Aaron Ng and Ogheneteguono Okotete

The primary theme of juniors Aaron Ng and Ogheneteguono Okotete’s campaign is to make students the best versions of themselves by increasing school morale, decreasing stress, and unifying the school. Presidential candidate Ng has competed with the Village varsity basketball team, is an engaged and active student within his classes, has taken part in a lot of clubs, and is a tutor for elementary students through Student Power. Having never taken part in student government, Ng and Okotete believe they have a fresh mindset, and can bring unheard concerns to the table. 

By implementing five-minute resting periods and more transparency, Ng and Okotete believe that student life will improve. 

“We plan for the students to have the first 40 minutes of class, then get a 5 minute resting period,” said Ng. “Then the last 40 minutes of class would resume, which will keep the motivation and focus of the students up.” 

In addition, the candidates want to focus on the mediums that students can use to communicate with their administration and their teachers. Through popularly used communication platforms such as WhatsApp, Group Chat, Skype, and Remind, Ng believes he could put into place a system of clarity. 

Another theme that Ng and Okotete support is integration between grade levels through seating arrangement in assemblies, and better-structured pep rallies.

“For assemblies, we are trying to change the seating arrangement,” said Ng. “For example, one month, one side of the gym will have seats for freshman and juniors, and then the next month, it might be juniors and seniors.” 

Apart from the typically split-grade seating, Ng believes that this will allow students to interact with grade levels other than their own. In addition, the candidates want to change the structure of the teams within activities in pep rallies. Rather than putting the grade levels against one another, Ng wants to pair different grades in a team together, to promote more school unity. Overall, Ng strives to make students more comfortable with one another.

Another important practice that Ng and Okotete want to continue from previous presidencies, is maintaining a strong relationship with administration.

“Obviously, Jillian and Elena did a really good job establishing a relationship with administration and student government,” said Ng. “We are going to strive to continue what they did in terms of communication.” 

With strong relationships with admins, the candidates hope to get more done and create a collaborative atmosphere within Vanguard.

“We want to advocate change in Village,” said Ng. “That being said, we want to actually do what we promise and not disappoint students.”