Between April 21 and April 25, 2025, DVHS students voted for the 2025-26 ASB and class officers. We asked some of our future presidents, vice presidents and class representatives about their role, what inspired them to run for the role and changes they want to make.
ASB President
Junior Matthew Nguyen, who was sophomore and junior class secretary for the class of 2026, has been elected as next year’s ASB President.
According to Matthew Nguyen, the shift from class secretary to ASB president is not all that drastic.
“The main differences from class to ASB [is that] class is more focused on your grade [while] ASB is more focused on the school, but from the position itself, I think it is been pretty similar, because we all work together as a team and help each other out, so in that regard, it is pretty much the same,” he said.
As future ASB President, Matthew Nguyen will lead the Leadership class, set the tone for the class and oversee student funds. During these weekly class meetings, Leadership goes through budgets, clubs, fundraisers and more, according to Daniel Bowen, their teacher.
Matthew Nguyen was motivated to become ASB president because he wanted to meet new people.
“I wanted to be part of more of the school. I really enjoyed being part of the class this year. I wanted to spread out a little bit further and it came to the position,” Matthew Nguyen said.
In order to boost DV spirit, Matthew Nguyen aims to set an example for others.
“When it comes to school spirit, I think the main thing is for Leadership to also lead by example. So I think when Leadership dresses out for spirit days and gets involved in the school community, it shows that Leadership does what [they say] and I think with that people will be more likely to follow.”
In the upcoming year, Matthew Nguyen aspires to create a sense of community.
“I think sometimes there is a split between the grades. So being able to connect people with different grades and kind of have communities work together is something I want to do,” he said.
ASB Vice President
Junior Kei Vo will be next year’s ASB Vice President.
“[Her role is] very similar to what the ASB president does,” Bowen said. “They are really another representative within the leadership class that helps manage the class and in the event that a president is gone during those weekly class meetings, then the Vice President steps up and takes their way. So functionally, pretty similar roles.”
Vo joined Leadership as a freshman. During sophomore and junior year, she was in the video team. For the remainder of this school year, she will be learning more about the role.
“Since we are not accustomed to our roles, we have just been helping out the current ASB officers. So currently, we are logging expenses, for example, the mission springs trip and the animal leadership retreat that we go on every year. So we are filing the checks, we are filling the form, stuff like that,” Vo mentioned.
The reason Vo decided to run for ASB vice president is because she wanted to serve as a voice for others.
“When I was younger, I was really shy and reserved. And I feel like since I got to high school, I have definitely broken out of my shell a lot more. Because of that, I just wanted to be a voice for people who might not necessarily be able to speak out all the time, because I know how hard it is to feel like you’re disconnected,” she said.
Additionally, Vo hopes that through her actions, she can change the intimidating and unapproachable image that ASB officers can have. Furthermore, as ASB vice president, Vo hopes to help other students branch out like she did when she came to high school.
“Next year, I would definitely like to see more student involvement. So I hope, with our current budget, and moving forward, we can do more events like that when we’re giving back to the students. So not only are they like incentivized to come to our events [because of prizes], they like are excited and get their friends too, because the, like, the whole premise of the airplane access is that the class had to win, and then that meant that, like, everyone had to participate in, like, the spirit days, the game, stuff like that,” Vo said.
For Vo, becoming vice president feels fulfilling.
“I feel being vice president is just a full circle moment where it is my last year in leadership, and I’ve been a part of the district’s leadership program for seven years. I think it is just kind of cool that I get to end up being like the highest ranking officer position, or like the officer position that most directly impacts the school,” Vo said.
In order to have a good year, Vo believes that teamwork is needed.
“Communication is key. Because obviously if you are doing so many different events, and you’re playing all these things, it is gonna be hard, if you do them all by yourself,” Vo said.
Senior Officers
Ethan Nguyen, a junior who was elected as next year’s senior class president, tells us about his role.
“As senior class president, you plan on the senior events that we have, such as, like the senior traditions, senior sunrise, Disney, homecoming, and that senior class president also does a speech at graduation.”
Over the years, Ethan Nguyen believed that he has changed as a person while being in leadership.
“I feel like leadership was a classroom that allowed me to really grow out of my shell and be more comfortable public speaking and being more involved,” Ethan Nguyen said. “[As senior class president, I wanted to] be a part of [my classmate’s] lives in a way to grow to see and just try to make their high school experience as [memorable] as possible.”
Similar to how ASB president and ASB vice president work, class president and vice president also support each other. Bowen tells us about junior Alyssa Yee’s role as next year’s vice president. Her job is almost identical to the role of president.
For the past two years, Yee has been part of the Campus Life team, where she works with different people and organizes events. Yee decided to run for senior class vice president because she wanted to try something new.
“I would consider myself very involved within the welcoming aspect of leadership. So I think that just taking a step further and really getting more involved, really fully committing myself to something, and really just trying to make it the best that I could personally, because I have lots of ideas,” Yee said.
Yee adds on about her goals for the year.
