Each spring, Redwood holds sophomore, junior, senior and associated student body (ASB) elections. These elections are a chance for various students to step into leadership positions and for others to engage with the school through voting. 

ASB members represent the entirety of the student body, and their roles are typically filled by seniors, causing senior class elections to be unique. This year, many current class of 2023 officers won ASB positions, allowing students who may not have run otherwise to campaign for their class leadership positions. 

Caroline Goodrich, a senior class treasurer candidate, is running for the first time this semester. Goodrich joined the leadership class this past year and found inspiration to run from her experiences. 

“Since the fall, I’ve had a lot of great opportunities in [leadership], and I really admire our current class officers and what they do for our class. I would love the opportunity to help out our grade even more,” Goodrich said.

Chase Cordova, one of the other senior class treasurer candidates and leadership member, also views the leadership class as extremely helpful to anyone pursuing a larger role in their community. 

“Leadership gives you an outlet to be more involved in things, and not only in school events but in everything, [including] creating [events], fundraising and stuff like that,” Cordova said. 

The leadership class is involved in planning and fundraising for many different events and organizing clubs. Students who are elected as student body officers are able to lead many of these events, making the positions highly sought after. 

While plenty of students may be inspired to run, only one candidate can win. This year, several students are running for each position, adding a more competitive element. Oftentimes, the results come down to how students campaign. 

As new and returning candidates attempt to draw in voters, they take different routes in their campaigning strategies. Cordova combined online and in-person campaigning. 

“I have an Instagram account, a couple of posters up in the halls and a couple of flyers throughout the building,” Cordova said. 

Redwood has a very lenient process for campaigning, and students decide how they want to promote themselves. Senior class president candidate Magx Auerbach found the campaign process to be individualistic in that way.

“There’s a lot of freedom in how you want to advertise. The more effort you put into it, the more reward you get out of it. It showed that the people who campaign more may have more drive to get the position,” Auerbach said.

Since all officers are required to take the leadership class, the driven winners of the election benefit the leadership class by participating in the school events.

Since a portion of the class is voted in, voting has ample benefits for both individuals and the class as a whole, according to Goodrich.

“People should vote. One of the big [reasons] is that it’s practice for once we turn 18 and we’re allowed to vote in the real world. It’s practice, but also as part of our school community, our leadership won’t reflect us if we don’t vote. When only a few people vote for our leaders, ASB and student officers, they can be biased toward one perspective or one experience at Redwood. When we vote more, people have the opportunity to be heard. It reflects our student body in a way that makes everyone feel included,” Goodrich said.

If you have not yet voted, go to https://redwood.voting4schools.com/. Voting closes on Thursday at midnight.