Pep Rallies seem to be what most of you are looking to improve on. How would you improve pep rallies at Dominion? What are the current problems with pep rallies in your opinion? 

I would absolutely make them at least 10 minutes, if not even 15 minutes longer than they are now. Right now you’re looking at 45 minute pep rallies. I’ve been advocating for this with SCA and Dr. Brewer about this right after our winter pep rally. We’ve lost a lot of time, and with that time loss, we’ve lost a lot of spirit as well. So it’s absolutely crucial that we get that time back. I’d also love to see more student engagement. There’s a lot of kids who sit down and do nothing during the games, or they’re just on their phones, not engaged. We need to start talking to more people about what they want to see from us for not just pep rallies, but what spirit weeks do they want? What homecoming do they want? What prom? We need to talk to people and make sure that they feel seen, because when they feel seen, they’re naturally going to want to participate in pep rallies. 

Outside of pep rallies, how would you increase school spirit at this school?

 I’d love to see maybe more student surveys sent out for when we’re in advisory, we just have a few advisory days where, hey, you guys fill out this survey for us. You may have some feedback that you want to give us so that we can plan ahead for the future, for your future. everything. We want to hear from you. What do you want to see more from us? As SCA, what can we do for you? How can we help? Gotcha?

What other issues specifically are you hoping to address as president? How would you solve them? Why do you think the position of president can solve this? 

I feel like, and this is something that I think most of SCA would agree on, is that a lot of our spirit weeks get kind of repetitive. We’ve repeated a lot of days in the past. So I’d like to see some originality, and that a lot of that comes down to SCA, but it also goes back to what I was saying a moment ago about us talking to more people, talking to our student body. Do you want to maybe not do this day anymore? Do you want to maybe try doing this day to increase spirit? What do you guys want to see so that we can plan that for you? So I’d love to see new and original, creative, unique, spirit week ideas. 

What makes you the most qualified to be president?

Well, two things: One, even as far back as eighth grade, I was actually president of something called core champions over at Seneca Ridge [Middle School]. It’s essentially the middle school honor society. So not only was I kind of delegating tasks between about 50 people that were in core champions, I was also representing Seneca Ridge and about 500 other students as a whole, as President. So it was a big job for someone who was a lot younger then, and I’m prepared to get back into that now. The second thing is, I feel like my opponents, and I respect them as leaders, but they have a version of what they want to give Dominion. I don’t want just a version, I want a vision for the future. What does the vision look like? It looks like a golden age. It looks like people rallying together, not just at pep rallies, but throughout the entire year, people smiling in the hallways more just because of the work that we put out for them. I want the vibe here at Dominion to be uplifted forever more.

Many students aren’t very informed on what SCA actually does throughout the year. Why does it matter if someone becomes president? How would you explain this to a freshman?

Well, I admit, a lot of the work that we do is secretive because we can’t give away what we’re doing. A lot of our hype comes from the fact that we have a surprise and everything, but the overall gist of what SCA as a whole does is we make life here at Dominion better for everybody because of the work that we put out. Through pep rallies, through homecoming, through actually making school not just feel like school, but we’re a place where you can make memories and get along. And I would be willing to bet that when, maybe 10 years from now, at a high school reunion, a lot of the memories that people are going to recall are definitely not going to be sitting behind a desk somewhere. They’re going to be standing up, engaged at pep rallies. Engaged at [the] student versus teacher basketball game. So SCA makes life better is the best answer I can give.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

As a leader and as someone who’s already running for president and who’s had presidential roles in the past, I know that not everyone here knows me at Dominion. I know that I might not know everyone yet, but I want them to know that they can count on me to advocate for them. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, [but because] it’s the thing that we do here at Dominion. That’s what makes Dominion what it is today, and that’s what makes Dominion great. I see that we could be doing more for [Dominion]. I think that if you think that everything has gone right so far, and that we’re doing everything that we can do right now, then I think you should vote for somebody else. But if you think that there’s still more work that we can do as a whole and as SCA, and if you think that we deserve better than just a version but an actual vision for the future and a golden age, then I need you to vote for me. Because that will happen with me.