By Esha Bagora

Public Relations

Always on his grind, sophomore Ryan Idemoto is an integral part of the Los Gatos High School Leadership team, as well as involving himself in political initiatives around town. From working on the E-Bike town ordinance to advocating against AAPI hate, Idemoto hopes to pursue a career in politics to better the world around him. 

Idemoto began his leadership journey in middle school by joining the Leadership flex class. As the current sophomore class president, Idemoto describes his role as “setting up for dances and planning different events. But, specifically for my role as class president, I work with the vice president [sophomore] Ava Thompson and we plan fundraisers for our class that spotlight different local businesses like Sharetea, Nina’s [Taqueria], Pizza my Heart, and Great Bear.” He explained that the fundraisers “help us out with our funds and raise money for [our] junior prom and other events.” 

Idemoto described another highlight of his accomplishments as president, saying, “Last semester, we put on Kindness Week to ease students into finals week, which was a really big thing.” Idemoto also considers his role as sophomore class president akin to being a representative for his class and added, “One thing I didn’t expect is how I started representing the student body. [The sophomore] class is very diverse, and the sophomores in Leadership reflect that and come together to form a community. I love how everyone’s always trying to lift each other up and help each other out.” 

Recently, Idemotohas took his leadership skills to the town level by serving as a youth commissioner. He is a liaison to the Town of Los Gatos Library Board, and says he likes to “give my perspective on the library as a youth. I help them out in any way I can.” Furthermore, Idemoto has been instrumental in the passage of the E-Bike Ordinance, recently passed by the Los Gatos Town Council. He noted that the bill “creates regulations for E-Bike safety so that the overall town can be a lot safer while still being able to utilize E-Bikes.” 

Additionally, Idemoto’s passion for political change has pulled him to work with the Stop AAPI Hate organization on the youth campaign for the last two years. He said, “as an intern, the youth campaign is kind of a youth initiative for the Stop AAPI hate effort and we try our best to help lead it for youth through Instagram posts and creating data analytics and studies.” 

In the future, Idemoto wants to pursue a major in Asian American Studies to garner change. He stated, “I’ve taken a few college courses at DeAnza and I’m working towards a Certificate of Achievement in Asian American Studies. I’m also interested in learning more about my identity and what factors have contributed to that, and what we can do to talk about these different things that have happened to try and do better in the future.” Look out for Idemoto leaving his mark as he improves LGHS, and the greater community, for the better.