’d love to be able to expand that to juniors, and sophomores, and freshman. Not to keep talking about games, but what I’ve seen goes well is people love being able to root for a side.
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Director of communications
Gavin Gardner- 10th Grade
What is your role in ASB and what is your impact on Skyline?
Gardner: “I am an ASB appointed officer, So I have the position. I have the ability to do liaison positions. I was decor liaison during homecoming, so I helped decorate homecoming. I spent parts of some other events and I make sure that there’s an equal vote for things that people are trying to purchase for clubs, all those sorts of things.”
What does communications do? What are you going to do with this role?
Gardner: “The Director of Communications works with SPTV to inform students about upcoming events. ASB events try to keep people in the loop and the communications helps run some of the ASB Instagram, you also work on pack the racks, so you plan themes all those sorts of things making sure that it’s inclusive enough for everybody to participate.”
What makes you qualified to have this role?
Gardner: “I would say that as a general leader, I try to keep things pretty balanced, so I think that in signing up for this position I knew that it’s going to be a lot of me trying to figure out how everybody can stay equal. So, I think that coming from the position of we should all be equal in general thank that should really help me with this position and I also think that being creative would really help and so I would say that I’m a creative person.”
Do you participate in extracurricular activities?
Gardner: “I am on the skyline swim team and I’m also on the Issaquah Sockeye swim team. I sometimes go to the skyline forensic club meetings, and I am a frequent visitor of sports games baseball football basketball all such”
How do you plan to balance the two?
Gardner: “It’s actually easier than I thought it would be, especially with this year. I like to keep it so that things are done, so making sure that things I need to prioritize, things that need to get done, and then maybe homework or things that aren’t exactly worth points, I use those to study for finals, keep those as something I can do later, or maybe catch up on, but making sure that I prioritize important things. I’m putting myself in this ASB position, so it’s going to be a priority for me so it’s going to come before some other things, there’s sacrifices pushing pulls for everything”
Do you have any specific plans to offer more communication in Skyline?
Gardner: “I’d actually like to work with STPV a little bit more. I don’t know if the current director of communications is doing that right now. That’s like this or anything. It’s just saying. And I’d also like to maybe get a voice on people that are hosting events that don’t typically get a voice. So maybe like having a section in the Instagram where people can upload things that they’re doing. Maybe people can take pictures,they should get recognized because they’re doing a great job and so when people are doing a great job, they should be recognized.”
What would you like to see change this year?
Gardner: “I’d like to see a lot more involvement and a lot of the events that have gone to, it’s really only been ASB and a couple of other people. I really like to see a lot more people coming and inviting themselves into the environment because once you go, it’s going to be really awkward when you first go. Then once you start to, you know, get into it and you can start getting to the motion, it gets really fun, and you start to actually enjoy yourself. And I think that that’s what a lot of people a but then it’s going to get to a lot of fun, so they just got to push past the awkwardness”
Why is having this role important to you?
Gardner: “I really like to have a voice and I think that a lot of people don’t get a voice. And so, I’m kind of hoping that I can be a voice for some people who don’t have it. And I think that as an ASB appointed officer, I don’t really get to say as much as I would like to say. But with the exact board position, I could maybe speak a little bit more on the values that I have and little bit more of what people are kind of missing out on.”
