Q&A: Class of 2020 Presidential Candidate John Wright Stanly
SYDNEY LEWIS | APRIL 16, 2018 | Q&A
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) — The 2018 election season is here, along with an incoming group of class officer hopefuls. Be an informed voter and learn about your potential class officers.
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: What is your motivation for running?
JOHN WRIGHT STANLY: My motivation is just the passion for my class. I just really like helping my class. A lot of times people run for this position because they want it for a college resume, but I really don’t care about that. I just like seeing everybody get happy and get hype for all the events that we try to do.
DA: Who has been your role model class officer in the past?
JWS: It’s definitely got to be Shabbar [Syed]. I’ve seen him talk and everything and it’s just really awesome and inspiring how easily he talks to the class and how talkative he is and I think it’s really been an inspiration for me as president as well.
DA: What advantages or qualities do you have over the other candidate(s)?
JWS: I would say that my main advantage is my experience. There were a lot of things that I learned that I wouldn’t really expect from class officer position and those skills will carry over to next year. Also I feel like another advantage that I have is that I’m very sociable. I try to be friends with and communicate with a lot of the class and I think that a lot of people know me and I feel like I’m easy to talk to as well.
DA: What problems do you want to address in the rising junior class?
JWS: We definitely have some negativity sometimes. We have people on social media and at events who will have negative comments and gestures and I really want 2020 to only show positivity. I really think we can work on communicating that we only want to be positive. I think that’s a problem that we should definitely fix. I want to work on making sure our class is positively represented.
DA: What is one of the toughest experiences you’ve encountered in a role of leadership?
JWS: I really feel like the most challenging thing this year was just pleasing everybody. Everything that was proposed, there was always supporters and people against it, and balancing that and trying to find what pleases the most people is actually very hard. For example, with our t-shirts, we did votes, making sure that the majority of the class liked our slogan “Hail 2020” and that there weren’t any ones they liked rather than that one.
DA: What do you plan on doing in your time as class officer if you are elected?
JWS: I think this year we made a lot of really good services but sometimes these weren’t really communicated. I would like to improve our current systems. For example we made Google photo albums for all our spirit weeks and we made a Google calendar for important dates. We also made a class website and a class remind. I feel like we launched so much that some of it was overload. We need to work on systematically getting people to use these and also I want to work on some other things we can improve on as well. Also, I feel like so many people in our class are so talented and they don’t get recognized. So I want to start doing monthly posts on our social media, especially our Instagram and Twitter, and try to congratulate all the achievements of our class. So many people work hard in aspects that aren’t really presented to the class like for example a really astounding science fair project or a good rank in a band or orchestra. Some things like that aren’t really announced to the class and those are worthy accomplishments that deserve equal representation.
DA: If the class disagrees with one of your decisions, but you feel it is the right thing to do, what would you do in that situation?
JWS: I would personally listen to the class. There were a lot of things this year that I thought were the best and other people didn’t and I usually just tried to represent the class. I would always override my own opinion if there was a majority conflicting my opinion. Obviously I presented ideas but I really tried to make sure I was representing what the overall class wanted, not just me.
DA: How would you deal with conflict with other officers?
JWS: I would probably just continue the same policy that I had this year and we would just do a simple vote. I think it’s really dumb if a president values himself more than all the officers. We all work aside each other as equals. The titles really do not matter to us. If we’re discussing an option and three out of the five officers want it, that’s what we’re doing. Even if I was one of the two out of five, it doesn’t matter, we’re all equals.
DA: How did you get along with the current class officers?
JWS: Oh, great. This year was amazing, there was really great chemistry between the officers. There were very few times when we disagreed on something within our group and it was always resolved.
DA: Do you think this election is a popularity contest? If so, how will you challenge that?
JWS: I really don’t want this to be a popularity contest. I think especially with the role of president you should objectively choose somebody based on their skills and what you’ve seen them do in the past. I think you should vote on somebody how you see them at school, how you see them in the classroom, how you see them at lunch, not whether or not they’re your friend. You should be able to see through their work that they’re a good person, not because you’re friends with them or because they have a lot of followers on a social media platform. Voting based on that is an irresponsible civil disobedience.
DA: How will you handle the new responsibility of junior year class president?
JWS: First, I’m gonna mention class funds. I’m gonna make sure that our class funds are only spent on absolute necessities. During sophomore year we only spent money on purchasing our fall shirts, our spirit items, and then our spring shirts. I really want to make sure we don’t spend a lot of money which goes into my next point, prom. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know much about planning prom, but I do know that it’s a lot of work and I’m extremely hardworking and will make sure that prom is the absolute best prom I can throw. I’ll make sure that it appeals to the most people and that the theme and everything works best for most of our class and for 2019 as well because the responsibility of prom is not just for our class but class of 2019 as well and including 2021 and 2022.
DA: How will you balance all your extracurriculars with the responsibility of class presidency?
JWS: I’ve heard from my 2019 officers that junior year the work increases exponentially as a class officer. Fortunately, I’m a Boy Scout and right now I’m wrapping up my Eagle Scouts and I understand that that’s a lot of time. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Boy Scouts and I’m about to be done with that because I’m about to earn my rank of Eagle Scout and I can use that time that is going to be freed up to work harder for my class.
DA: Which one of the vice presidential candidates would you want as your vice president and why?
JWS: I cannot answer that. I have so many friends running and they all have amazing qualities in their own respects and I can’t endorse anybody. They’re all equally amazing.
DA: How would you respond to criticism as president?
JWS: I would definitely be open to criticism. There were tons of different things that class of 2020 got criticized for, especially that 4th place pep rally. We really tried to work through that and you’re not going to grow unless you’re criticized. I think it’s immature if you don’t listen to people that have criticize you. I think it’s really important and I’ve been trying to listen to people with different ideas or who are criticizing me.
DA: What makes Stanton a great school and how do you plan on contributing to that?
JWS: I think Stanton is the best school ever because of how hardworking the students are and this applies to so many different aspects. You think that Stanton is a really academic school but it’s really the underlying values of our students that contribute to our outstanding sports teams and our amazing clubs. Stanton students give it their all for everything they do and it really reflects. I really want to give one hundred percent effort. I really and truly care about this position and I really want to give it my all. My motivation for this is purely intrinsic, I really love this school and my class.
DA: What is your biggest weakness as a leader?
JWS: A weakness that I definitely have is, and I don’t know if there’s a specific word for this, but there were a ton of times this year that I would hear an idea or think of an idea and I would just charge ahead and sometimes I wouldn’t think of ways of how we were going to plan it or ask myself if it was even possible. I think especially for the pep rally, we’d think of an idea and be like “Yeah, let’s do this,” then think “No, that’s not really possible. Let’s check the rules and make sure that we can actually fund this.” I think more methodical planning instead of just charging ahead would be helpful.