During three consecutive years, Matt Farias has served as the president for the Malden High School Class of 2019, a role he has cherished and laments vacating as he graduates alongside his peers and fellow class officers.
As president for the majority of his high school career, Farias has become a seasoned class officer, well versed in the representation of class interests and invested in the success of his peers.
Although his title implies a larger role than the other officers, Farias explains that “[the class leadership staff] is much like a family” and that “anyone is willing to pick up the slack because [they] inherently trust each other.”
Besides the practical skills he has obtained through his leadership position, like time management and successful collaboration, Farias states that the role of president “made [him] grow faster” given the “certain amount of responsibility and maturity it required.”
Junior Varieties and Prom planning, the crown jewels of his presidency, both required unprecedented discipline and devotion from class leadership. For Junior Varieties, Farias acted as stage manager in addition to aiding the preparations for the event and he contributed to the “collaborative effort” that was prom planning by “looking into which bus options would be most affordable and arranging the transportation,” he explains.
While both processes were tedious and unforgiving, Farias’ diplomatic and attentive nature sustained both operations, according to class advisor Rebecca Corcoran.
“He is maybe not the loudest kid in the room, but he is the best listener in the room,” says Corcoran, who, reflecting on both events, adds that “[Farias] takes the best ideas and goes forth unafraid.”
This resolve has not always been characteristic of Farias, though; his freshman year, Corcoran states, he was “prompted to run for the presidency by an upperclassman” and “was not confident that he was a good student.”
As his former United States History 1 and Advanced Placement United States History teacher, Corcoran has seen his evolution firsthand from a reserved student to one who is the first to raise his hand in class and contribute, someone who has “finally realized that he is academically strong and gained a significant amount of confidence.”
This became most evident through his confidence in his oratory skills when it came to the realization that he would deliver a speech at graduation. “Now that he knows that he’s a trusted member of the class, he’s owning doing the speech,” says Corcoran.
Above all, Farias hopes that his tenure as class president and his trajectory as a student have helped and will continue to help his peers. He advises underclassmen leaders to disregard those who are “very quick to judge” because they “don’t see the hard work and the ethic that go into [class] decisions.”
“Don’t let what other people say deter you from making the best decision for your class,” says Farias, who has encountered many difficult scenarios in which his better judgement and discernment were critical to decision making.
Farias will be continuing to pursue his education at University of Massachusetts Boston, an institution which he says will allow him to continue “bettering [himself] and his community” due to its proximity to Malden, where his family will continue to reside.
Though he has no defined major or career, his greatest goal is to set a good example for his younger brother and to make his parents proud.
Farias explains that his parents have been the impetus behind much of his academic and athletic success and that he strives to honor and repay the “many sacrifices” they made for him. “They gave up possibilities of achieving their career dreams,” he says, adding that he is eternally grateful and “want[s] to make them realize that all they did for [him] was not in vain.”
He hopes to extend his years of athleticism to the collegiate level, bringing with him four years on the MHS soccer team and three years on both the Indoor and Outdoor Track teams, as well as his devotion to service, which he has demonstrated through his heavy involvement in Captain’s Council and participation in National Honor Society, into which he was recently inducted. His NHS service project, a soccer clinic made possible through a partnership with the Malden Recreational Department and the help of seniors Nour Tafroui and Max Batista as well as sophomore David Lombardi, focuses on giving younger students the same opportunity as he had to “make new friends and learn about [himself] and the sport.”
At the end of the day, “wherever life leads [him], [he] plans on being the best version of [himself] he can be,” Farias says, and hopes that, through his leadership, this desire for growth and self improvement for the benefit of others has been apparent.
