President Nikhil Patel and Vice President Riley Timinski are two dedicated sophomore officers who are committed to helping the sophomores at JFKMHS. As officers, they plan to be leaders for the Class of 2026.
What are your different responsibilities as an officer?
Nikhil: For the majority of the part, both of us have to attend events, meetings, clubs and work with Ms. Duran cause she’s our head advisor. We plan events and stuff to raise money.
Riley: Yeah, we have to be knowledgeable about school, the things that go on here, and the events, so that we can relay that information. One of my roles is I run the Class of 2026 Instagram account. So if I need to post information about what event is happening that day, or what has previously happened, I need to know about that. Like he said, all the student council and officer meetings, we need to be at.
How did you gain interest in becoming a class officer?
Nikhil: I think, just helping everyone out. It’s like a leadership kind of role.
Riley: We were rivals. My friend group wanted to run together and then his friend group wanted to run together. Then, somehow, we ended up two of us.
What are some goals that you have for the sophomore class?
Nikhil: For us in general, it would be to raise money so that the tickets aren’t expensive, we’re able to have a good prom, have enough money to have good decorations and food.
Riley: Yeah, cause this current year’s cotillion, I think their tickets were only $50, so I’m hoping to beat that next year. I think we’re on track for that ’cause we already have raised more money this year than the previous class raised last year, at least going into junior year. As of right now, we have more, so under $50 [for the cotillion] is the goal.
What strategies have you come up with to encourage sophomores to get involved in extracurricular activities and clubs?
Nikhil: When we’re doing events, I think making the events entertaining or interesting enough to have the volunteers. Like, we’re doing the hallway decorating contest in 2 weeks, so we posted on Google Classroom, asked a bunch of our friends, just getting the word out there.
Riley: Yeah, and getting input from people like [things they would want to do]. It’s not just teacher-run events. For the hallway decorating competition, we have a group chat and some of the kids were really getting into it, [by] picking out different door decorations and things like that.
What fun and creative ideas do you have to increase participation and engagement among sophomores?
Riley: I wanna do a car wash next year because I feel like we could raise a lot of money, and also kids are very looking forward to community service hours, and if we could offer community service hours working a car wash, I feel like that could increase engagement and that could be also fun.
How do you plan to support the mental health of sophomores, especially during stressful times such as finals or school in general?
Nikhil: We were thinking about when we had, for example, the lip sync battle. It was a day that the first semester ended so [it was] a day where everybody had time to do stuff. I think making events and times where students can come and they’re not overwhelmed by work would help out.
Riley: We always made sure we planned [events] on days where there was no other school events and that it was kind of worked around different practices so that all of the sports kids could come. We always tried for Fridays just because kids don’t necessarily have homework or have to rush home. We do [personally] understand ’cause [Nikhil] takes really hard classes, and I take a little bit less of hard classes, so we know how difficult it is, so we try to work around that.
What are your plans to help sophomores be prepared for their future academic goals?
Riley: Setting a good example is important. We’re both very active, [Nikhil] plays soccer, I do a whole bunch of sports. So if kids could see, especially other sophomores, could see us managing all of that stuff and being leaders on top of it, I feel like it could encourage people to do the same.
