On Thursday Aug. 25, the West Ranch class of ‘26 kicked off the school year with the annual freshman class officer elections. The freshmen  candidates worked all week to campaign for their position. Brandon Chang, Chloe Busnawi, and Kendall Gustin ran for president. The vice president candidates were Aileen Kwon, Carson Nott, and Gabe Molina. Lastly, Audrey Kim and Madison Broyles campaigned as secretary candidates. 

After the votes were tallied, Chang was named president, Kwon vice president and Kim secretary.

   In the last couple of years, social media has become a major player for school campaigning. Both Kim and Kwon emphasized their use of Instagram to gain traction on their campaigns. “I made videos with my friends and uploaded photos daily,” Kwon said.

   Another popular campaigning strategy was taking pictures of people holding posters. Kim explained, “I had a ‘VOTE 4 AUDREY’ sign that I took pictures of people holding. I also brought giant pencils for people to pose with.” 

   Both on-campus and digital campaigning was crucial to the success of the winning candidates. “I made a poster with the slogan ‘Vote For Bran, He’s Your Man,’ and I just walked around, met a lot of new people,” Chang said. He said that getting to know the freshman class was a vital part in his campaign.

   Brandon Chang started off the year as an ASB member, but his campaign focused on getting to know his peers. Chang mentioned he didn’t attend Rancho Pico, and, therefore, didn’t know many people: “My main goal was to just talk to a lot of them about who I am, what I’m planning on doing and what type of person I am.” 

   Chang shared that he is excited to change up the West Ranch sports scene. “Right now there’s a lot of attention on football, basketball, a lot of those spectator sports, which is good. But I also think a lot of funding and attention should be on other sports as well like tennis or volleyball,” Chang said. 

   Newly elected vice president Aileen Kwon expressed her excitement for the coming year as a part of ASB, working on posters and other school activities. “I’m excited to work with my friends Audrey and Brandon, the secretary and president. I’m also just excited to work with the rest of ASB,” Kwon expressed. The officers will work together on many events for the class of ‘26 and the whole student body. Kwon revealed that she is “really excited to manage events and get everybody involved.”

   Audrey Kim, the new secretary for the class of ‘26, also shared her enthusiasm for working on school events. She, along with Kwon, are new members of ASB after they were elected to their positions. “ASB is already so fun and I’ve only officially been in it for a day. I love planning and decorating and helping out with the school in general,” Kim said.

   Kim concluded by thanking her peers for voting for her: “I would like to tell the freshman class that this year is going to be so fun and thank you so much for voting me for secretary! You won’t regret it.” Chang added that “This is going to be a fun and memorable year.” 

Congratulations to the 2026 Freshman Class Officers!