Student Government elections have just come to an end, and after a flurry of hilarious posters and memorable speeches, Lakesiders were finally informed of their President and Vice President of the 2025-2026 school year. As the leaders and face of Lakeside’s Student Government, President-elect Gresham C. ’26 and Vice-President-elect Sonia P. ’26 have a lot on their minds as they prepare to lead the school in their senior year.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
What was the presidential campaign like for you?
Gresham C. ’26 (GC): For my campaign, one of my biggest fears was that my idea generation would be poor, but I think that’s something that I ended up succeeding with better than I had expected originally. It was good to hear that people enjoyed my posters. For the speech, everyone kept asking me if I was going to do a backflip. I’m not capable of doing a backflip, but I wanted to do something that people would remember the same way they remembered Ulee’s backflip. I thought, “What would I be good at? What would I execute well?” And I thought I could execute a poem pretty well.
Sonia P. ’26 (SP): This is the first time I’ve ever actually had to campaign in a real election because all the previous student rep elections have just been telling your friends to vote for you. This election I could actually go up to new people and tell them why I was running and what I wanted to do as president. The posters and the speech gave me a platform in front of the whole school that I don’t think I’ve ever had before. It was a little bit nerve wracking at first, but I think it was also really rewarding.
Tell me about your past experience on Student Government. What’s a project that you’re most proud of?
GC: Something that goes underrated in StudGov is working on the previous years’ projects. If there’s any project from the previous years, we have to do almost an equal amount of work just to maintain it in the next year. There’s a lot of ideas like Homecoming and May Day that I really enjoyed working on.
SP: The Mariners game. Taking Lakesiders to watch a Mariners game was an idea that I described in my speech at the end of freshman year, so I did actually feel a lot of pressure to live up to it. In my sophomore year on StudGov, I found a partner in Aanika T. ’25 and together we started working with Mr. Bonar to see if it was even possible. When he said it was, then we went for it. It was down to us to plan everything. We had to reach out to the Mariners and Lakeside staff for chaperones — we were going to cover all the bases. After it happened, I was really happy. It felt so nice that we could create something that people enjoyed.
There’s a lot of controversy around StudGov in the community — in that people say it’s inefficient or has no sway. What’s your response?
GC: When people look at StudGov they’re always searching for the results. Like, where’s the better rounding policy? Where’s the extended grace period? But I feel like a lot of StudGov work goes into the process and not the final result. So even though the final results couldn’t exist without StudGov, sometimes they’re not seen as something that StudGov did. And also we have to balance so many of the responsibilities that we already have that it can be hard to do more new things.
SP: StudGov does have sway in policy change. This year, StudGov representatives have had the opportunity to give their advice on the change that is happening at Lakeside. We’ve met with the Board of Trustees. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind-the-scenes in StudGov that the general public doesn’t know about. I think that StudGov definitely could be more transparent about what we’re doing in that area, but we’re one of the groups that people come to first when they’re gauging student opinion.
What is one change that you are proposing for next year? Why?
GC: I want to improve the process in which we implement ideas in StudGov. If we can improve how quickly ideas are approved and which ideas are approved, students will be more excited about our projects. I remember one year I had an idea that I was really excited about and worked hard to implement. After multiple back and forths with Mr. de Grys and Mr. Bonar, the idea ended up getting rejected. Even if there was no way of implementing that specific idea, I wish we had known about that sooner so we wouldn’t have dedicated all that time to working on that project and then have nothing to show for it.
SP: One thing that I said in my speech that I’m really excited about is creating a schedule for all of the classes, free periods, and Calendly links of your teachers to find time that you can meet with them. It’s been kind of annoying for me to have to go through Canvas and find a meeting link and find time for even casual meetings with my teachers. This project is something that I personally feel that I can do, and it’s not something that’s outside of the scope of StudGov.
Finally, what is your main goal as President/Vice President next year?
GC: I want to be a really good leader on StudGov. I want the other reps to feel like they’re spending their year to their fullest potential.
SP: I want people at Lakeside to feel like their reps are actually representing them. I want them to feel like they have a voice on StudGov even if they aren’t currently serving as a member of StudGov.
