2011 senior class president ambitious about next year
By Jessica Barajas
Just one month after winning, Senior Class President, Jonathan Caliso, Div. 175, already has big plans in store for 2011’s senior class, such as creating a Senior Youtube channel and selecting senior shirts that don’t make students want to go out and make their own.
As Senior Class President, Caliso equally shares all the power that comes with winning the election with the rest of the Senior Class officers.
“Rather than positions, it’s more of a group effort of ideas, jobs, and assignments. We as a group discuss a topic and ideas, and from there we come to a compromise,” said Caliso.
Although Caliso and the rest of the officers share the power over making decisions Caliso is the only one who meets with Mrs. House. Caliso is responsible for meeting with Mrs. House so she can inform him of up coming events, such as senior t-shirts that the Senior Class has to take care of. Then Caliso must meet with the rest of the officers and together make a plan and decision.
So what made Caliso want to run for Senior Class President?
Caliso is currently a member of Lane’s Filipino Club and both the President of the club, Flory Ann Evia, Div. 028, and officer, Donovan Tolledo, Div. 036, ran for Senior Class last year. Tolledo became 2010’s Senior Class President and Evia Vice-President.
Filipino club members were all huge supporters of Tolledo, Evia, and Caliso when they ran for Senior Class.
“There are 150-170 members in the club and we call ourselves Kapamilya Habang Buhay, which translates to Family for Life because we think of each other as family not just members,” said Caliso.
Although Evia and Tolledo both encourage their members to become involved with school events they believe that members such as Caliso run and will continue to run for Senior Class and other elections for other reasons.
“We are all very friendly people and we tend to be involved because I feel members like me want to change the diversity at Lane,” said Evia.
“We have the why not attitude. It’s about being fearless and going for it. We do some crazy stuff so we constantly have to just go for it and hope we land and don’t break our legs. It’s the same thing with elections. We run for something, we may fall, but why not try?” said Tolledo.
Filipino club was a great help to Caliso during his campaign but he also has other students to thank.
“Honestly, all juniors were important in the election. Filipino Club may be big, but it’s only a fraction of the school. I tried to campaign to as many people as I could, even if I didn’t really know them,” said Caliso.
Caliso promised to give 2011’s senior class a great year full of great ideas, and that is exactly what he plans on accomplishing. One of Caliso’ goals for this summer is to set up a 2011 Senior Class Youtube page.
“Since many students are busy and do not have time to catch up on upcoming/senior events I have been thinking of setting up a Senior 2011 Youtube channel where students can log on and catch up with what’s going on and coming up,” said Caliso.
Caliso hopes that having a 2011 Senior Class Youtube channel will be an entertaining and easy way for seniors to want to keep in touch with each other and communicate ideas.
The page will include news on upcoming senior events, senior announcements and reminders. They will all be in form of video blogs.
“Also for fun, I was thinking of adding dance choreographs tutorials, recent events, or anything else that students may find interesting,” said Caliso.
Aside from being Senior President and a Filipino Club dance member, Caliso is also a photographer. Caliso plans to buy a new camera in which he will record videos along with pictures to get the page started. After doing so he will run the idea through the Senior Class officers and together create the Youtube page.
According to Caliso if all goes well, 2011 seniors should expect the page to be available in early August or September.
Many juniors agree with Caliso that setting up a Senior Class Youtube page is an original and creative idea.
“[It] will be a great idea because it’s something original and innovative. It would also help inform students more efficiently since teenagers use the internet as a source of information,” said Jorge Muralles, Div. 176.
“Communication is going to be a key component in making our senior year amazing. It’ll also be great for everybody to be able to voice their opinions easily,” said Andrea Castellanos, Div. 157.
One thing that Caliso wishes to change for 2011’s senior class is the way that senior shirts are chosen and styled. Many of this year seniors were displeased with the design and style of their senior shirts. As a result many seniors like Guillermo Balandra, Div. 027, did not purchase the shirt and instead made their own.
“The shirt was a simple gray shirt. It was ugly and not worth its price tag, many seniors did not like the shirt,” said Balandra.
In order to prevent this from happening with the 2011 senior class Caliso has asked juniors to submit their own designs for their senior shirt.
Juniors such as Muralles are sure that Caliso will not disappoint them and make a great senior shirt.
“Jon is a very fair person. He’ll choose something that will appeal not only to a certain group of people but to everybody graduating in 2011,” said Muralles.
Once the actual design is finalized a sample shirt will be printed to make sure that the design is done correctly and that 2011 seniors approve it. Caliso hopes to have the shirt completely finalized by quick start so that seniors can receive their shirts in the first 2-4 weeks of school.
These are only two of many of Caliso’s plans for the 2011’s senior class. Caliso promised an unforgettable year and he has all intentions on keeping this promise.
