Moving onwards on our quest to interview them all, the Banner interviewed Jacob Levit, commonly known as Coby, who is running against Alexa Faust for the position of vice president. Levit is an IB junior and a member of many clubs, including the Harriton Theater Company (HTC) and Pitch Please (Harriton’s a capella group). He sat down with us on Tuesday in the Library for a discussion about his policies and visions.

HB: In your video, you spoke of more student input and a bigger Quidditch. What does that entail?

CL: Student input is important in any Harriton event or anything at Harriton, because especially from a Student Council standpoint, we speak for the students, we want to translate the student’s ideas into an effective, in this case, event. For Quidditch, I’m a big fan of Quidditch, I like Harry Potter, and my brother helped bring Quidditch to Harriton in its first year. I think that making Quidditch bigger would be an excellent way to raise spirit. How would we go about making Quidditch bigger? I think a lot of that has to do with the resources Student Council is willing to put into it. In meetings this year, a lot of what we say is “what are we going to do to make Mr. Harriton great?” I think that’s awesome that we are already looking towards February, but I think it’s important for us to focus on events which historically, have not been as big.

Quidditch can be much bigger if we communicate with the Communications committee and maybe even the Finance committee – if we can appropriate more resources and more advertising and publicity around the school, towards Quidditch. That creates a bigger hype for the event, that creates more of an excitement, and it draws in more people.

A lot of the time with Quidditch, we have a few posters here and there and then we have announcements at the end of the day … if we made it more noticeable, like, Mr. Harriton has a video, why shouldn’t Quidditch have a video? I think with things like that, we can make it a bigger event and make it more important for Harriton students.

HB: Is your goal to make one event bigger, or have it more times per year?

CL: Right now, what is important is to make the events we have bigger, to make the pre-existing institutions like Powder Puff, Quidditch, Mr. Harriton, larger. We are students and we are busy, and we have a lot of commitments, and adding more things to our schedules isn’t the most productive way to raise school spirit and bring us closer together.

If we bolster a few events, it’s easier for people to find specific times in their schedule for them to come to events like Quidditch and Powder Puff. Next year, we’re looking for one bigger Quidditch, but if that’s successful, we can have more, because if I can’t come to this Quidditch, I definitely want to go to the next one. If I play a sport during this Quidditch and I want to try out, but I can’t, then I can try out for the next one.

As vice president, I want to make the school better for next year. I want to make the school better for years to come, establish precedents, and establish means of even greater publicity and spirit. I want to help create a structure where we can create more Quidditch events, if we want to, but first, it is important to have good groundwork and have a good framework for Quidditch to be expanded upon.

HB: Isn’t the Vice President’s biggest responsibility Mr. Harriton?

CL: The Vice President’s biggest responsibility is 100 percent Mr. Harriton in every way shape and form, I will be very involved with Mr. Harriton if elected vice president. I will be at every rehearsal; I was in it this year; I know what it’s like from a contestant’s point of view; I made sure to get valuable information from Jeff, Izzy, and Alix as co-chairs.

I have been in cast; I have been in crew for HTC; I know the people who run sound; I do lights; I know what goes into a show; I know what needs to happen in terms of scheduling. I know what needs to happen, who to talk to, and what obstacles to work around, since obstacles do arise. So yes Mr. Harriton, is a huge responsibility for the Vice President and in no way will it suffer.

One of the biggest things I want to stress with Mr. Harriton, and this will be in my speech, is that Mr. Harriton is a phenomenal event, and aside from a few internal semantics which need to be adjusted, there is nothing really much that needs to be altered with Mr. Harriton. I think people are really happy with the way it is now, and I don’t want to mess with that, I don’t want to change things around, I don’t want to make this the New Mr. Harriton, because people like Mr. Harriton the way it is.

The one thing that it could use is more student input. If we released surveys to advisories and people could fill them out, that could help. I want to know what students want to see in Mr. Harriton. I know a big complaint of some people this year was ‘I don’t know all the contestants yet’ or ‘I don’t like that theme’. I think the theme is the job of Student Council, but we can have more Student Council input on the theme and bringing students in from everywhere to talk about that and to say what they want to see in Mr. Harriton. It is important to make it more of a school event and less of a Student Council event.

