An exclusive interview with the 2024-25 Head Steward, Chisom Ochuba.
How are you feeling as our new Head Steward? Excited? Nervous?
I’m pretty excited to see where the board wants to go, and what we want to do with the school in the upcoming year. But, there’s also always that little bit of nervousness as well. Everyone’s like, oh, am I gonna do well with my role? Am I going to be doing the right things? So, with that nervousness, I’ve always found it helpful to speak to the right people. I’ve spoken to people like Randy, people like Taran. I’ve spoken to Robbie Evans, and my brother, who was Head Steward as well. All of them gave me advice and will definitely be people I continue to go back to over the course of my term. So with me, I’m just excited about where we can take the school this year and I know I have the right support in place to make what I can do endless.
What is your first order of business as Head Steward?
Yeah, that’s something I’ve already been thinking about. So obviously there are all these different roles in the board with different kinds of focuses and objectives. But one piece of advice I’ve been given is to always try to come up with one mission statement for the Board which will be connected with all the initiatives that we do throughout the year. Right now, we’re working on developing what that mission statement looks like and it’s ultimately going to be dependent on what the student body wants and what the student body needs.
What do you expect from the Portfolio Stewards and the rest of the board?
Commitment. Ultimately, the student body has put trust in us and cast that ballot for us to represent them. And that’s the responsibility, right? If we get an opportunity to plan an event and need stewards to help out, it shouldn’t be everybody touching their noses and saying they don’t want to do it. It should be everybody raising their hands and saying that they want to do it. Cause that’s what we, the Board, were chosen to do. Commitment will go a long way in making a real difference in the school this year.
Who is your TV show character and why? Which of their attributes do you want to bring to the Board of Stewards?
I would say that my favorite TV show character is Lupin. Lupin’s basically this smart, tricky guy who is really creative in his solution to problems. Lupin is creative for different reasons, like wanting to disguise himself or to rob a bank…haha, but in the context of what I want to do with the Board of Stewards, his style of creativity is what can be used to solve problems within the school. In the past, I’ve done creative things with the BES (Black Excellence Society) like having Monsieur Niagate and Mr. Guilford dance on stage. And that’s what I’m gonna continue to do as Head Steward; implement new ways of approaching issues that no one would have thought about before.
If you could only choose one, what colour would describe your life?
I just got out of an English test and now I feel like I’m back in it…haha. A metaphor for my life, hmm. I’m gonna go with blue. Because the color blue has many interpretations. You can think of it as the blues, which is something negative or you can think of it as water or the sky, like a source of life, and life is kind of similar. It’s like, when you get a bad grade on this test, you can either look at that with the blues like, oh my goodness, I’m failing or you can look at it as just okay, it happened, let’s try to make this into a positive, and learn from it for the future. So how I live my life is with a positive interpretation, I’m always trying to make the most out of every situation, whether good or bad. And obviously… I BLEED BLUE.
Classic TBAW question: If you were a brick in a wall, where would you be and why?
I would say that I’d probably be a brick at the bottom of the wall. The reason why I say that is because I’m someone who’s very selfless and obviously being a brick at the bottom of the wall, it means that you’re holding the weight of a lot of people on top of you. I embrace that opportunity, and it means a lot to me, because it means that those people trusted me to support them. As a result, I try to make my number one principle dependability. If someone expected me to get something done for them, even if I had a bunch of other assignments, even if I have to stay up till 1am to get that thing done, I’ll do it.
Do you have a teacher who’s had an extremely profound impact on you?
My pick’s definitely Mr. Heffernan. He also knew my brothers when they went here. He’s always been someone I can sit down with and have a conversation about anything. He always has life lessons to give to me, especially about leadership now, considering my new role. Mr. Heffernan’s always been someone I can lean on, someone I can always count on for good advice.
Thank you, Chisom. We’ll see you again soon!
The Blue and White 