Wellesley High Senior Profile: Ela Gardiner is Passionate About Politics
Ela Gardiner ’24 has been active in politics since before she could vote. In fact, that almost caused a problem when she was elected to the executive board of the Young Democrats of Massachusetts at age 15. All board members were required to be registered to vote as a Democrat. But Gardiner wasn’t registered to vote yet—in fact, she couldn’t even pre-register to vote until she was 16.
“I’m sitting there going, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’” Gardiner said.
Luckily, it worked out. She turned 16 in October 2021, in time to pre-register as a Democrat and take her seat as the youngest person ever elected to the executive board.
The role—Vice President of Communications—also was her first experience in political communications.
“At this point, I had no experience in communications under my belt, but I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll try.’ Thankfully, there were a lot of people around me coaching,” she said.
Gardiner loves talking about politics: why she loves it, how to get involved, what issues she cares most about. She lights up when she talks about founding the high school’s Young Democrats Club, or building a TikTok account for state Rep. Ryan Hamilton of Metheun, for whom she is interning as her senior project. She leans in and uses her hands to emphasize how important each activity is to her. Her excitement is infectious: Yes, I think as she talks, maybe the future of America is like a bright and shiny city on a hill.
“What keeps me moving is I want to make people, especially young people, feel as passionate about the issues they care about as I do,” she said. “For me, that was Trump, that was the abortion issue, that was gun violence.”
Political Since Before She Could Vote
Gardiner lived in London from 2009 to 2019, when her father worked for Deutsche Bank. Her family kept in touch with American politics through television, internet and family friends who were politically active. Even in the UK, Gardiner remembers her mom listening to President Obama’s press conference after the Sandy Hook school shooting—“I was the same age as the kids.” She also heard about family friends who attended American campaign rallies for Hillary Clinton and watched the Women’s March on Washington after the 2016 election.
“Trump’s election had a really big impact on me. I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe she lost to this guy.’ Even as a fifth grader I had some idea of how bad he was,” she said.
Gardiner started with the Young Democrats in 2019, when her family moved from London to western Massachusetts. Though born in Boston, Gardiner moved around the
world with her family, including stops in New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Ohio, and finally London from age 3 to 13.
“I’d been in this lull of wanting to get involved in American politics and hadn’t had the opportunities,” Gardiner said. “Then we moved back. I joined these organizations to educate myself, to find a community, to learn more.”
Her first role was as secretary to the Young Democrats political committee, which approved candidate endorsements. When her family moved to Wellesley in 2020, she also became a delegate for the committee, which meant she voted on which candidates would receive endorsements.
She became Vice President of Communications in 2021, launching a new website and email newsletter, and upgrading the group’s social media presence.
Since 2022, Gardiner has also worked as a freelance political strategist, helping Democratically aligned organizations and campaigns with political communications and strategy. In spring 2022, Gardiner was a Senate District Captain for Maura Healey’s gubernatorial campaign.
“There’s something about being an agent of change and also empowering young people to get involved,” she said. “Something I hear a lot, from my friends, ‘How do I make a difference? How do I make my voice heard, especially before you can vote?’ You feel passionate, so do something.”
Student’s POV for the Board of Ed
One of Gardiner’s other big roles during high school has been as the only student member of the 11-person Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary
Education (BESE). Massachusetts is one of only six states (and the District of Columbia) to have a student board member. Gardiner was elected in June 2023.
The BESE approves learning standards, voting on charter school applications, deciding when to intervene in the state's lowest-performing districts, and hiring the K-12 education commissioner.
The April 30 board meeting was held at Wellesley High as part of the board’s tradition to hold one meeting each year at the student member’s home school. The meeting also served as a Netflix-roast-worthy shower of praise for Gardiner, who will be leaving the board at the end of the school year.
“Ela Gardiner is such a great representation of a student who is not only sharp academically, but has such a big heart in compassion, and most importantly channels both of those into action, on this board and more broadly,” Superintendent David Lussier said during the meeting (see recording beginning at 1:00:00). “I have little doubt that Ela is going to be making continued contributions after her graduation.”
What She’ll Remember from Wellesley High Gardiner moved to Wellesley during the summer of 2020—the height of the pandemic—and her freshman year at WHS began online.
“Having spent only a year in a new country, moving to a new town, starting school at a school I had never been to: It was a tough time for everyone,” she said.
However, four years later, she wishes she could tell her ninth grade self: “It’s all going to be alright.”
She says the friends she’s made at WHS are some of the best things she’ll take away from her time here.
She also is proud that she has learned to have civil conversations with people who she doesn’t agree with, without screaming and shouting. She credits the teachers, and a school curriculum encouraged discussion-based learning across all kinds of classes.
“In biology, we would have conversations about cancer, and how to handle ethical dilemmas, and Henrietta Lacks. Some kids had differing opinions. But there was a fostered class discussion that was always kept civil even when you felt passionate about it,” she said. “My teachers have taught me so much outside of the material we learned in class. I always say that I learned the curriculum I have to learn, but I also learned life skills.”
Gardiner’s younger sister is in seventh grade and often asks her what to expect at WHS.
“Wellesley has given me so much, more than I thought it would. I’ve loved it here. I’m so excited for my sister to experience it,” she said.
Gardiner is heading to Hobart & William Smith Colleges this fall. She plans to major in politics with a minor in Spanish.