He did his homework.
A Lengthy Island teenager made historical past within the Herricks faculty district because the youngest-ever particular person voted to its Board of Schooling — thanks largely to profitable over each mother and father and his friends by election day.
“I believe this was positively the problem of my life,” 18-year-old Athul Santhosh instructed The Put up.
“Principally, I simply love Herricks,” added the 2025 Herricks Excessive College grad, who will begin at NYU subsequent semester after a 12 months at CUNY.
Santhosh says he received his seat drastically because of a savvy social media marketing campaign that appealed to younger mother and father and up to date Highlander graduates who associated to the younger man.
Utilizing a $1,000 marketing campaign warfare chest he raised with a tutoring job, he pushed a platform of furthering scholar involvement price range choices that in the end received him the final of three open board seats with a complete of 592 votes within the Might 19 election.
Santhosh comfortably defeated candidates Ritesh Ramdhani, 400 votes, and Nidhi Guru, 360 votes, for the ultimate spot.
“Lots of seniors at the highschool got here out to vote, plenty of the individuals who graduated from the category of 2025 and onwards got here out to vote,” he stated of his supporters.
“Freshmen via juniors who can’t vote, they’d inform their mother and father to return out to vote.”
Santhosh stated he’s making it a precedence to provide college students higher entry to extracurricular actions and internships that can stand out on their school purposes forward of the brand new faculty 12 months.
He additionally goals to bolster Herricks athletics as soon as he’s sworn in on July 1 as a 19-year-old.
“Positively I needed to deliver extra of a scholar perspective to the varsity,” stated Santhosh, a former scholar consultant on the Herricks board who needs to be a math instructor.
The younger man has extracurricular authorities expertise as he works an administrative job with the City of North Hempstead, which oversees his dwelling hamlet, to assist get potholes stuffed and timber eliminated.
Santhosh knew by the top of twelfth grade that his days on campus wouldn’t finish in a cap and robe.
He knocked on about 1,000 doorways, planted roadside indicators, along with having friends assist run his profitable on-line marketing campaign since February. He says it was troublesome to pay for the race’s bills.
“Positively an enormous hit on my checking account — needed to lower down the matcha spending a bit,” he laughed.
Santhosh’s younger age was nonetheless an impediment forward of the election.
“The truth that that was form of undermined simply because the truth that I used to be 18 was form of irritating,” he stated.
“I had the confirmed expertise. I’ve fought for teenagers on the board of training to make sure that they’ve the very best alternatives doable, and nonetheless, simply because I’m 18, some weren’t taking me severely.”
The months of frustration didn’t get the very best of him as, “in the long run, it was all value it,” he stated.
“I’m actually proud, I’m simply actually glad. I don’t know how one can describe it.”
Santhosh has already arraigned his morning NYU courses so he can simply attend night board conferences.
“I be certain that to maintain my schedule very versatile to make sure that I’m in a position to correctly give time to the board of ed,” Santhosh stated, “and to verify the belief that was given to me doesn’t fall via.”
