Every time Peter Maa runs for an elected position in student government, he is inspired by a simple philosophy: “I run on the idea that students should be empowered in school because we’re the ones doing all the work,” he said. “Teachers are, too, but I don’t think our input is taken into consideration enough. That’s what I try to do.”##M:[more]##
Already having political success with student government, the 17-year-old senior and student council president at High School North is now embarking on a new mission to ease what he calls the “institutionalized rivalry” between North and South by holding collaborative events.
As Maa — who is serving for his third year as High School North’s student representative on the school board — was relaying the news during his report to the board last week that North’s football team had upset South week, he mentioned the “colorful exchange of artwork” between students from the two schools.
After the game, students from North went to South and wrote 21-9 (the final score) and Knights 2008 all over the sidewalk. The following Monday, students from South wrote on the walls and front doors of North with permanent paint, Maa said.
“There is a good deal of competitive rivalry between our schools, and I think that’s in large part institutionalized,” he told the board. “A lot of our athletic games are North-South, which is very good to a certain extent, but I don’t think we have enough events in the district that are cooperative between North and South.”
Maa moved to Grovers Mill Estates in Plainsboro with his parents and two siblings — Linda, 15, a sophomore at North, and Kevin, 13, a seventh-grader at Community — four years ago from West Chester, PA. His father works at Bristol-Meyers Squibb. His mother works for Johnson & Johnson as a statistical programmer, and both his parents help with clinical trials.
Ever since Maa got here, he has had his hands full. Just two weeks after moving to Plainsboro and beginning eighth grade at Community Middle School, he was elected to a position in the student council. He also got involved with the Science Olympiad program. In freshman year, he was elected class president. Then, he moved from being the treasurer of the executive board as a sophomore to vice president as a junior, and to president this year.
In addition, he is involved with the math club and Model United Nations, is going for his Eagle rank this month (he’s been a Boy Scout since third grade), and completed his black belt in Tae Kwon Do last year. And he takes a math number theory class at Princeton University — a class he says is the hardest class he’s ever taken.
Last year, he even started a Federal Reserve Challenge Team with a friend. The team ended up winning in the New York district and went on to nationals, where it placed in the top four. The five-person team prepares 15-minute presentations on the economy and makes recommendations about what to do with interest rates.
“Last year, we recommended to hold them steady,” he said. Following that, the teams undergo a 10-minute question-and-answer period from the judges. “We’re going for first this year.”
Maa, in an interview last week, said he hopes more cooperative events can be held for the two high schools. The only event like this he can recall is China Night, an expo of Chinese culture featuring things like traditional and modern dance and fashion. The event is sponsored by the Chinese clubs at both schools and is open to everyone.
Even though both schools are very “spirited,” it doesn’t mean they hate each other, and many from both schools are friends, he says, which is one of the reasons he wants to try to have more cooperative events, particularly a dance, for the two.
“You don’t have one side of the room divided as North and one side divided as South,” he said. “Everyone’s mixing.” The student council tried to organize such a dance last year, but Maa admits that it’s hard to get it approved, even this year, as it has to be planned far in advance and must receive approval from both principals.
If the student council can’t pull it off at either of the schools, he said a second option would be to try to go through the West Windsor Recreation Department, which in the past had sponsored a successful dance between Community and Grover middle schools with over 1,”000 attending. The only downside is that revenue from the dance would have to go back to the township and not to the student council.
Maa said he was brainstorming at the meeting and has since come up with an additional idea: holding a Mr. WW-P contest in addition to the Mr. North and Mr. South events, but he emphasized the suggestion is “very tentative.”
“It’s really hard to think of an event that’s not a dance that a lot of people would go to that wouldn’t engender some sort of rivalry between the two schools,” he said.
Maa said he is not sure what he wants to do in the future, but says it could range from engineering to business to law. He has already applied to MIT and Georgetown for early decision, and also plans to apply to Princeton University.
With an ambition like his, one would have to wonder when Maa gets a chance to sleep, especially when factoring in that he also has a part-time job at Best Buy. His answer: “Weekends?”
“I do a lot of things, but really at any given time, I’m really fully devoted to whatever one thing I’m doing at the moment,” he said. “I think the most important thing is to give all you have into whatever you’re doing.” — Cara Latham
