I hadn’t initially planned to run for SGA, but after the 2020 U.S. elections, I was inspired to run. I was able to to convince all of my friends to run for different positions along side me, hoping to win all the positions available to us. The previous school year, I had planned to run for Vice-President alongside a friend of mine, however we ultimately decided to not pursue it. This year, I felt that it would be the optimal opportunity to run, as this will help me prepare my time management and leadership skills prior to entering DP2. The first thing that we had to do was create campaign posters. We wanted to ensure that our campaign posters were of the highest quality, so we decided to create ours on Canva. It wasn’t too difficult, as there were many different preset templates and options available to us. What was most challenging was probably choosing a short slogan to write on poster, as it needed to be memorable, inspirational, and concise. I created the campaign posters for all of my friends running, which can all be seen below.
After a week of social media campaigning it was time to begin the campaign for the rest of the school. I decided that writing an email addressing potential voters would be the best idea. I needed to persuade people to vote for me, which meant that I needed to prove that I care for the people, as seen in my ending line, “A man of the people” specifically. It was important that I connected with those in our community and showed who I was actually running for, which was them. I was able to use skills that I acquired from L&L class in order to select the appropriate diction and tone in order for my email to be effective.
One of the most important learning outcomes that arose from this project came within the methods I used within my campaigning. I needed to recognize the ethics of my choices and actions because looking at the world today, there are an abundance of instances in which politics have become “dirty” and I did not want that to be the case this campaign. I understood that my campaign needed to be a positive one, as leaders should be role models to those they lead. I also respected my opponent greatly and I did not want to say anything that would degrade them in any way whatsoever. The objective I set was to create a campaign that would uplift myself and prove to voters that I would be a good president, rather than proving why my opponent wouldn’t be a good one. I made sure not to mention my opponent at all within my campaign, and I believe that this election was a clear and fair contest. The final step of my campaign was to create a campaign logo, which needed to connect my campaign with Azan’s. I also designed this logo using Canva as well, and I made sure to incorporate the school colors in order to ensure that it evoked and represented school spirit.
On voting day, I needed to record my speech, which was needed for the voters to watch briefly before they made their votes. I wanted to create a vibrant and upbeat environment within my video, which I felt perfectly summed up my campaign. At the end of the elections, we were all able to win against our respective opponents and I look forward to leading the SGA along with my peers. This will be a tremendous opportunity for me to gain leadership experience and allow me to undertake a variety of new challenges.