<p>I am going to run for a position in student council and I am going to turn in my ballot tomorrow. I am a sophomore, which means I will be running for either a junior class position or a student body position for next year. The hierarchy is as follows:
Student Body Officers (current 9th, 10th, and 11th may run)
President
VP
Secretary
Treasurer
Historian</p>
<p>Junior Class Officers (current 10th may run)
President
VP
Secretary
Treasurer
Historian</p>
<p>I am not popular, so this is why I question what I shall choose. If it wasn't a popularity vote, I would certainly go for Student Body president (although I don't know if Student Body is seen as more prestigious than Class) but, unfortunately, the majority of those that go to my large, public school are not intellectuals. </p>
<p>Theoretically, if I chose Junior Class treasurer, which I am interested in because I am planning on a career in finance, I should have a better chance because everybody wants to be the boss, right? But at the same time, nobody wants to do any real work, and treasurer comes right after the cutoff for being required to go to conventions and civic meetings and whatnot. So then I question whether I should try to go for president. But then I counter that thought with the theory that everyone wants to be president because they see it as carrying more clout than the treasurer.</p>
<p>One can see how this logic gets confusing. What are your recommendations as to what I shall do? </p>
<p>Also, for whatever I run for, what kind of campaigning would be most effective with a school made up mostly of underachievers? Humor, promises of reform, being serious about it, spending loads of money on shirts and buttons, clever posters, serious posters?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>As cheesy as this may sound, do not run just for college applications or to be popular, or to just have control but run because you wnat to make a difference and whatever position you think can help you to help others is what you should do.</p>
<p>^__^</p>
<p>Helping others and making your class the best one ever should be every class officers goals…but it does not always ahppen that way.</p>
<p>BlackRose101,</p>
<p>I completely agree with what you said. I wasn’t planning on doing it for college admissions (at the level of colleges I’m shooting for, StuCo wouldn’t make a difference). It annoys me, however, that that is why others do it, the “popular football jocks,” and get voted in unanimously and then proceed to do nothing at all in office. Those with the capacity to bring about reform should be brought into office, but sadly, that rarely happens. The reason a combination of student body leader and very rigorous academics is rarely seen on an application is because it is rare to find someone that popular and that intelligent simultaneously (at least in my world of public school it is).</p>
<p>I have had that issue as well. I ran every year in highschool and would loose by no more than 20 votes each time. The president did nothing.</p>
<p>My advice to you is wether or not you win just help out your school, start a club (it looks better on a resume as well, but do it because you want to). I did that, created two clubs which I lead, some of the clubs have changed into new things from clubs to committe’s or have merged with another school club or orginization. The leadership skills you can gain from that are huge and colleges will know that (planning a club, getting permission, running it, doing programs etc etc) those all show leadership skills. So it’s another option if what you wnat to do does not work out. But I encourage you to run for whatever position you think that you can best flex your helping muscles.</p>
<p>Your a sophomore so try it out. See if you can win. Gain followers, be nice to everyone, if you have to do a speech make a nice one…I read a book that helped me a lot ( Politics to me is serious) i’ll see if I can find the online version for you. </p>
<p>But try!!! If you prove that you can help then people will vote for you, unless they all just want their friend in office (which happens a lot, but can also be beneficial alll your friends can be part of your campaign group, get them to wear little name tage with your name on it, cheesy things get peoples attention… but you know your classmates and I have no clue who they are so you understand what they like better)</p>
<p>so Good luck!!
I’ll root for you all the way here in MA. lolz. And I’ll find that online student campaign book for ya.</p>
<p>^__^</p>
<p>Hey, I was elected sophomore class president this year at a high school where I was new to and knew like 5 people max… I ran against a former class president, a really popular kid and another person. My advice to you is, you really gotta do is grab the peoples attention. Get your name out and have a good campaign! And then it comes down to the speech. You gotta express yourself here to. Just be straight up with everyone and tell them why they should vote for you, but you gotta do this in a creative way. I used A LOT of humor (no jokes, those are just awkward) and this caught everyone’s attention! People kept constantly laughing and clapping throughout my whole speech!</p>
<p>At first, people were very negative towards me… They told me that I had no chance against the people I was running against and they just thought of me as a joke, but now people show me respect. </p>
<p>If you need any help with your speech or campaign ideas just give me your e-mail (: </p>
<p>Good luck and have fun!</p>
<p>ahhh, here is the link</p>
<p>[HIGHLIGHTS</a> FROM THE BOOK How To Win A High School Election](<a href=“HugeDomains.com”>HugeDomains.com)</p>
<p>it has stuff for those people who go to school where school politics is important.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it. I am still contemplating running for president or treasurer, however. I chose to run for Vice President of the German Club even though I wanted to run for President because I thought I would have a better chance and I regretted it afterward because all of the popular people who didn’t want to do any work ran for VP while there were less people and lesser-known people running for President.</p>
<p>Most high school students are incredibly easy to win over. I ran for sophomore class president. I hadn’t talked to many people in my grade ever. Anyway, two weeks before elections I made a promise to talk to EVERYONE in my grade and affirm why I was running and what I’d do. I also made really cool posters. I think what matters is not being scared to talk to people. I was surprised at how many people were kind while I talked to them. I ended up becoming Vice President. The girl who was President ended up leaving and now I’m President. Go for it and convey your points to everyone. Talk to them one on one. Construct the best fair campaign that you can!! Good luck!!</p>
<p>Also realize what you are getting yourself into if you win a spot. The people you will work with won’t always want to help you and are usually jealous of your position. It is also a lot of work! It can get very frustrating sometimes so really think it through.
Its not like you get in and do everything you want easily.</p>
<p>I was freshman class Vice Prez and Sophomore class vice prez , and i won by a rather large number against 4-5 candidates. This year , however , i’m running for president. </p>
<p>to the OP: i would consider myself intellectual, yet i’m popular, play 3 sports, and am semi-famous on youtube. basically, i wouldn’t correlate intellectual-ness with popularity-ness. just because someone is intellectual, doesn’t mean they can’t be a jock + popular. but hey, if you want to win, spend 200-300 $ on food and candy and ta-da you win 
the more $ you can dish out for supplies , the better your chances of winning. especially at a school of non-intellectuals who don’t care about policies and stuff like that.</p>
<p>hope i helped</p>