Gabe Bider & Duncan Boynton
Hi everyone. My name is Gabe Bider and I am a junior. I am running for the position of President. My running mate is my trusted friend Duncan Boynton. During my three years so far at Bellarmine I have learned a lot and would like to apply what I have learned towards being President and ultimately creating an even better Bellarmine. I have lots of experience with leadership. I am an editor of the Bellarmine Carillon Yearbook and a member of the commissioner board for big brothers. These positions have given me the experience I need to be President of this school. I have managed people before and led them, listening to their ideas and giving them valuable feedback. I also enjoy public speaking and I am not afraid to talk in front of a crowd, another great quality for this position. As President, I plan to listen to the student body and embrace their ideas. If you have a good idea, let me know and we can see it come to fruition. Additionally, I want to support clubs even more at Bellarmine. This would mean encouraging clubs to advertise more and help clubs to become more well known. In addition, I would like to listen more to individual students and embrace talents across the student body. Many students have talents that are simply not shared enough, and I would like to change that. Finally, as stated previously, I am open to your ideas as well. If you have any ideas or questions, do not be afraid to talk to me or ask me anything. Vote Gabe Bider and Duncan Boynton. Thank you and go Bells.
Greg Brown & Buddy Nash
We are Greg Brown and Buddy Nash and we are running to be your ASB President and Vice President. We each have three years of experience on Bellarmine ASB and are extremely qualified to be your President. The biggest question you may have is “What does ASB even do.” With us as President and Vice President, we promise to answer that for you.
ASB should be the primary voice of the students. We value everybody’s input and encourage your feedback and will work with the administration to advocate for what you want. We aim to create events that actually appeal to you guys, events that you want to attend. A goal for us is to introduce a bigger and better Spirit Week with more class vs. class competition and a grand prize for the winning class. We aim to generate more exposure for the variety of talent and clubs around campus by working to bring back events like Battle of the Bands. We hear all the time “where are the girls?” so we also want to strengthen our bond with Presentation and Notre Dame’s ASB to plan more joint events.
Above all, we will do what you guys want, which is why we made this short and sweet. Guys, remember to vote for Greg Brown and Buddy Nash!
Sean Nguyen & Pearson Trent
PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA. OK, now that we have your attention: Hi! Our names are Sean Nguyen and Pearson Trent and we’re running for President/Vice President. With Sean’s experience on ASB as an elected officer since freshman year and his leadership positions in Bellarmine clubs, and Pearson’s awesome experience on the Varsity Water Polo/swim teams and his experience with Bellarmine Clubs, we are heavily involved with extra-curriculars here at Bellarmine. Thus, we know what needs changing to make your year at Bellarmine more enjoyable.
For example, if we are elected, we promise to have GOOD MUSIC at “all-school” mixers (aka freshman mixers). Bellarmine has a history where the DJ plays music that isn’t even from this decade, and we promise to prevent this from ever happening again. We propose a voting system: where the entire student body votes on songs they want to hear played, and we will give the top results to the DJ.
In addition, as you are aware, we go to an all-boys school. Therefore, there are no FEMALE students. I repeat. No. Female Students. Thus, we pledge to create more events that invite females to our campus from not only Presentation and Notre Dame, which are the schools we historically work with, but we will work relentlessly to create joint events with Mitty, St. Francis, Los Gatos HS, Pioneer HS, Willow Glen HS and more to maximize those female friendships! (We know how hard making female friends at Bellarmine is, and sometimes the only females we talk to all month (other than our teachers) are our moms!)
Even more so, we know that everyone is tired from neglecting their homework to squad up on FORTNITE; therefore, they are missing out on sleep. So, if we are elected, we will bring back the NAP ROOM, where students can take a nap during their free period, lunch, etc.
Furthermore, we know that we’re all hungry from walking up the stairs of O’Donnell Hall. Thus, we promise to GET CINDY’S TO LOWER THEIR PRICES! We promise to petition Cindy’s to lower their prices, so everyone’s wallets don’t cry.
Lastly, we are running because we want to represent our beloved school and create fun memories. Whether that be Food Truck Fridays, or even SENIOR DITCH DAY (just kidding Mrs. Pluth/Mr. Weger!) — we want to make the school year as enjoyable as we can for you, our fellow Bellarmine brothers.
In conclusion, we ask for your support in this upcoming election so together, we can create an ASB that actually does something! An ASB that brings back good music, the nap room, and events with females from other schools in addition to Pres/Notre Dame.
