From the Classroom to the Campaign Trail: Trey Amundson ‘ASB-solutely’ Runs for ASB Presidency

By: Donya Hassanshahi

On Friday, May 5th, the Associated Student Body [ASB] will launch their annual ASB Candidate elections. From 8AM to 3:40PM, Rangers will be able to vote for their upcoming 2023-2024 leadership.

Trey Amundson, ’24, also referred to as “Treyveous” among his peers, is one of the many candidates this week. He is running from ASB President.

As an active member of ASB for the past two years, he says, “[ASB] has definitely taught me very valuable leadership skills. I’ve applied for two jobs and I’ve gotten both of them. It’s taught me how to communicate, how to express how I feel, and it’s also taught me how to interview and just things that you need to know as an adult—it’s definitely prepared me for life.”

Since Amundson was living at Tulare during the time of the application period his freshman year, he was unable to join.

Although he only joined his sophomore year, Amundson says he has been around “ASB and Leadership [his] whole life.”

Considering he meets the eligibility requirement for running, he says he was eager to run as a candidate “…because I think there are so many changes we could make to make this school great. I think that we’re by-far the best Visalia school, but that doesn’t mean we’ve reached our potential, and I think our school could be amazing and be super fun next year.”

Amundson says that his father was formerly an ASB teacher himself in Tulare, and now he oversees all of the ASB Directors within the area. “I’ve probably wanted to run for ASB President since 2014,” he says.

Not only has his father influenced him to pursue ASB, although Redwood presidents preceding Amundson have positively affected him.

During the 2020-2021 school year, Amundson says that the alumnus ASB President Edgar Jaurrieta inspired him. “He took me in freshman year and he treated me like a brother. He was great.”

For the 2021-2022 school year, alumna Brielle Alvarez was the ASB President. He says, “[Alvarez] was very mature and she taught me a lot on how to act as a person.”

In the current 2022-2023 school year, he says that he “really looks up to Savannah’s [Torres, ’23] spirit and lack of fear when it comes to putting herself out there.”

As of now, Amundson says his ambitions lie in reviewing the tardy policy, lunchtime activities, and reconstructing campus life.

“Next year, we will have the gym and none of the students on this campus have had an indoor-rally, but since I’ve been around ASB my whole life, I know how to run a rally indoors and use a gym—I think that we could just make events so much better. I want to fix our lunchtime activities because—-obviously no one stays on [campus] for those, nobody cares about them—-that’s something that I’m really passionate about. I just want to change our school culture and make it a fun environment,” he says.

Given Amundson is well-rounded through his participation in sports and dedication to ASB, he says that he hopes to inspire fellow students for embracing the Ranger spirit:

“I think there is a stigma around people in ASB or people who dress-up or people who participate—that they’re weird or lame—-and I want to be the factor that stops that….I just hope to show kids that it’s not weird or lame to dress-up, participate, or have fun.”

Trey Amundson, ’24

To receive more updates from the candidate himself, visit his Instagram @trey.a3 and other social media outlets for further updates about his campaign.

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