Prolific Leader Ready for Political Future

Most likely to be president? While the class of 2017 senior superlatives have yet to be announced, its a good bet that Erica Wilson would collect more than a few nominations for that title.

Wilson has accumulated an impressive breadth of experience that suggests she may be on a path to attain such political aspirations. She has been president of the Youth and Government organization [Y&G] for 2 years. “I was elected my junior year, which is pretty irregular; normally the president and most officers are seniors, but that was a weird year because we only had 5 seniors, so they ran and I ran but I was elected,” said Wilson.

Rachel Jackson, treasurer and secretary of Youth and Government, spoke highly of her co-officer. “We’re an officer team, so we all work together every week to basically put the delegation together and make sure everything runs smoothly. Since she’s president, we do a lot of work together which is really fun,” she said.

“Every week, she has something different planned out, and she’s super organized, and it’s really clear she loves what she’s doing. So with that being shown, she really just puts her all into everything and gives all of her time to everyone that she needs to give her time to, and she really just cares a lot more about what’s she’s doing and other people than she cares about prioritizing herself,” said Jackson.

Last spring, there was debate over whether or not Wilson would be able to serve as Y&G president during her senior year, because there was a new rule that there could be “no repetition of officers.” However, the delegation decided to lift rule, allowing her to serve a successive term. “Even though she doesn’t realize how much of an impact she makes, there were about 50 different students arguing and yelling to make sure she would have the opportunity to lead more because no one else could do as good of a job as she did,” said Jackson.

Wilson is also the founder of the Baking Buddies and Plant-Based Pals clubs at Campolindo. “I love baking and think it’s really fun, so my friends and I founded [Baking Buddies] just to have a good time because Campo is super stressful, so it’s just a de-stressor,” said Wilson. “Plant-Based Pals is a club that tries to inform people about how to have a plant-based diet and how eating plant-based can help the environment and your health.”

Wilson also enjoys playing the french horn in the school’s orchestra. She is currently first chair. Like so many of her other interests, her involvement in music has led Wilson to take on additional responsibilities. Wilson has served as the music program’s vice president for the past 2 years. “I think that being involved in leadership [makes me] much more confident about myself and my opinions, and I think that I can stand up for what I believe in much more easily now that I have leadership roles,” said Wilson.

The breadth of her interests and the extent to which she allows herself to take on responsibilities may seem like Wilson is over reaching, but she has tricks to stay organized and productive. “I color coordinate everything so that I can prioritize easier. When I look at my list, I can see which color is more prevalent, so I can knock those things off the list,” she explained.

Wilson hopes to attend a liberal arts college to study political science and aspires to one day hold public office in state government.