Several months into his position as Senior Class President, and Max Czechowski (‘17) is already a strong leader. One of the main goals that he pushed during his campaign was to unify the senior class for a memorable last year. In order to do this, Czechowski will be planning class trips and activities throughout the school year. Recently, Czechowski has arranged an outdoor movie night and a senior outing to Fright Fest at Six Flags Great America in Chicago.
“I want to unify everyone. I want to provide an opportunity for to people to have fun. Just because it’s not just one person’s senior year, or just a group, it’s everyone’s senior year… To have an opportunity for some fun would be a cool thing.” Max explained.
Senior year is a complicated and demanding time for students. Between applications and class work, students tend to get caught up in their due dates and sometimes struggle to manage their responsibilities and stress levels. Fun is the necessary cure for senior woes.
Czechowski has seen the burden that his fellow students have been bearing: “I think everyone is feeling, from what I’m hearing, stressed out. Specifically because of colleges and getting into college. And we are now a month into school, so I think everyone is back into the swing, but they’re still kind of thinking about some of the stress and realization that’s setting in that ‘I’m out of high school next year’ and a lot of people are becoming adults now, in a legal sense.”
To the class of 2017, Czechowski advises, “Relax. You don’t need to be so stressed out and worried about next year, just take it one or two weeks at a time…you don’t need to know the rest of your life right now.”
Czechowski has taken his life one step at a time. His seemingly natural leadership qualities aren’t something that he started off high school with. As a freshman, he would have never seen himself taking on the role of Senior Class President. However, for the past four years, he has gained experience as a leader. He has been a Lodge Chief in the Order of the Arrow for the past two years, and the Senior Patrol Leader for his troop. Additionally, Czechowski is an Eagle Scout, which is the highest rank in the Boy Scouting program. To earn this award, Czechowski had to design, develop, and lead a community service project which he did at Lamplighter Park. There, he planted perennial plants, cleaned up the water’s edge, removed invasive willow plant, and added more sand to the play area. Through these positions, Czechowski has flourished as a leader in the community.
Czechowski is not afraid to take on responsibilities. Recently he attended a Vigil honor, which is a high mark of distinction for arrow men. For eight hours, he had to watch over and tend to a fire while it rained from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. Additionally, Czechowski had taken an Oath of Silence for the honor.
Attitude matters. Peers would consider Czechowski to be friendly, outgoing, and a generally happy person to be around. Becca Yi (‘17) remarked, “One time when we were staying after school for a club, he just plopped his backpack, sat next to me, and started talking to me. I had never talked to him before this.”
Czechowski considers himself to be honest. While he was working as an apprentice to an electrician, Czechowski learned the value of being honest and not to blame others.
“I always have rough Mondays. And I put in a light fixture which I needed to secure so I drilled up through the face of the ceiling grid. So there’s this nice new ceiling grid with a nice new fixture and an ugly tech screw with a big head just sticking right up there…and so him (electrician), the facilities manager and the inspector all came and said, ‘what is that?’ And so they actually didn’t know that was me, but Frank (electrician) came back and he was like, ‘you’re an idiot.’ … I didn’t know. So that was a teachable moment there to not drill there, but he didn’t throw me under the bus.”
From his many achievements to his positive attitude, many students are certain that Czechowski will be able to succeed in his goals this year as the Senior Class President.