“I think that it’s really important to me that all [of the students], can find leadership itself as a very nice community to be a part of, but if people don’t have that place where they feel like they fit in, [I want them to] finding a home in the events that we host and finding like more comfortable.”
Junior Hamza Rafiuddin, the senior class representative for the class of 2026, also hopes to also create a space where everyone belongs.
“I wanted to find a way to make everyone included on campus, because I felt that often, a lot of people, they didn’t always feel you know that they kind of went along with campus. And I think I kind of felt like that my freshman year, and I just want to create a welcoming environment for everyone,” Rafiuddin said.
In order to achieve these goals, Ethan Nguyen mentions some additions he wants to incorporate for the class of 2026 during senior year.
“Me and my team definitely want to do more events for senior year, just because it is our last time all being together. [We’re] trying our best to make people who usually don’t go to events go to these ones because it is our last time together, and we want to head it off on a good note,” he said.
Additionally, Nguyen mentioned making changes in regards to merchandise and creating more fun events, including a senior Field or a senior sleepover. However, these events will have to be approved by school administration.
Yee shared one piece of advice to future class vice presidents.
“I think that [being class vice president] is something that you can have so much fun with, and something that is so cool like such a privilege, and so blessed to be able to have this opportunity. So have fun, do all that you can.”
Junior Officers
As future junior class president, sophomore Gannon Gage, who was freshman class president and is currently on the video team, needs to do various jobs.
“Their job is to fundraise for their class and to look for class bondings and during homecoming, they manage that, but they are very class specific,” according to Bowen.
He was first inspired to run for class president because Gage “likes meeting new people. I like interacting with the class, and [we are] going for that overarching goal of just getting our class closer together.”
Gage told us what being junior class president means to him.
“I think it is a very special role, and to be able to hold it, it just means a lot in general, like this role kind of means to me that the people like my classmates, entrust me and the other officers to bring our class together and do some fun stuff in general,” he said.
Gage also shared his goals for the year.
“Successful homecoming, fun activities for everyone, and to put smiles on peoples’ faces,” he said.
Sophomore Sahana Panchal, next year’s junior class vice president, has similar objectives.
“I think my goals are to make sure everyone has a really enjoyable experience here, especially junior year. I hope I can make it less stressful for everybody, and hopefully make it memorable,” Panchal said.
Panchal first decided to run for junior class vice president because she wanted to branch out.
“I wanted to be able to support a lot of our students, and that I just feel like I am a really outgoing person. So I feel like it could give me the opportunity to meet more people. And I just feel like it’d be really fun to get to help my class,” Panchal explained.
When asked about any changes he plans for next year, Gage shared that he wants to keep things mostly the same as prior years.
“We have been performing really well for the past couple of years. So in that sense, not much changes, but maybe more in connecting with the students of my class, specifically, what we can do to better help the class,” he said.
Angel Adeoti, the future junior class representative, shared some additions that she believes can help her class.
“So I want to have some junior specific bondings that would like, help us destress and help us be more bonded as a grade. Right now we are not there yet, but I hope we can get there by senior year,” Adeoti said.
Gage shared a piece of advice to future class presidents.
“I think the main advice I could give to class presidents is to just relax. You have a whole team backing you, and you don’t have to do everything yourself,” he said.
Sophomore Officers
Freshman Jayden Yeow, who is currently freshman vice president, will be next year’s sophomore class president.
Yeow explains his job as class president.
“We set up bondings and fundraisers for the class. We also help organize homecoming and the buildings.”
Next year, Yeow hopes to make his class more familiar with one another.
He also shares how he will collaborate with the other officers.
“We are all friends already, so it is not gonna be hard to communicate with each other to see what we want to do with the class,” Yeow said.
Freshman Timothy Lee, the future sophomore vice president, also tells us his aspirations for the upcoming year.
“Every month I plan to make at least one event where the entire class can participate in and make sure that everyone can try and join in on something,” Lee explained.
Though Lee has never officially been in Leadership, he still has experience working in Leadership.
“In middle school, [I helped with] haunted hallway at Gale and then some other event where they have to sell different things,” he said.
Lee continued, explaining his reason for running.
“I always made a promise to myself that I would try my best, and I would always try to get at least one position every year. [Being class vice president] also means a lot to me,” he said.
Lee mentioned his plans to bring his class together.
“I’ll try to be as fun and hype as possible in the rallies, even though I am probably gonna leave that to the other extroverted people. But I will try to make as many changes to homecoming or like the night rally,” he said.
Bowen finished by explaining how ASB and class officers influence DVHS as a whole.
“I think they really set the tone. It is one thing if an adult says, show up to this, wear this, do this, and it’s a totally different thing if they see their peers doing it…I think it is incumbent upon our class officers and our ASB officers to be good leaders on our campus, positive role models,” he said.
Though being an ASB or class officer might seem like a daunting role, Bowen added on one final piece of advice for future officers.
“Even the most successful leaders make mistakes. I think the most successful leaders are people who acknowledge when they make mistakes and learn from it, rather then the ones who try and put on the facade of I’m perfect, I don’t make mistakes,” Bowen said.
