Five questions with ... Jackson High senior class President Jarod Matronia

Jarod Matronia grew up in Jackson Township and has lived there his entire life. He served as senior class president at Jackson High School this school year.

He has played competitive sports at the high school, including varsity volleyball and competitive club volleyball.

Matronia was also the president of the National Honor Society, an active member of the student council, a participant in a Stark County leadership panel, and has been a Stark County schools mental health representative through AultCare and CommQuest mental health services.

"I started a mental health committee with a group of Jackson students to promote mental health awareness and to come up with coping strategies for students and staff, and I am also a part of the Faces organization through JHS," he said.

His parents are Mike and Barb Matronia, He has two siblings: a sister Alaysha (oldest), and a brother Jake (middle).

"Outside of the classroom, Jackson has always cared about their community, giving back in any way they can," he said. "Jackson has created a fun and rewarding township for all of its community members."

What was it like being the class president for the past year?

This past year, I was a busy man. Our student body adviser Gretchen Hull keeps her officers busy, especially me. She likes to work like a very well-oiled machine and likes things done a certain way.

This can sometimes make our life difficult, but in the end, it’s benefiting our school that we step foot in every day at 7:30 am.

Some of the tasks as president included planning homecoming, overseeing and helping with the Adopt a Family Drive, planning Say Something week, and ensuring our teachers are given back to during Teacher Appreciation week.

I have learned a lot holding the position of class president. I learned great leadership skills, communication skills and how to build lasting relationships with my peers and administrators. It’s been a very rewarding school year because being the president has allowed me to give back to students, staff and our community.

A larger part of being a class officer involves the Adopt a Family project Jackson holds each November. During this project, student council and class officers come together to lead and organize a donation drive to give back to struggling families in our community.

Why did you decide to run for class president?

A lot of people think, 'Oh, it would be fun to be the class president because you get lots of power," … and this is exactly why I ran. Oftentimes people run for leadership positions because they think fame and power come with it.

My main goal in running was to stop that from happening. Being a leader and in this case, the president is all about what your peers want and how can you be the one to accomplish that.

The class has chosen you to be their voice, to seek changes and to promote new ideas that come from the student body. One of my main focuses for this year was mental health.

With the first scene of normalcy being received this year due to the pandemic, people’s mental health has seemed to be placed on the back burner. It was my goal to see how I could erase the stigma behind starting an important conversation or to see how I could promote that conversation between our students and staff.

I started a mental health committee and our group of students worked to see what we could do in our school to benefit the mental health of students, staff and administrators.

One of the more memorable solutions we implemented was no work weekends. At Jackson, we are very fortunate to have long four-day weekends and during these weekends we made it so there would not be homework assigned and no tests could be given the following Tuesday when students returned to school.

This truly gave the students time off to enjoy themselves or some quality family time. This also gave teachers and administrators a bit of a break because they didn't have to stress about the stack of homework that needed to take home to be graded or the pile of work waiting for them on Tuesday morning.

I would say I have had a very successful and rewarding year as the senior class president.

What are your college/career plans?

My plans include attending Clemson University to study software and computer engineering. One day, I would like to pursue a career in the FBI.

I knew pretty early on in life that I was very interested in technology, math and science which have always been my strength areas in school so I figured this degree would be perfect for me.

What classes or activities have best prepared you for the future?

I have been involved in the College Credit Plus (CCP) program since my sophomore year. This allowed me to take my education one step further and earn college credit from nearby universities like Stark State College, Kent State University or the University of Akron while still in high school.

This allows for becoming familiar with classes that will be more major-specific and allows more time for students to make a career path decision. I have taken classes like white-collar crime, forensics chemistry, computer networking classes and even an information security class. All of these classes were taken in part of the CCP program at Stark State.

Would you pass along some advice for others who might want to run for class president?

Being a leader is not a position or a title, it’s an action and example. This is something I have lived by for the past four years.

Leadership is about doing what is best for your peers not what will bring you as an individual the most fame. It’s a lot of work, and it takes the right person to fulfill all the right characteristics that are essential for leadership.

Go for it, don’t be afraid to fail, learn from your mistakes and keep trying until you get it right. Be willing to listen and learn. No one will ever know it all, so always listen for new ideas and welcome feedback.

ALWAYS take a little more share of the blame and a little less share of the credit.

Editor's note: Five questions with ... is a Sunday feature that showcases a member of the Stark County community. If you'd like to recommend someone to participate, send an email to newsroom@cantonrep.com.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jarod Matronia of Jackson High School talks about mental health