Blazer on the campaign trail

It all started as a challenge.

Student Government Association (SGA) President junior Sebastian Johnson was in eighth grade when he saw the Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) debate video. He turned to his friend and said, "I can do better."

"Why don't you just run then?" his friend retorted skeptically.

Now he is. Five years later, Johnson has beaten out five other Montgomery County students to become one of two candidates competing for the position of SMOB. Since his official nomination on March 15, Johnson has been continuing a campaign that will culminate in a countywide election on April 26 and 27. If he wins, Johnson will become Montgomery County's 28th SMOB, a student who will represent MCPS students while serving as a member of the Board of Education. Until then, while juggling schoolwork, Blair SGA responsibilities and a social life, Johnson will have to maintain his sanity while still flashing his winning campaign smile.

The first hurdle

On Tuesday, March 15, Johnson arrives at school wearing a suit and tie. This day will determine whether Johnson will be a final candidate for SMOB and move a step closer to living up to his eighth grade challenge. Despite the pressure, he isn't nervous.

At the Nominating Convention at Northwest High School, six other students wait to win the votes of high school and middle school student government representatives from all around the county.

At 10:30 a.m., Johnson should be in his AP World History class back in Portable 2. Instead, he is seated on Northwest's auditorium stage, listening to his opponents deliver their opening statements. When it is Johnson's turn to speak, the auditorium bursts into cheers.

"I'm a little sick," he begins, "so if I start coughing during my speech I hope you'll forgive me."

After Johnson makes it through his speech, he returns safely to his seat, more relaxed.

When the convention breaks for lunch, Johnson makes his way around the cafeteria. By this point, all the delegates have already voted, but he still takes time to talk to them. A young student approaches Johnson.

"Hi," the student says meekly. "Can I have your autograph?"

Johnson is stunned, unsure what to say. "Sure, okay," Johnson says, kneeling down and taking the sheet of paper the student offers."What's a good message for the children?" Johnson wonders out loud. "How about, `Stay cool," he decides. After finishing the autograph, he hands the paper back to the student.

"Now you're not going to buy anything online with my signature, are you?" Johnson asks. The student giggles and walks away.

A preliminary vote narrows the field down from seven to four candidates. Johnson is one of the four. After a round of student questioning, two of the four candidates will be eliminated in a second and final vote.

"And now," a student announcer says, "the two candidates that will appear in the 28th Student Member of the Board Election on April 27 are Nadia Sicard and" — it is almost impossible to hear the second name, as cheers erupt in the auditorium — "Sebastian Johnson!" Though the nomination is a victory for Johnson, the race to be SMOB has just begun.

Lights, camera, action!

The first step for Johnson: the debate video. On Monday, March 21, Johnson leaves school at 11:35 a.m. and walks to the bus stop on University Boulevard. If he wins, Johnson says, he is going to have to learn how to drive.

At 1 p.m. Johnson finally arrives at the Carver Educational Center in Rockville, where the video will be filmed. Sicard is already there, along with current SMOB and Magruder High School senior Sagar Sanghvi, who will be mediating the debate.

The video debate will be in a question-and-answer format, with each candidate having one minute to answer each question. The questions are prerecorded by students all over the county, and the candidates will watch them on a monitor in the studio.

After a brief meeting, each candidate gets to practice his or her closing statement before getting into the studio. Johnson goes through his, and then Sicard has her turn.

"So vote for me, Nadia Sicard for Student Member of the Board," she finishes.

"Don't vote for Nadia!" Johnson says jokingly from behind her. She turns to him and sticks out her tongue.

Finally, it is time for Johnson, Sicard and Sanghvi to enter the studio for the filming.

"Guys, there's no stopping on this," the director calls over the loudspeaker. The video would be live-to-tape. Whatever happened, happened. There would be no redos or second chances. The pressure was on.

"Stand by... Three, two, one, cue," the director says.

Sanghvi starts, "It is now my pleasure to introduce the two candidates for Student Member of the Board..."

After several rounds of questions, the video draws to a close, and Johnson and Sicard give their closing statements. When they finish, there is a moment of silence.

"That's it," the director says.

Relieved to have gotten the taping over with, Johnson and Sicard take off their microphones and walk out of the studio.

"God, that sucked," Johnson says with a sigh. "I hate cameras."

On the way back to Blair, Johnson stops at McDonald's. As he sits at the table eating his first meal all day, some high school students walk in. Johnson debates talking to them, but decides against it. He has done enough campaigning for one day. Yet, Johnson's work is far from over. When he gets back to school, he has to work on a presentation for his history class as well as catch up on a lot of make-up work after missing so much school for his campaign. Over the course of this week, Johnson has only been to his sixth-period Physics class once. Since then, his teacher has covered an entire unit that Johnson will be tested on before spring break.

Though many students would welcome the opportunity to skip school as much as Johnson must, Johnson would almost rather be in class. Making up the work he misses is often more difficult than campaigning. If he is elected SMOB, he will have to miss even more classes in order to be present at board meetings and attend to his duties as SMOB.

But this doesn't worry Johnson as much — for him, SMOB will supersede all his other duties. "I have a commitment to myself and to my grades, but I feel that my commitment to representing the students comes first," he says.

That's just the way he is and the way he has always been — a bona fide politician.