The elected class presidents are Blake Wilson (9), Jack McAndrew (10), Wayne Yue (11) and Riley Zimmerman (12). Class presidents are responsible for managing fundraising and preparing for events like prom. In interviews, they shared their plans for the president role and advice for managing time, stress and the presidential role.
Blake Wilson, 9
Blake Wilson believes his involvement in sports will make him an effective class president.
Wilson has leadership experience in sports, having captained the U.S. national football team in Spain and a U.S. soccer team in Sweden. He created strategies that addressed his teammates’ needs in these roles, particularly when conflicts arose during games or among players.
“In a sport like soccer—or any sport really—there are a lot of emotions running high, especially on big stages and in big moments like the finals of a tournament,” Wilson said.
This intensity sometimes leads to disagreements between teammates on the field.
“For example, on a soccer field, a lot of times [there were conflicts] about whether a player made the right decision in a moment—maybe [a player] passed [the ball] when the other player thought he should have shot,” Wilson said.
He emphasizes that unity is key to resolving such conflicts.
“Keeping [players] together helps calm them down [so] they can explain [their perspectives] to each other. For me, separating [players] has never worked because that only causes both [players] to think they’re right, and the conflict remains unresolved [and] ignored,” Wilson said. “Instead, I keep them together. The method I use most is attacking the conflict and resolving it—don’t ignore it.”
As a soccer captain, Wilson has also made difficult decisions to support his teammates, and one stand-out moment happened during the quarterfinals of a national tournament in Florida.
“My coach wanted to take out one player who was usually really good. I don’t know if he was feeling bad that day or if something was going on—maybe the matchup wasn’t favorable—but he wasn’t playing super well,” Wilson said. “I had a conversation with [my coach] saying if we show [the player] some confidence, he can play more confidently. He ended up winning us that game.”
Wilson considers decisiveness vital to leadership. This trait comes from the tough decisions he’s had to make on the soccer field.
“In a leadership position, you have to make decisions that will affect not just you but everyone you lead,” Wilson said. “You have to be confident in your decisions, knowing that it’s not just what’s best for a certain group but for the whole.”
Wilson believes that the conflict resolution skills and qualities he developed on the soccer field translate into his role as class president.
“As a class president, that [skill] is useful because my job is to make sure the class of 2028 is getting what they need to have the most successful high school career, [similar to] a soccer field.”
Wilson prioritizes the freshmen having the best experience. He wishes to stay class president next year and create a solid foundation for the next terms.
“We were left with a budget of $21 from PTO. We didn’t have much coming in as freshmen, so we couldn’t do much, but I’ll build a foundation for the future,” Wilson said. “My priority from now on is fundraising; we need to raise money.”
For fundraising, Wilson plans to start small events, like hosting bake sales and car washes, to pay off any debt from homecoming. Wilson is also planning to hold monthly meetings to see what ideas the class has for fundraising.
“I’ll spread the word as far as I can and [use] Google Forms so everyone has as much opportunity as possible to give input on decisions,” Wilson said. “I always want to see the ideas that our class has because they’re the ones that are doing this. It’s not just me; it’s the ideas of our whole class that I’m representing.”
Balancing schoolwork and soccer can be a significant challenge, according to Wilson.
“I have three hours of soccer every night, but using my time in school—[like] Greyhound time and lab period—is important,” Wilson said. “My biggest stress is getting work done without time, so making a planner and getting stuff on the paper works for me.
Despite the challenges, Wilson remains optimistic about the future, striving for the Golden Greyhound, an award received by a grade level for winning a series of competitions at Homecoming.
“Watch out,” Wilson said. “The class of 2028 is going to win the Golden Greyhound for three years straight!”
Jack McAndrew, 10
Jack McAndrew wishes to be a leader in his class and improve the class of 2027. He felt fit for the job because of past leadership roles.
He was previously the captain of a club hockey team, club soccer team and the AJGA Mo club golf team. McAndrew prioritizes fundraising to lower ticket prices for prom.
“As we plan for prom, [I] plan to have a unique, exciting venue and also fundraise to lower ticket prices for students,” McAndrew said.
McAndrew uses a to-do list app to keep track of his academics and extracurriculars. McAndrew says this method helps him stay on top of his schoolwork, allowing time for his four sports.
*Attempts to reach sophomore Jack McAndrew for further comment were unsuccessful by the time of publication.
Wayne Yue, 11
Junior Wayne Yue was elected class president for the third consecutive year despite initially having no plans to run. Encouraged by his classmates, Yue’s unexpected decision to enter the race highlights his peers’ influence.
“[I] originally was not planning to run my freshman year, but my classmates wanted me to. I looked at them and thought I should because I’ve known many of these people for over 10 years,” Yue said. “I’ve been with [my classmates] for so long. Now, I want to use any opportunity I can to serve them, to work to my fullest ability.”
Previously, Yue was a leader in WEB, which stands for “Where Everyone Belongs.” The program includes eighth graders at Wydown who offer resources and leadership to help incoming sixth graders feel welcome and comfortable at the school.
According to Yue, being class president is a drastic difference from being a WEB member.
“It was pretty tough for me freshman year because I signed up for a lot of hard classes. I’ve been struggling to balance [it]. In recent years, I’ve been taking classes with less workload [to] dedicate more time to being class president,” Yue said.
