This past month, the students in A.P. Government completed the famous presidential election project. After studying the workings of presidential campaigns in class, groups of A.P. Government students were given the task of selecting a candidate, running their own campaign and competing against other candidates for the “presidency.” Some of the requirements of this project included creating a party name and platform, advertising with posters and slogans, and shooting several presidential commercials. On the day of the election there was a debate which all the candidates took part in. This gave them a final opportunity to reveal their beliefs and ideas to the voters before they made their decision.

Much like the actual presidency, the group who won was rewarded for their labors. After the election, they were excused form writing a certain paper which the losing team had to write.

This incentive motivated the students to work diligently, creating advertisements and campaigning in classrooms around the school.

The winner of this year’s A.P. Government was Junior, Noah Bryles. Although each of the candidates ran an excellent campaign, he eventually emerged as the winner by six votes. We asked Noah to do a brief interview about his experience, and here is what he had to say:

What was your favorite part of the project?

Noah: Definitely the campaigning. Going to other classes and convincing them to vote for me was challenging but rewarding.

What was the strategy you used to win?

Noah: I decided not to use negative advertising and focus mainly on the party platform.

Who was your toughest opponent to beat?

Noah: John Hall was a hard opponent to beat, he came very close in the end.

If you could do anything different, what would it be?

Noah: I definitely would have made more posters, I feel that my name was not up around the school as much as the other candidates. As for the other aspects, I feel that my party did very well helping me with the election.