Despite various setbacks in her student government career, senior Mia Fahey has persevered through them and achieved the prestigious position of Galileo ASB President. As president, she now leads the school in raising money, organizing events, and hosting assemblies. However, her ascent to the head of ASB hasn’t been an easy journey.
As a freshman, Mia didn’t originally think she would be able to attend Galileo at all. Even though she put down Galileo as her first choice, due to living in the neighborhood and getting “good vibes” from playing with friends who were on the Galileo basketball team, she wasn’t accepted to Galileo. Mia attended John O’Connell for a full two weeks before Galileo shared the good news with her that she could transfer.
As an outgoing freshman, Mia wanted to be involved with as many things as possible in order to meet new people. But after having such a late start, her student government dreams were dashed considerably. Since she started attending Galileo two weeks into the school year, she only had three weeks left to prepare for freshman elections. She still did her best campaign, but tragically ended up losing her bid to be class president by a difference of 5 votes. However, her experience of networking with other students during the freshman primaries allowed her to meet people who gave her an edge in the next election.
“I lost and that sucked, but if I hadn’t run I wouldn’t have met as many people as I did, and I wouldn’t have made those connections,” explained Mia. “I made hella friends through running,” she added.
When sophomore elections were held later that year, the friends Mia made while running for freshman president allowed her an easy comeback. “I won in a landslide,” she said humbly.
When she got into office as class president, there was a lot of work to be done. ASB was running out of money, which meant minimal school events could be held, if any at all. By focusing her efforts on fundraising through bake sales and food fest, Mia was able to raise enough funds to host multiple school events, such as pi day, soak a senior/teacher, and a number of pep rallies.
In her junior year, Mia once again put hard work into campaigning to be junior class president, however, according to Mia, shady voting practices were implemented by one of her opponents, causing her to lose re-election. Although the outcome (and the means of getting there) were unfortunate, Mia accepted defeat and focused her efforts on her classes, as well as strategizing her end-of-year campaign for senior year.
Later that year, she executed the political comeback of the century, as she campaigned so well for ASB president that her biggest opponent dropped out. With a strategy of utilizing social media, Mia’s outreach expanded quickly on Instagram and TikTok, where her message resonated with students. After 4 years of campaigning for student government roles, she had finally been elected as ASB president.
Now, Mia hopes she can leave a legacy for Galileo of a memorable 2025 filled with fun events. Her end goal remains a senior trip to Disneyland, but it remains to be seen if there will be enough budget to fund it. For now, Mia is focused on the Galentines dance, which is coming up on February 8th.
