Every year students run to be president of their class. Ninth grader Ann Heitman is the ninth grade president for the year. Heitman said it wasn’t hard to decide to run for Student Coucnil.

“I like people, and I love being a leader, and I thought that if I ran for class president it would be a good way for me to express both of those things that I like,” Heitman said.

Heitman said she wanted to be seen as a hard worker by other students in her class.

“I stayed up until 2 every night for campaign week. I made buttons, and I had to hand-make every single button. I bought necklaces, and I made some T-shirts. I just made sure that if I got my name around I would most-likely, probably win,” Heitman said.

Heitman said that most Student Council meetings are in the performing arts center.

“It’s everyone in Student Council and then the four senior officers on stage,” Heitman said. “They basically talk about upcoming events and new ideas that we could do for Student Council, certain things to improve. We vote on certain things that happen in the school. It’s basically just them informing us what’s going to be happening and what we need to do,”

Heitman said that the hardest part of student council was the stress of being president.

“A lot of times when people need an idea they would come to you and sometimes you can’t always think of one,” Heitman said. “Another problem is, since there is a very limited amount of people in student council that are freshmen, I have to do a lot of the work group wise.”

Heitman said that her priority is usually Student Council.

“Normally when I do Student Council, it’s kind of the first thing on my list because it’s very important, and I know a lot of other people are depending on it. I know I have to actually spend time and sit down and manage my schedule too to fit all the work I have to do in,”

Heitman said.

Heitman said that the greatest achievement of the freshman class so far has been winning the hallway competition.

“We started with basically me, my Vice President, the teacher, and a couple of my friends — about five other people. Then I had to personally call people to come, and we ended up staying the latest and getting all the work done. I think that with the least amount of people, winning was a really cool thing,” Heitman said.

When walking down the halls, Heitman said that she sometimes gets greetings from students that voted for her.

“It’s really cool because I feel like I already know them even though I’ve never talked to them. Then I get to know them. One of my closest friends, that’s how we met, and I talk to them every day now,” Heitman said.

Heitman said Student Council has made her a better leader.

“Three days after the election I had to talk in front of the whole grade, and that was honestly very scary at the time. Looking back on it, it was really cool. I knew most of those people at that grade had not seen my face, and just being able to look most of them in the eyes and actually talk was cool. I knew I liked people, and I knew that it was comfortable to talk to people, but it helped me break out of comfort shell to talk to people that wanted to talk to me but I’d never heard of them before,” Heitman said.

Freshman Zoe Cott said she thinks Heitman represents her class well.

“Ann’s really one of the most spirited, organized person I know,” Cott said. “She’s done a really good job. All the dances and spirit weeks that she’s done have been really fun so far and she really knows how to get people in the spirit,”

When a student tries to blame something on the freshman class, Heitman said she is the first to respond. Heitman said that the most important thing is to treat the freshman class with respect.

“If I need to represent someone or defend someone in my grade, it’s not even a question for me, I’ll do it,” Heitman said.

Cott said she thinks Heitman represents the qualities of a leader.

“She definitely has a lot of perseverance. She is really respectful to everyone. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her be mean to someone before. She’s really responsible and organized,” Cott said.

Heitman said she wants more participation from freshmen.

‘When I check people in in the morning, we have about quarter of a paper, and all the other grades have two full front-and-back pages,” Heitman said.

Cott said she wants her class to have a positive impact.

“I want our class to be known for being really respectful of other people, and just push out all that negativity and stand up for other people,” Cott said.

Heitman said her goal for this year is to make people feel included.

“I just want everyone to feel like when they come to school it’s a really fun place to be. Even if I haven’t personally talked to them, I feel like I want to make a difference when people walk into school,” Heitman said.