President Parker Lauer and Vice President Mateo Marquez take ASB office

Every day in second period, Samo students and teachers hear daily announcements, reminders and quotes from our Samo ASB President. Along with the responsibility of broadcasting these daily announcements, the owner of the familiar voice heads the planning of spirit weeks, pep rallies, school dances and much more. Meet Parker Lauer (’20) and put a face and character to the voice that you know so well. This year, Lauer describes her role and responsibilities in ASB as being a guide and a leader to the rest of the class. Lauer is focused on improving communication between Samo’s student body and ASB. Overall, Lauer thinks it’s crucial that Samo’s student body voices what events they want this year so that she can work with ASB and make them happen. “The first step is to communicate with the student body so that we know what type of things the students want to see,” Lauer said. Last spring, in the months and weeks leading up to ASB position elections, many ASB participants were deciding whether or not they should run for student body leadership roles. Lauer, however, had decided she would run for president years prior. “When I was going into high school I really wanted to go for that [ASB President position] because I wasn’t able to do ASB in middle school and I’ve always been super passionate about leadership. So, when I was given the opportunity to be in ASB my sophomore year, that’s when I was like, I definitely want to hold that position one day,” Lauer said. Even with ambitious goals in ASB, Lauer has managed to participate in activities from corners all around campus. Some of her hobbies and extracurriculars include Madrigals Choral Ensemble and Mock Trial. Additionally, Lauer is a varsity cross country captain and is involved in Samo’s immersion program. In school, she enjoys English and history and loves the outdoors and hanging out with friends in her free time. Who better to represent our student body than someone with connections to students ranging from athletes, to performers to aspiring lawyers?Although the Samo vice president position is typically filled by a senior, Mateo Marquez (’21) impressively broke the precedent by being elected into office as a junior. As vice president of Samo, Marquez is President Lauer’s right-hand man and takes on the daily responsibilities of supporting her in running ASB. The two take on tasks including advertising and decorating for sports games, as well as helping grade representatives fundraise.  As Samo’s vice president this year, Marquez hopes to largely focus on delivering events the student body asks for and wants. To successfully execute this, Marquez plans to open up communication with Samo’s grade steering, a program that helps better represent non-ASB students’ ideas and requests. “My main goal for this year is just to have students enjoy the events that we put on. Communication with each grade will give ASB further input on what the students want to see, what they like and what they think aren’t the best or most fun ideas.” said Marquez. Outside of ASB, Marquez enjoys being involved with performing arts. “Musical theatre is definitely one of my favourite things. The community is just really great. All the time we spend rehearsing together helps bring people closer and build tight bonds. Especially during tech week where we'll be together for six hours, and everyone is delirious by the end. It’s definitely a special group of people,” Marquez said. Overall, Marquez feels like his position in ASB this year is an excellent opportunity to build leadership skills and impact Samo and ASB positively. Marquez’s goal is to be elected as ASB President next year, so look out for his campaign in the spring of 2020.