On Friday, March 1, just as 4th period began, the intercom crackled to life and announced five names to the school: juniors Mary Claire Harper, Riley Smith, Terry Bobo, Jenny Ngo and, after a brief pause, Maricka Farr. For the Class of 2025, these are the students who will replace the current class officers in the positions of reporter/historian, treasurer, secretary, vice president and president, respectively.
Junior Maricka Farr has always been a go-getter. On top of being class president, she is a member of the Bryant High School Yearbook, Legacy Color Guard, Minority Leadership, Beta Club and National Honor Society, as well as President of Future Business Leaders of America.
“In my opinion it’s go big or go home,” Farr said. “I definitely thought I would’ve been able to make the change that I wanted to make by being president and having that oversight.”
Student body president takes responsibility for collaboration in planning senior occasions, presenting a speech at graduation and eventually organizing a class reunion. Farr plans on frequently hosting events, some revolving around the seasonality of the school year, in order to unite the Class of ‘25.
“When it comes to senior events, I really want to promote that culture of inclusivity,” Farr said. “I feel like, once you’re about to become an adult, there’s no such thing as ‘cliques’; we are all one big group who’s just trying to navigate adulthood.”
As for the student body, voters were influenced by crafty campaigning. During the race, posters and banners littered nearly every hallway, stairwell and even the courtyard. Candidates emulated iconic imagery: Ngo’s face appeared photoshopped onto Rosie the Riveter, junior Ian Cunningham (who was running for President) recreated former United States President Barack Obama’s “Hope” poster and Uncle Sam was replaced by Bobo, beard and all.
For Harper, strategy was everything. When applications were first being submitted by candidates to apply for the race itself, she posted a graphic that read ‘Vote Mary Claire’, and that was it. However, during the first week of the two weeks allotted for campaigning, Harper deliberately withheld from advertising.
“I watched what people started to do,” Harper said. “I even got super nervous because a lot of my competition was doing really big stuff…but I just stayed completely silent for the whole first week. Then the next week I decided: go big or go home.”
Harper’s plan went as such: Monday, pass out 300 packages of snacks and candy to fellow classmates. Tuesday, put up a gigantic banner on Building 10, displaying “Vote Mary Claire” for all of the school to see. Wednesday, host a gift card giveaway for the first seven people to post a photo of themselves with one of her campaign posters. Thursday, set up a snack box and posters within the Fine Arts Building for members of the Bryant bands. And Friday, the morning of the election, pass out flowers to potential voters.
“[Campaigning] is all about being kind to people and approaching the people you don’t know,” Harper said. “I think what defined my campaign was the unexpectedness of coming back the second week and also approaching people I hadn’t made connections with before.”
Harper’s main responsibility will be to communicate important information and announcements to the senior class, specifically by running the Class of 2025 Instagram page.
“I knew when I had watched other people run in the past that this is something I wanted to do,” Harper said. “I remember talking to my friends about running for president, but then I met Lily Vinson, who’s the current reporter, and she talked to me about her position; I thought that’d be a perfect fit for me.”
As for the rest of the officers, they will participate in the graduation ceremony of the Class of 2024 and begin their official duties at the start of next school year. The treasurer will manage monetary transactions and report spending for the class; the secretary will take notes over class officer meetings; and the vice president will lead in the absence of the president. Each officer will additionally captain a Senior Week team while the president presides over the event as a whole.
“Just to leave off on a piece of advice, go for anything you want, even just a little bit,” Farr said. “If you don’t go after an opportunity because you’re scared, that’s an opportunity wasted. And seriously, the worst thing that could happen is that you get rejected or you fail and I don’t think failure is something you need to be ashamed of.”
