Meet ISA’s 2026-27 High School Student Council President & Vice President

How did you feel when you found out you had been elected, and what does this role mean to you?

Jules: I think I speak on behalf of both Ayaan and myself when describing how elated we were. Election day was fairly intense, and so was the campaigning process leading up to it. This year was incredibly competitive, and we had the fortune of going against high-calibre candidates who would have fulfilled the President and Vice President roles to the fullest. The joy of the moment did not simply come from the victory, but also the level of support we immediately received from the other candidates. It was an instant rush of hugs, congratulations and pure excitement for Ayaan and me, which only highlighted how wonderful our community is and accelerates my ambition for this year’s events and goals.

I initially ran for Student Council for a plethora of reasons. I wholeheartedly believe that the power of a distinguished educational facility like ISA comes from the students. I am particularly motivated to give them more agency over decisions that are made at the higher level, with Student Council being a catalyst for these changes to occur. Furthermore, Student Council aligns with my hopeful career path in international relations, politics and political journalism, as well as my other extracurriculars, including Model United Nations, The Voice and Debate. My passion for global affairs translates to my vision for a Student Council run by students, for the students.

I’d also like to add that Ayaan and I have very complementary styles of leadership. We are both involved in Debate, but Ayaan has been an active member of Student Council since Grade 10, going from Grade Representative to Secretary and now Vice President. His Student Council leadership combined with my previously mentioned leadership experiences is a perfect dynamic, especially since this is my first year doing High School Student Council. This partnership encompasses exposure to Student Council’s inner workings with a vision from the outside, fully optimised towards students’ wishes being fulfilled!

Ayaan: I felt nothing short of pure joy and excitement after I found out that we had won. Jules and I had been planning our campaign for quite some time, and we both spent a lot of time and effort campaigning by going up to people in school, but also through social media.

This role means a lot to me because Student Council has been such a big part of my time at this school. I started as a Grade Representative, became Secretary, and now being Vice President feels like the opportunity to give something back to a community that has given me so much.

For me, being Vice President is not about having a title or being the person at the front of an assembly. It is about taking responsibility. I want students to feel like Student Council actually represents them and that when we say we are going to do something, we follow through.

What are you hoping to achieve as part of Student Council this year?

Jules: We particularly emphasised in our campaign that the entire student body is being considered, both late Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme. With that in mind, the IB programme is incredibly rigorous, therefore we would like to have an introduction to the course-selection process earlier on, in Grade 9, for students to have a clearer grasp of how the IB operates.

Currently, we only really talk about Diploma Programme course selections in the second semester of Grade 10, which can inhibit course selections that are prerequisites for potential career choices. For example, the correlation between extended maths and Higher Level maths can directly lead to STEM pathways at university. Introducing the process earlier facilitates informed decisions regarding course selections and gives students more agency in the long term.

Furthermore, we’d like to improve already existing events, such as having MVP awards and DJs for the Student versus Teacher sports competitions and to keep bringing the ice cream truck on the last day of school. We’d also like to rework the advisory schedule to give Grade 9 and 10 students more free periods to study.

Ayaan: In our campaign and in my speech, we talked about how we not only have ideas but also have a different style towards running Student Council. Instead of focusing on the quantity of events, we focus on the quality so that there is a long-lasting impact on students.

One of our main campaign ideas that we plan to follow up on is changing when and how the Diploma Programme course selection is introduced to Grade 10 students. Both Jules and I have been through this process, and we collectively agreed that it should have been done better and earlier. The importance of Diploma Programme course selection is undermined and only introduced in the second semester of Grade 10. We hope to change that so that Grade 9 and 10 students are made well aware of the impact of their choices and how they can choose courses that complement what they want to do in the future.

Is there anything you’d particularly like to change or bring to the ISA student community?

Jules: As someone who really values a sense of cultural and international community, and has found this to be a pillar of the ISA environment, I would like to carry this to every area of the ISA atmosphere. Beyond Global Village Day, but also to athletics, the arts and more. We are so privileged to have such a diverse community, and I would like to celebrate it through every initiative we take as Student Council President and Vice President.

Ayaan: I want to bring students closer together because I have started to realise how temporary our time here really is. In just a few years, everyone in High School right now will have graduated and gone their separate ways. We will move to new cities, meet new people and start completely different chapters of our lives.

It might be nice, the new atmosphere. But there’s no place like home. Let’s create that feeling of a home at ISA.