Student Council Election Results: Tempe Campus Students Take the Stage

They wrote the speeches themselves. They made their own posters. Then they stood up in front of the whole high school and made their case.

The Tempe Campus student council election wrapped up this month, and the process started long before anyone reached the podium. Back in August, students came to an information meeting, asked questions, and left with a packet of paperwork and a calendar mapping out every deadline between then and election day. From there, with support from their families, they built their campaigns from scratch.

“Students created their own speeches and posters with family support,” said Larissa Van Der Meersche, the teacher who oversees student council at the Tempe Campus.

Why this election is bigger than an election

At Autism Academy for Education and Development, every student is autistic, and communication is at the center of everything we do. For a lot of our students, expressing an idea clearly — especially out loud, especially to a crowd — is one of the hardest and most valuable things they will ever learn to do.

So a campaign speech isn’t a two-minute assignment here. It’s the finish line of weeks of real work: figuring out what you actually believe, turning a feeling into a sentence, organizing those sentences so someone else can follow them, practicing until the words come out the way you meant them, and then delivering them to a room full of peers.

That skill set doesn’t stay in the auditorium. It’s the same skill set behind a job interview, a doctor’s appointment, a conversation with a landlord, a request for an accommodation at work, or telling a roommate that something isn’t working. Saying clearly what you need, to a person who has the power to do something about it, is one of the most consequential abilities anyone can develop — and it’s one our students are practicing on purpose, with support, years before they’ll need it.

Every candidate who stepped up to that podium moved that skill forward. So did every student who sat in the audience, listened to nine classmates, weighed what they heard, and made a choice.

What the candidates ran on

The speeches covered a lot of ground, but a few themes came up again and again: making school more fun, making sure everyone gets heard, and looking out for the students who are easiest to overlook.

Candidates pitched spirit days, school dances, fundraisers, and better events. One candidate quoted Lightning McQueen to explain the job of a secretary — “It is not about the trophy. It is about helping others get where they need to go.” Another wanted to make “Donut Day” an actual campus tradition. Several talked about wanting students in their final year of high school to leave with memories worth keeping.

Every candidate promised to listen. Most admitted they didn’t have all the answers. All of them showed up anyway.

The skills behind the speeches

Running for office turns out to be a crash course in a lot of things that matter well beyond a school election.

“Students learn leadership skills, collaboration, organization and planning,” Van Der Meersche said. “They learn to try to understand the perspective of others and that although we may have great ideas, not every idea will be chosen.”

That last part matters. Not everyone who campaigns wins, and learning to handle that is part of the curriculum too.

“Students learn that although they may put in hard work and a great effort, they may experience some rejection, which is something that may happen as they apply for jobs in the future,” she said. “It takes courage and perseverance to walk through the election process and spend a year being a student council member. That helps students understand the importance of commitments and following through on their word.”

How students handled it

The clearest measure of leadership on election day wasn’t in the results. It was in how students responded to them.

“Although not all students were elected to the role they campaigned for, and were naturally a bit disappointed, all students had a positive attitude and handled their loss with dignity,” Van Der Meersche said. “All students encouraged those who won their position and showed good sportsmanship.”

Managing disappointment in public, in front of the people you just competed against, and still finding the words to congratulate them — that’s advanced social communication. Our students did it without being asked.

Election day, built for everyone

The voting process was designed with the same care as the speeches.

Students voted in their own classrooms instead of an unfamiliar setting. Teachers displayed a slideshow pairing each candidate’s name with their photo, so recognition didn’t depend on recalling a name heard once in a crowded room. Ballots were structured and supported, and students wrote their names so a teacher could quickly check in if anything was unclear.

That’s not a shortcut. An election that people can’t fully access doesn’t produce a more rigorous result — it produces an incomplete one. Designing around how our students actually process information is what made this a real vote, with real participation, reflecting what students genuinely wanted.

Once ballots were in, students got a “Just Voted” sticker to wear for the rest of the day. The hallways filled up with them — a small badge, but a real one, marking a student who had a say in how their school runs.

Your Tempe Campus Student Council

• President: William Huff
• Vice President: Davyn
• Secretary: Onur
• Treasurer: Loki
• Representative: Rey
• Additional Representatives: Elliott, Xander, Charlie, Tyler, David, and Ameer

Congratulations to every student who ran, and to everyone stepping into a council role this year.

What comes next

The work starts now — and students will get to watch it turn into something real.

“Student Council members see the direct fruit of their hard work,” Van Der Meersche said. “They will get to see their ideas and decisions put into action. Whether it is a spirit week they plan, a school dance they plan and decorate for, or a holiday event that they create from start to finish, they will be able to see how student voices and ideas directly impact school events and decisions.”

That connection — I said something, and something happened — is the whole point. It’s how a student learns that speaking up is worth the effort it costs, and that lesson follows them long after graduation.

Spirit weeks, dances, holiday events: if it happens on this campus this year, there’s a good chance a student thought of it first.