Student Senate Candidate Interview 2008: Frances Cameron (President)

Written by Teddy Wing | Posted on Apr 29, 2008 - 06:42 PM

I wanted to start off by asking, what’s important to you at Marin Academy?

For me, one thing that’s super important in my life that’s reflected at MA is the enthusiasm, the continuous enthusiasm every day. Something that I try to, live by, I guess you could say, is that each day is a new day for new things, and I think that people at MA really embrace that. We see it with all our seminars, and our student work, and in the classrooms every single day. The depth of ideas that are being generated from such a diverse population in the school really inspires me, because that’s something that I try to do every day, and it helps to be a part of a community that’s so supportive of that idea.

I think, taking that into account, that would influence a lot of the decisions I would make, because I would draw a lot from other people. I think I would thrive a lot with input from everyone else, and I think that I have thrived a lot, just being in the community. I feel like I’ve learned as much from the students as I have from, homework, just in passing, which I think is really cool. I think that would be a big part of what I would try to represent, to represent everyone.

I was wondering why you decided to run for President?

Well, one thing that helps out a lot (a personal trait), is that I usually feel very comfortable talking in front of people and with people. I never get intimidated, or get bad vibes from this community, so that was a big help for me to not second-guess my running. As far as the position of President, it’s a big job, and there’s a lot of involvement and interaction with the student body, and that’s something that I would love to have more of. I have a connection with my Junior class, but I’m finding that I don’t know quite as many underclassmen as may be possible. I’ve also been on Senate for two years now, and I’ve seen the work that they do, and the possibilities that are out there for MA events. It’s fun work, it’s really rewarding work, it’s something that I’m interested in, and that I actually really enjoy. I would really love to be someone who the MA community would feel would both represent them well, and be able to talk to or hang out with. I mean, these are my friends after all.

You mentioned your ability to interact with people. What other sorts of things would you bring to the job?

In general, I’ve been involved in a lot of different activities outside of school, so I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to work with a lot of different types of people with a lot of different types of interests. I’ve been part of sports teams, I’ve gone away to specialized camps, so I’ve met a lot of different types of people over the years. I feel like a big thing that would be helpful is that I’ll be able to work with other people, and take different ideas and combine them. I would be able to take my ideas, as well as input from the student body, other members of the Senate, and come to some really cool concensus of events, and things like that. That would be one thing that I have that would work well for the position.

I have skills working with groups of people. I’ve been playing team sports since I was four, so I know what it’s like to be around other people, working with other people. At the same time, I’m pretty confident in how I feel about things, and what I believe. So I can also stand on my own two feet, and I think that the combination of the two is something that would be nice to apply to a position like this.

What sorts of changes can we expect from you should you be elected?

The tough thing is—I’ve been part of Senate for two years—so it really is challenging putting events on. There have been a lot of complaints in the last year, which I totally understand, and that has a lot to do with policies that are inevitable, as far as being a student, where you can’t really go against them. It would be fun to incorporate new locations for things, and another thing that was, I think, super awesome about this year that I would love to do more of, was the idea around Circle Day, and having those special days throughout the school year. That was just such a special thing that I feel was good for the community. I feel like we could implement more things like that, those special days. We can have a chat, hopefully, with the administration about dances, but at this point in time, I don’t have too much new information about that.

Why should students choose you over the other candidates?

Well, I would never say anything bad about the other candidates, because like you said, they’re all super qualified, and it’s an amazing pool that we have. I just feel like this is a job that I could both commit to, and do the job really well. Also, in general, I feel like I’m a pretty relatable person, and I’m super super open and accepting of all kinds of people and ideas. I feel like I would be someone who could get up in front of the school throughout the year. Something that’s really important is that I would want people to feel comfortable with me up there, and also feel happy, like, ‘this is someone who I want representing me’. I feel like I could represent accurately, effectively, and happily. I think that if I get elected, you can guarantee that I’ll always always be there for everyone in the school, whether it be trying to plan an event, or like I touched on earlier, this is the position of President among a sea of peers my own age, so it’s one of those things where I would hope to be able to both lead them and help them, and at the same time have absolutely anyone come up to me and talk to me, and ask how the soccer game went.

Teddy Wing can be reached at