ASB Cabinet

Sarah Pastora and Zachary Pepaj

April 7, 2025

2025-2026 ASB Cabinet

After a long and anticipated wait, the new 2025-2026 cabinet for ASB has been released: Mia Ledezma, Yadira Zapata, Isabella Salazar, and Kate Marquez! All the students in ASB are motivated and hard-working, so what makes these chosen students stand out? How do they feel about being chosen? Are they ready? Ask no further questions, read this passage, and you will find out!

Mia Ledezma, President

Ledezma has been a hardworking member of ASB for two years and has always wanted to be a part of the cabinet. She feels blessed and honored to be chosen as president. She is ready for her position because she thinks her leadership qualities will benefit her job. As president, she will help plan school events, committees, and business meetings. To promote herself, she used bold colors and letters in Canva so that students would remember her. Although she feels prepared, she feels nervous, yet excited.

Yadira Zapata, Vice President

The next Vice President, Yadira Zapata, 11, says “The work ethic and being involved in the school and knowing I was part of something big, I like the teamwork.” showing that the work ethic of ASB is serious, but with the right mindset, you can turn it into something

extraordinary. Zapata also says “When I got chosen, I felt really happy because I can show what I can do for this school”. Zapata is also going to be more involved in ASB, such as doing business and taking care of elections for next year.

Isabella Salazar, Treasurer

Seeing the current cabinet inspired Salazar to run for the next school year. She feels happy and proud that students trust her to be treasurer. As treasurer, Salazar will manage the money by going over checks. To promote herself, she would post on social media and spread the word to her friends. Overall, Salazar feels prepared for her upcoming position because she is getting one-on-one help with the current cabinet to help her practice.

Kate Marquez, Secretary

Seeing other secretaries doing a great job of focusing and working hard during her second period of ASB inspired Marquez to run. When she found out she was elected, she felt honored, full of appreciation, and excitement. Being a secretary, Marquez is in charge of putting time into writing fundraisers. To gain votes, Kate Marquez used Canva to make posters to print out and post in the locker room. She feels somewhat ready now but knows she will feel more qualified later, once the year starts.

Moreover, the new cabinet sounds prepared and hardworking. The Downey Legend is excited to see how well they do this upcoming year.

About the Contributors

Sarah Pastora, Videographer

Sarah Pastora is a first-year senior videographer who is a kind and witty person. She joined the Downey Legend to create content and in hopes of becoming a journalist in the future. After high school, Pastora’s goal is to go to UC Irvine because of its strong writing programs, which is another one of Pastora’s hobbies. Pastora has won the Spooky Story writing contest twice consecutively: a second and first-place win. Other than writing, Pastora likes to sew and has even solved the Rubix cube. She is also a writing center tutor and enjoys helping fellow students improve their writing.“I like writing because I think it’s so fun and beautiful to put words together to create a painting of images to tell a story and help others envision things they haven’t seen before,” Pastora stated. Writing is what makes Pastora’s vision in videography impactful.

Zachary Pepaj, Writer

As a first-timer in the newspaper team, Zachary Pepaj, 11, joins the team of newspaper writers 2024-2025. Pepaj enjoys playing rhythm and FPS (first-person shooter) games in their free time, but they also enjoy buying merch from their favorite bands. Pepaj’s goals for this school year are to join the eco-club and get all their necessary academics done in preparation for next year’s college applications. Pepaj is also interested in theater and English, they’re in drama class here at Downey High School and hope to have a career in the English field. “In this class, I’m looking forward to making the website more interactive by collaborating with people in other roles”, shares Pepaj. “So that I can make the website more user-based”. Pepaj cares about the readers and users of The Downey Legend and is looking forward to making things more user-friendly.