With the election of your new Urban School Co-Presidents, The Urban Legend is taking a look back on the past year as we say goodbye to our previous Co-Presidents, Max Katz ‘23 and August Starr ‘23. 

Max and August Q&A:

What is something you are most proud of from your time as co-presidents?

Max: “The first one would be Blues Jam. And that is not to say that it didn’t have problems behind the scenes. It was the first event I was planning by myself, and I believe the first StuCo event we were tasked with doing. There was a big learning curve. But, it was really nice to see people come together and help make something happen. That was like a moment where I was like, I really enjoy this and I want to make other experiences like this for the community. And then the second would be what we’re planning right now which is the Blunger Games. I’ve enjoyed taking what someone else did before and trying to build on it and problem-solve and cover up weaknesses. And make it more fun for everybody.”

August: “I’m proud of the Holiday Fair. The dodgeball game was sick. And karaoke and the gingerbread house making and then like the ginormous mess afterward that we totally did not prepare for.”

What was your experience with taking pre-existing events and making them your own?

Max: “When we’re looking at something from a year before or many years before tradition, we try and walk the line between filling in gaps, improving it to make it more fun, more accessible to other people and cementing it as a tradition without trying to take away what was great about it initially. [COVID] felt like a hurdle that would be really hard to overcome. So we’ve spent a lot of time brainstorming … [how to] put things in place for future presidents and for future student governments to get it back to where it was and surpass that.”

August: “There are no traditions at Urban, just because we, [the senior class,] only experienced old Urban for six months of our freshman year. We don’t really remember it. We didn’t really understand the traditions and the grades below us don’t have any ties to Urban traditions. So either they don’t know about them or they haven’t experienced them. We’re able to do more with that, but also there’s a lot that has been lost over the past three years.”

How was the experience of being co-president different from what you expected?

Max: “Actually planning it and sealing up all the cracks that people might not even see or think about while they’re just enjoying the event is something that was really not on the front of my mind. In the beginning, you’re really thinking about how [we can] get 400 kids to Kezar, not how [it will get] cleaned up. Based on August’s and my personalities, it’s easy to be like, ‘Oh my God, they’re just screwing around’ but actually we have a great team of people on StuCo. Nothing would have been pulled off without StuCo working hard, without Bella working hard”

August: “I felt a sense of entitlement over All School Meetings and StuCo as well as Urban spaces generally going in like the Blues Go Bath, [one of August’s campaign ideas to fill a bathroom with bubbles]. The bathroom isn’t mine, like rapping during ASMs, ASMs aren’t mine. It’s not about me. And so yeah, that’s definitely a shift I remember.”

Public Opinion (in five words):

“Super duper goofy, super mid.” – Elliott Maggiotto ‘26

“Questionable progress but gas speeches.” – Arlo Sears-Bicknell ‘24

“Eccentric guys with no planning.” – Theo Nielsen ‘24

“W, W, W, W, W.” – Taté Sheepo ‘24

“Poetic ride, things were achieved.” – Ellis Monty ‘24

“What happened to bathroom bubbles?” – Rylan Waterman ‘23

“Eccentric, energetic, driven, solid, into-it.” – Niko Asai ‘23

“My one year here: unparalleled.” – Jeremiah Rosenfels

“Super unexpected dynamic duo! (yay)” – Ciara Howard ‘24

“[The] best since I got here.” – Simi Bohuslav ‘24

“They fought loudly on Monday.” – Macey Payne ‘24

“Fair, flair, share, stare, care.” – Benjamin Chan ‘23

Skyler’s Opinion:

“They want to reinvent the wheel and they want to build a castle every time. They don’t want to tweak a thing, and they don’t adjust. They’re like, ‘Here’s this thing, and I understand the spirit of it, and so here’s how I imagined it from the ground up.’ It’s common to have one co-president like this, but it’s interesting to have two who are so that way. The other thing that’s different about both of them is neither one of them has spent a lot of time on StuCo.”