Sophomore Twins Kaleb and Kameron Haynie are setting an example for the new wave of leaders at the Castle. Kaleb Haynie, formerly Freshman house president, is now returning as Sophomore house president, and Kameron, who held the vice president role, returned as well.
Throughout their military upbringing, the boys moved around constantly, they were introduced to many people from different backgrounds, and that helped them gain communication and social skills that play a vital role in their leadership abilities.
Kaleb, the Sophomore Class President, contributes their home life to their leadership qualities by stating, “With the way we were brought up, we’ve always been leaders and we’ve always worked well together”.
The Haynie twins initially ran for Freshman Student Council positions spontaneously, thinking being student council officers could be a good opportunity as incoming freshmen. Although the twins might not have been fully aware of the responsibilities that being a high school officer comes with the twins had a “go-getter” mentality regardless of uncertainties.
“The summer after middle school, we came across a link for student council and we were just like yeah let’s do it,” Kameron recalled.
In their student council positions, the twins are responsible for managing all of the Sophomore house events and assisting with student council responsibilities. They do it all, from planning events to hosting meetings that benefit and progress the class of 2027.
One example of Kaleb and Kameron’s work was the Sophomore Halloween social hosted on October 30th, 2024 that allowed Sophomores to interact, eat, and socialize with each other.
During the past campaigning seasons, oftentimes occurring the year prior, the twins held massively successful campaigns, using bracelets, posters, and TikToks to boost morale. Although the twins ran for different council positions they took a combined campaigning approach that landed them the roles of President and Vice President.
“When it came to campaigning, we kind of did it more as a team than anything” Kameron stated with a smile.
According to Lily Dimitrovsky, twins often struggle with the concept of we-self, which refers to the complementarity of mutually shared aspects of personality among twins. However, this is not the case for Kaleb and Kameron because they manage to shine on their own individually as people and as leaders.
Regarding the twins’ differences as individuals Kaleb states, “We are both passionate and integrated into everything that we do but I would say that Kameron is way more artistic than I am and I’m more athletic”.
Kaleb and Kameron plan to “leave a trail” for the underclassmen to follow and hopefully further their academic careers. The twins also expressed their goals regarding encouraging those around them to participate in student council and other things pertaining to community outreach.
Kameron states, “Influencing others to be a bigger part of the community and step out of their comfort zones is definitely something that we’ve done. We’ve gotten a good amount of people to join the student council this year and I think seeing people like me and Kameron involved encouraged them to get involved too.”
Although Kaleb and Kameron have led their grade level as twins for almost two years, they don’t have plans to stop any time soon. The twins expressed their desires as upperclassmen pertaining to the student council.
“We are already looking at stuff for our junior year campaign and after junior year we plan on going for student body” Kameron reveals.
Kaleb concludes that in regards to future responsibilities, the twins look to take on “…it’s going to be a lot of responsibility but I think we can handle it”.
The Haynie twins’s objective is very clear, to leave a legacy of commitment and leadership for future Redhawks to follow. The Haynie twins are not only carrying out their responsibilities but are also influencing the direction of future student leaders at Westwood High School.
