Maria Martinez-Arrieta and Mauricio Chequer Dias
Juniors Maria Martinez-Arrieta and Mauricio Chequer Dias see student mental health, better communication, and integration of all students as a priority if they are elected for Vanguard positions. Presidential candidate Martinez-Arrieta’s qualifications are composed of an international background and incredible involvement in clubs and sports teams. She strives to be the voice of the student body by using others and her own experiences.
The running mates propose, specifically in regards to mental health, better social-emotional counselors. “I would personally like to be the voice of the student body to talk to the administration,” said Martinez-Arrieta. “School is very stressful and I want to do everything I can to limit that.”
The presidential candidate expresses the need to normalize using emotional counselors when in need of help. Bringing the counselors into advisory, Martinez-Arrieta believes, will ease that process. In addition, the candidate believes that 10-minute passing periods would allow students to be more relaxed and motivated throughout the school day.
Martinez-Arrieta and Chequer Dias are focused on increasing passing period durations, increasing campus events, working with the house system, expanding the applications of the Viking Nation app, and implementing a buddy system.
“I want to have more events that everybody can participate in,” said Martinez-Arrieta. “In addition, I would also like to have more recognition for all of them.”
Having experience with House leadership, the candidate wants increased events involved with and without the House system in order to increase school spirit. Expanding opportunities within the Viking Nation app to gain points would also be implemented to boost student participation. In addition, Martinez-Arrieta wants to implement an Upperclassmen-Underclassmen Buddy system in order to make incoming freshmen and sophomores feel more familiar with campus and curriculum.
To address communication, the candidates want a mandatory period for students and administration to reply to emails.
“I know a lot of teachers get a lot of emails in their inbox and are really busy,” said Martinez-Arrieta. “However, a lot of students don’t ever get a reply back.”
The candidate wants to have an organized system in which the communication between the students, teachers, and administration is guaranteed. There are also strong plans in this campaign about increasing the number of town halls to improve transparency in The Village High School.
“Over all of the time I have spent in this school, I know that there is some stuff that I would like to see change,” said Martines-Arrieta. “I would like to be the person and voice for the student body that could make a change.”