It is time for the long awaited Male School President elections. Posters, banners and tasteful memes scatter themselves across the school walls. As presidents voice their ideas in check-ins, students examine promises and match it with their own demands.


Adidev Pandey, Armaan Gupta and Prem Chetan Jain are all running to be your student president. They all have unique perspectives, experience and ideas on the values they want to instil into the future of Woodstock.

We asked the candidates a series of questions to not only to learn more about them as candidates but also as people.

What is your reason to run?

Adidev: I like to fix things. Right now, I think the student council needs a lot of fixing. Whether it be the Constitution, the application cycle and process, or even the overall internal structure. I think deep reforms are needed and I’m someone who’s capable and equipped with the right skill set to create these changes.

Armaan: This is my sixth academic year in Woodstock, and I’ve experienced school life through different perspectives, especially dorm life. Given my exhaustive experience, I have identified a few of the school’s strengths and gaps. Identification is the first step, now I would like to constantly work towards rectifying them.

Prem: My entire life, my goal has been to be useful to people. I believe the way for me to be most useful to this community I love is as school president.

Do you like chocolate? If yes, then what’s your favorite chocolate?

Adidev: Kinder Joy. I don’t think that they’re the best tasting or the most expensive chocolate. But every time I eat or see one, it reminds me of my childhood.

Armaan: I absolutely love chocolate. I prefer the classic Dairy Milk Silk because I think dark chocolate is too bitter and white chocolate is too sweet.

Prem: M&M’s. M&M’s. M&M’s. My mom didn’t let me have them growing up.

What unique qualities do you possess that other candidates might not?

Adidev: I listen and mind my own business.

Armaan: Firstly, I’m extremely organised. Being well organized with meetings, events, and approaching the administration is very important. Secondly, I’m a good listener. This is helpful as it I would need to listen to the student body’s concerns and criticism.

Prem: Experience and passion. I am the only candidate with student council experience and so I know how meetings function and how to get things done within the council. I have numerous experiences working with the administration. I founded the vegetarian line, got the Quad snack to be unbanned, and got gadget extensions for exams during my time as Class Gov. The second front is passion. My work in the student council at Woodstock has a greater meaning to me than most kids. I just care a lot.

What’s your favorite story from your life?

Adidev: For me personally, it’s tomorrow. I think it’s okay to be scared of not knowing what may come next, but my favorite story will always be an untold one.

Armaan: When we won the Tibetan Home School’s Basketball tournament, it felt really gratifying, and made the hard work I put into basketball since I joined the school worth it. The main reason was our redemption arc, which sounds like it’s scripted. In our first game we lost to the host team by 6 points. Moving on through the tournament we won all our matches, and in the finals we faced the hosts again, but we were the ones who won by 6 points.

Prem: Went bald on the last day of school on a bet.

If you could change anything in the school, what would you change?

Adidev: I want to bring back ‘long way’. Honestly, I miss the peace that I used to feel on that walk.

Armaan: I would like to increase the degree of student involvement in major decisions, for example the gadget policy. It was revised last semester, significantly reducing our gadget access. This fundamentally puts Woodstock students at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with other schools. Due to our school’s policies we had to try and do more with less.

Prem: The answer to our future lies in our past. I want to bring back the culture of freedom and student liberty that our school has historically had and possessed. Woodstock’s unique defining trait is the liberty it gives students alongside the responsibility we’re burdened with. No school is, was, or ever will be like us. My primary goal in student council will be to restore our culture of student liberty.

What’s your favorite color?

Adidev: It’s a mixture of white and brown, because it reminds me of my dogs. Aww thats so sweet –Armaan

Armaan: Black. It just goes with everything. Almost every single piece of clothing I own is black. Also, black is one of my favorite colors because it is the color of the universe, like space. Everything is black.

Prem: Green. The Jedi had green lightsabers, Lloyd Garmadon (From Lego Ninjago) was green, I love green.

Do you think you’ll be able to work well with the other school president? Why?

Adidev: I’ve seen her horrible TikToks and helped her not fail her SAT, so I think I’ll be fine.

Armaan: Absolutely. I’ve had the chance to work with her and collaborate with her on a lot of different occasions. I respect her opinion a lot and I believe that she respects mine as well. I’ll be able to talk to her without any problems, and even if there are disagreements, we will work it out.

Prem: Aahana and I have been Class Governors for a semester together. We got a lot of work done. So that’s not even a question, not a doubt about it. 

What is your field of expertise and how do you think it can help you as school president?

Adidev: I would say my field of expertise is not a subject but rather people in general. I think I’m able to naturally communicate with almost everybody and it may not be the most technically useful skill but to me it is one which I value the most.

Armaan: To be completely honest, I would say my field of expertise is Math. I think as a school president it would help me because it involves critical thinking, especially with logistics and organization.

Prem: Politics. Quite self-explanatory. The student politics at Woodstock means a lot to me because it sets the precedent for the work I want to do for the rest of my life. If I start compromising on my values now, I will set a precedent to compromise forever.

 What’s your favorite song?

Adidev: ‘Eyes Without a Face’ by Billy Idol.

Armaan: ‘Winning Speech’ by Karan Aujla.

Prem: ‘The Times Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan

How do you aim to address any impending inter-grade tension that might exist?

Adidev: I don’t aim to address it. Things usually have a way of naturally working out and I don’t see a point in forcing someone to like each other just for the sake of saying I did.

Armaan: I would like to start with an example. When I was in grade 9, there was a big fight between us and grade 10 during Swish-a-thon.There was a lot of forced negotiation which didn’t work, but what ended up working was letting time do its thing. In the long run, we started talking to each other normally again. At the end of the day, things worked themselves out.

Prem: I’ve always sort of been an informal mediator in my time at Woodstock.I’ve got an inbox full of emails with people asking for advice from me because they trust I’ll be honest and true regarding what is best for them and other parties. At the end of the day, we’re all Woodstockers, and what’s best for our school is best for all of us.

Do you watch football?

Adidev: You can say that to my 98-rated FUT team on FIFA 23…. Yes, I watch football.

Armaan: I hadn’t really been so fond of football, but whenever a game is on in our lounge, I do sit with everyone and watch it. I don’t understand it very well but I try. A sport I do watch is basketball. Even though I’m a basketball player I still watch basketball a lot. Being in India, I’ve grown up watching cricket and so I’m also a religious cricket fan.

Prem: No, but after watching Staff play against Only Football during Goal-A-Thon, that just might change. My roommates have been trying to get me to do it for a while and their years-long plan might just work. I know most of you all won’t count it as a sport, but I really like watching political debates from local elections. It does burn a lot of calories though -Armaan

With elections right around the corner, remember that your vote counts. Every candidate brings unique ideas to the table for Woodstock’s future. Take a moment to think about what you want for our school, cast your ballot, and help build a stronger, more connected community.

Written by Sonak D, Arjuna T and Tisya K, Staff Writers at The Woodstocker
Edited by Tisya K and Arjuna T, Co-Editors at The Woodstocker