HB: Which Harriton teacher is your hero?

CL: My hero? I’d have to say probably Dr. McKenna. I mean, he is a great guy. He’s a phenomenal person, and I think his understanding and his willingness to work with the student and to talk to students and listen to what they have to say is an invaluable quality. There are plenty of teachers here and schools all over who will teach you very important information and inspire you, but I think that Dr. McKenna has a very specific way of reaching a student and creating an interesting environment, and I have never enjoyed history more than I have this year, working with him.

I get to look at very different points of view on different events, and granted, that is a part of the curriculum, but he manages to make it very interesting, very engaging, and very interactive. I think there are plenty of teachers here who could be heroes, but for me, it’s Dr. McKenna.

HB: What is your favorite part of Harriton?

CL: My favorite part of Harriton is the lack of cliché. Sometimes, we have cliques, prom is a big deal, but I think that at Harriton, there is a lack of this stereotypical high school environment. I am a member of HTC and I do theatre, but I’m friends with kids in Science Olympiad, I am friends with kids on the varsity sports teams, and I am friends with kids who don’t really do any other extracurricular activities. At Harriton, I do not feel restricted to a certain friend group. I know that if I am walking down the halls, I’m bound to see not only one or two, but dozens of people I know, because its a small environment, but its a friendly environment.

Many people at Harriton, no, almost all the people at Harriton, are good people. I think that we take that for granted, but I think its really a phenomenal aspect of the school, a phenomenal trait of the school, that we have so many different programs offered here, but that doesn’t limit you to a certain social circle or a certain lifestyle for your entire high school career.

HB: What fruit best describes you?

CL: I personally really like pears. I think that the pear has a somewhat noble quality about it. Pears are never in your face. When you think of a pear, it’s a very sweet fruit, but it’s a subtle fruit, and it has a certain maturity about it and a certain air of ‘this is a pear’, and I’m enjoying this pear.’

HB: Why are you qualified for this position?

CL: I want to make the school a better place. In earnest, I love Harriton High School. Do I get annoyed that every morning, I need to wake up at 6:30 and come to school? Yes. But I am very grateful for the opportunity to go Harriton.

That is just me as a student. As vice president, my main job would be running events. And like you said, Mr. Harriton would be a huge responsibility of mine. Do I have experience in Mr. Harriton? Plenty. Last year, I did Mr. Harriton and I was there for the weeks leading up to it. I watched Lindsey run it. This year, I was in it, and I still watched Jeff run it. I watched Izzy and Alix help backstage. It is a program I want to share and keep as amazing as it is and give other people the experience I received, being in it and watching it and experiencing Mr. Harriton. My background in HTC, my knowledge of performance, my knowledge of what goes into a show is an integral part of what would make me a good vice president, an excellent vice president, if you will.

Also, my accessibility. I want to be accessible to all students. If a student doesn’t know how to get to class, I want to be the person that student feels comfortable asking. If a student is confused about a homework problem, and they don’t know who to ask, I want to be a person they can go to. I might not understand it necessarily, maybe they’re smarter than me, but I want to be that person for people. I want to be an accessible person. I think so far, I have been. I am always here to talk to my friends about something stupid or something stressful, and I am here to help my friends with work if they need help with work, and I’m here to just be someone who can help.

HB: Do you have other ideas?

CL: One thing I am running on is that I do not want to make promises to the student body that I cannot keep. I have plenty of really cool things which I think could be interesting, but I don’t want to necessarily throw them out there until I know that it is likely or I’m in very serious talks about it with Mr. Eveslage. There are things I have emailed him about and there are things we are going to talk about in the near future. Even if I don’t win, they are things I want to see come to this school.

If I do win, these are things I want to talk to my fellow officers about, but I don’t want to say ‘Look at this really cool event that we could have happening and that’s why you should vote for me’ and then for that to not happen, because that’s not fair to the student body.