The 2026 junior class president’s race will feature only a single candidate slate, with SPARK seeking to continue its leadership from sophomore year.

SPARK is composed of Angela Li ’28, Anura Bracey ’28, Jasper Karlson ’28 and Asad Gilani ’28. Samuel Chen ’28 is a “proxy” member, according to the slate’s official ASSU petition. As the current sophomore class presidents, the candidates aim to continue focusing on event planning to increase cohesion among the sophomore class.

“I think we are really aware of the fact that we are mainly event planners for the class, and we don’t have that much policy implementation, as that’s really relying on the ASSU Senate,” said Gilani, who cited the slow-moving bureaucratic process as one lesson the team has learned.

SPARK has hosted numerous events this year including a sophomore supper, sophomore formal at the Hoover Institution building and a speed mentoring program. Going forward, the team said they hope to plan events earlier and secure more funding. SPARK emphasized a continued focus on class connectivity, noting the difficulty of finding new communities and friend groups after freshman year. Bracey also described cost barriers as a priority for the team. 

SPARK chose to run for a second term because the team “really enjoyed the work,” Bracey said. 

“We thus anticipate that we’re going to deliver even more to our class for years to come. So why stop that work?” she said.