Kevin Thomas & Kevin Raphael
What’s up Bell Community. My name is Kevin Thomas, and I am running for President alongside my Vice President, Kevin Raphael. As part of the Class of 2020, we have had many experiences at Bellarmine and look to use our involvement in the many aspects of the school to make your 2019-2020 year better. Kevin and I (you can call us Kevin^2) have been a tag team since 3rd grade. We honestly believe we are the best team for the job, but why should vote for us? What qualifications do we even have for this job? Kevin Raphael was a founding member of Code-It, a student-run non-profit organization devoted to teaching underprivileged kids how to code in multiple languages. Kevin and I have also started a fundraising club outside of this school for a national non-profit organization, Project RISHI. I have also held student-leadership for service missions’ trips. Kevin Raphael has experience in speech and debate while I have participated in the sports and music program. We have a lot of leadership roles and experiences covered at Bellarmine, but enough bragging; what exactly will we do for this school? We have many plans for affinity clubs, spirit week, student participations, etc. There are a couple main things that we would like to implement. First off, we need to change up our spirit week. We both come from a school with a highly participated spirit week, which we unfortunately don’t see much at Bellarmine. Increasing spirit week participation through schoolwide rallies/activities that appeal to more students would be a definite option. We also liked the idea of the cultural fair last year for the Racism Summit and would like to make that an annual event that could take place on a Saturday in the theater, raising proceeds for charities. These are a couple of the large events we would like to implement, but we also see the need for some other smaller changes. For example, we feel like there should be an easier way to contact ASB besides hunting down your class officers or finding the president. Instead, we would like to attach an option on the weekly emails with an anonymous text box for you all to fill out if there are any desires or complaints for us. This would make sharing information or ideas with the ASB team much more fluid and faster.
At the end of the day, Kevin and I are running for President and VP because we really think we have the ideas and teamwork to make our next school year better. Bellarmine is already a fantastic school, but even we can improve. If you all vote for us we promise to be open to new ideas and criticism. But most importantly, we understand all sides and know that every aspect of Bellarmine should be celebrated. We are here to support you! Thank you all for reading this and please vote Kevin^2 for president/VP!
Kalvin Lee & Nick Prestine
We have a dream… A dream of a Bellarmine that is focused on the student experience and not on cell phones in academic buildings, not on threatening students with jugs for being late, not on a Wednesday homeroom with a two minute homeroom activity, not on final exams, and not on research papers. We want a school that focuses on the student experience: belly flop competitions, stress dogs, Holy Wars, Proms, and late starts. These things are what drive us to run for ASB. We want to bring a new focus to our school where you are the priority.
We are here to make a change. This is our last year at Bellarmine and we want to make it as memorable as possible. We can promise that we will work hard and we promise to make improvements that you want to see. We can assure you that we see the same issues that you do and we are going to address them.
After every event, we want to hear feedback so that we can make events better in the future. Your voice is valuable to us. If you think an event was successful, that’s good. If you think the event sucked, that’s better. We want to concentrate on student approval.
Now that we have our message, my name is Kalvin and I’m involved in Makerspace, Chinese Culture Community, Arrupe Ambassadors, and ASB. I’m Nick and I’m involved in lacrosse, Arrupe Ambassadors, and Chinese Culture Community. We are committed to serving you.
Bellarmine is full of amazing people. It’s a community full of talented and hard working individuals. We will make this new Bellarmine a reality – where the focus is on the student experience. This community deserves the best and we are here to make it happen. However, none of this is possible without your vote, so vote for the candidates that are going to fight for what you want.
Chris Zazueta & Oliver Lopez
I was exposed to politics at a young age. Amongst my mother’s very large Italian-Irish family and my fathers Mexican-English family, there are nearly a dozen lawyers and policymakers. Throughout my life, each one of them at some point or another has taught me a lesson about life through the use of leadership and courage. Despite how mundane I thought the lesson may be, it always left an impact. I walked away with a greater appreciation for the importance of leaders and pioneers of change. As I matured and became more self conscious, I realized that they’re the keystones that keep the progression and advancement of civilization moving, without them society would be left unmotivated and unguided to strive for a better life. For years I had often misunderstood what my relatives would teach me, however, it was around 7th or 8th grade when I realized that the world of leadership/politics was something that I could pursue. I ran for a few positions, held a few spots, nevertheless everything that I did seemed to not have an impact, as if the goals we set out to create were waiting out problems that were not getting discussed. Although in years to come a shining beacon would appear to fruition. By this time Freshman year, my mother informed me of an open position for a job at the San José Government. This job, The Youth Commission, was a coalition of 11 young minds from across the city that came together as representatives for the youth aged 14-20 in their respective districts. I was enchanted. After I got accepted into the organization I immediately took up arms to serve my city as the District 6 Youth Commissioner (In the Commission there is representative for each of the 10 Districts of San José, plus one citywide commissioner). Our task in representing these youth was to organize events, find avenues to engage youth in local government and write policies that facilitate their life and provide benefits to make sure that they are living their best in our great city. I genuinely love my job, these past few years in government, have allowed me to analyze what life could be like in a higher position and the responsibilities demanded of me by my peers. Next year I am expected to take up as chairman for the commission and lead them into the 2019-2020 year. However, for the last year or so, my close friend Oliver Lopez and I have been planning a campaign to run for ASB President and Vice. I understand that it is a big commitment and I am aware of my other responsibilities that lay in the future, however, I feel I can manage this intense schedule considering that I have experienced far worse. I understand I’m not the perfect candidate, no politician is. However, I feel that with my set of skills and my charisma I can be a helpful ally to lead this student body into the coming 2019-2020 school year.