How did he do it? Why, through the power of that magical buzzword, of course: social networking. Specifically, Facebook. Not only cost effective, it allowed him to quickly and widely reach out to the parents of his former high school classmates:
Antonio is now a freshman at William Paterson University, where he has declared as a political science major. He said he decided to run for the school board because of the cuts in state aid to education announced this winter.Super smart strategy, getting the word out to students at Paramus. Go young people. More here: 'I’m ready to take on this role.' And here: 2 teens give students voice on boards. And check out Ace Antonio's Facebook profile here.
"What was going on with Governor Christie, I was like 'why are we getting impacted so greatly ... when our district is one of the best in New Jersey," Antonio said.
So with some mostly Juniors and Sophomores he knew from last year, he launched his Facebook campaign to get students to ask their parents to vote for him.
"Ace was like that kid, 'Oh, he's gonna be President,'" said Alexandra Garey, 17, a Junior at Paramus High in explaining how her fellow students approached their parents.
It worked. Antonio, with his more than 1,000 Facebook friends, ended up getting 1815 votes in the school board election last month, enough to put him in office. He did need a teacher's help on his wardrobe for his door-to-door campaigning.
"He just was a little wrinkly," said Spanish Teacher Michelle Limbacher, 38.
