Leadership…

“Leadership is a decision and therefore, a responsibility”. “There is a big difference between a leader and a boss. A boss says ‘Do it.’ while a leader says ‘Let’s do it.’ These are the words delivered by the candidates in the recently held Students’ Rally.

Last March 09, 2007, Friday, was a date for the candidates for the next school year’s Student Council Executive Committee (SC ExeCom) Officers elections, which was to be held on March 12, 2007, Monday. It was their time to show to the citizens of the school what they can do to improve whatever needs to be improved in the school.

Both parties indeed prepared campaign materials like posters, stickers, and many more prior to the Students’ Rally. The ACTS or the Alliance of Concerned and Transformed Students was a party led by Chic Madonna Tambagan as the candidate for the position of SC President while her co-candidate, Bap Palen, led his LIFE party or the Leaders in Full Energy. Indeed both parties delivered their respective platforms well.

And finally, the day of the elections came. On the said elections date, around 9:30 in the morning, student liasons went to their respective assigned sections bringing with them ballot boxes and that piece of paper where the future of the University of the Philippines High School in Cebu lies on. Of course, each student of the school has his or her own favorite or the person whom they think, can manage and run the school well.

The student liaisons then collected the ballot and went to the Guidance Office, together with Mrs. Maglasang to tally the votes. The students had already spoken. Here is the previous and the new set of SC ExeCom Officers for the incoming school year:

Chairperson: Euvic Ferrer Chic Madonna Tambagan

Vice-Chairperson: Michelle Gudito Camille Ann Garcia

Internal Secretary: Chic Madonna Tambagan Theresa Ynez Polistico

External Secretary: Bernalene Vidal Rowella Aguillon

Treasurer: Olga Marie Soon Leslie Adolfo

Auditor: Gayle Lorraine Tallo Stacey Kaye Fortuna

4^th year Councilor: Arvin Suralta Ann Carmel Vidal

3^rd year Councilor: Camille Ann Garcia McCherry Ann De Leon

2^nd year Councilor: Stacey Kaye Fortuna Dan Clever Gigantone

The previous SC ExeCom officers are about to turn over the responsibility to the newly elected officers. I, being one of the previous officers, do hope for the betterment of the school in their management. I could really say that these newly elected officers are responsible enough to run the school, for majority of them were SC members this year.

Indeed, being a leader is a great responsibility. It is not easy to run school activities and be the voice of the students in school. According to Lou Holtz, Ability is what you are capable of doing, motivation determines what you do, and attitude determines how well you do it. And I do believe in this quote. These three are essential for a leader to become a good leader. He must have the ability to do things, motivation to determine what to do and attitude to do his responsibility well. Leaders should not always ‘lead’, oftentimes ‘following’ determines a good leader.