Taking less difficult classes is a sacrifice on your transcript, especially for college applications. However, Yue thinks about it differently.
“I like being class president more than I like academics because I feel more passionate [about it] than some of my classes; I feel more connected to it,” Yue said. “It feels special to me to be in a position that allows me to have so many friends and serve so many people. And also, since my classmate[s] called me up to serve, I feel it should come first, rather than academics.”
According to Yue, this role allows him to leverage his greatest strength, his ability to connect with others.
“Most people at this school hang out in one friend group: they sit at the same table every day with the same friends, and they might only talk to the same friend,” Yue said. “I’m grateful that I’m able to have the confidence to talk with everyone, to sit [at] multiple tables with multiple friend groups, to engage with the whole class instead of just one group of people.”
However, despite Yue’s enthusiasm and efforts to foster connection, he acknowledges that this passion only sometimes translates to similar enthusiasm among his peers.
“I remember back in freshman year [when] we were planning the Color Run. It was a marathon event where we would splash people with color powder, and everyone would run a track around the school and through Shaw Park to have fun,” Yue said. “However, even though we advertised it a lot, almost no one signed up for it, so we had to make the very difficult choice to cancel that.”
To prevent a similar incident to Color Run from happening again, Yue is working on hyping up the class in person.
“[The class officers] realized that when we have spirit, our class also has spirit. It’s a culture that passes down; it’s contagious,” Yue said.
“If we have a lot of spirit, our classmates will also have a lot of spirit, so we set a good example for others to follow. We congratulate people. We try to lift [participation] numbers by giving inspirational and motivational compliments that make people feel good.”
Building on this foundation of spirit and community, Yue notes the evolution of fundraising strategies.
“We have more experience as class officers [and are] finding more ways to raise money. Our main way of raising money is through bake sales, ” Yue said. “We’re also thinking of diversifying our fundraising methods even more. For example, in the winter, we’re going to have a trivia night activity that will raise a lot of money, and we also have a cycl[ing] tournament in the spring.”
However, beyond his energetic approach, Yue shares a more personal side.
“Most people see me always jumping around with patriotic spirit—but I also like to hang out with people, one-on-one, and have quiet time and quiet sessions,” Yue said.
According to Yue, he feels better knowing that his friends also experience academic stress, as it emphasizes that they are all in it together.
“I realize that it’s not just me who is stressed, but many of my classmates also worry,” Yue said. “One way I deal with stress is to connect with others. I try to think of all of this as a team, not as a self, going through their stress together.”
Yue wears a suit to school some days. He continues to wear it because his friends like it and he believes it makes him look professional.
“I’ve been dressing up since elementary school. In elementary school, I wore a clip-on tie to school every day, and my other classmates liked it a lot. Eventually, I started leveling up with my outfits,” Yue said. “I started to put on a shirt and then some pants on. Eventually, when I got to middle school, I started to wear suits a lot, and I’ve been getting more stuff to wear.”
Riley Zimmerman, 12
Riley Zimmerman is the class of 2025 president. Over the past three years, she’s held every role in the student government except the president, which helped prepare her for the position.
“I loved being a part of that community and being able to connect with my peers in a way that I didn’t get to in other types of organizations [like] after-school [activities],” Zimmerman said. “Running for president felt like the next step.”
To improve the senior students’ experience, one of her priorities was to connect the different friend groups in her class to create bonds with each other. Winning the Golden Greyhound was one of Zimmerman’s biggest goals, as it united the entire class of 2025 with spirit. Additional activities are also planned for this year.
“We’re going to plan a lock-in, and we’re going to do any spirit week stuff. We’re trying to make sure that every senior is involved,” says Zimmerman.
Zimmerman is committed to amplifying student voices. As she navigated homecoming planning, she sought feedback on everything from the dance music to the theme and even the possibility of a photo booth.
“For the homecoming theme on the class Instagram, we had a [question sticker] where [users could] write in what they want for the theme of the class,” Zimmerman said. “We got everyone’s opinions on that, [which] was anonymous, so anyone could put what they wanted without feeling scared.”
Zimmermans’ priorities for the year are to make sure that everyone is connected to each other in the grade.
“I want students to get to know each other because sometimes in Clayton, people are very isolated or just like to stick with their people,” Zimmerman said.
To prepare for a leadership position, talking to a lot of people can be helpful to gain a better perspective of the student body, according to Zimmerman.
“Talk to other grades, and talk to people you’d normally not talk to because that is when you get the best insight and advice,” Zimmerman said.
As a senior facing the college process, she is experiencing stress from the upcoming college process. Zimmerman has a couple of methods to handle the stress. To handle the stress, she has a couple of methods.
“I like doing puzzles a lot in my free time because that de-stresses me. I also finish my homework, which kind of de-stresses me in [the sense that it’s] like getting everything done,” Zimmerman said. “I love music, that also really helps.”
“Everyone who is thinking about running [for class president] should run. It has really helped me broaden my horizons and understand people,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman believes running for class president helped to broaden her horizons.
“I never would have talked to some people before without this role: it has helped me realize just how cool the community is, especially as someone leaving [soon],” she said.
