Both mayoral candidates and seven aldermanic candidates facing off Tuesday in the City of Frederick 's general election attended the forum and fielded questions from Trinity's sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

Before addressing a question from student Jordan Ukishima, aldermanic candidate Shelley Aloi congratulated the school for organizing the forum. She told the students she wasn't aware of any other school booking the candidates.

Jordan asked Aloi to explain how a person goes about starting a campaign.

Aloi said there are many ways, and an abundance of ideas and suggestions available on the Internet.

But she said there were three things that she considers paramount: Educate yourself; develop your character and build who you are; and set a goal.

"Did you know that 97 percent of people who achieve their goals have written them down?" she asked. "So write your goal down and look at it every day."

Questions posed by students ran from the nuts and bolts of politics (What are the requirements of running for mayor?) to the more personal, introspective side (Who inspired you to get into politics?).

Each candidate answered one question read by a student.

After the 30-minute event, Trinity Director of Development Rebecca Layman said she was surprised to have so many candidates in attendance.

"We really believe in giving our students hands-on experiences, and this event is very relevant in the lives of our students," she said. "We're grateful that the candidates thought it was important enough to come spend time with us."

Layman said many people are not aware of the good work Trinity is doing. School officials thought it was important to invite the next generation of city leaders to the school because Frederick is its landlord.

"We rent this building from the city and we have a lease agreement until 2015," Layman said. "This group could be the next group we work with for our lease renewal, and we want them to know who we are."

While the lagging economy has taken its toll on many private schools, Trinity is enjoying unprecedented growth, according to Head of School Barbara Cartwright.

Enrollment jumped from 86 to 123 this year. Only one student enrolled last year did not return this year.

"We must be doing something right," Cartwright said. "But I am a little nervous -- we'll see what happens next year."

She's concerned the economy could continue to impact families and force parents to rethink educational choices.

"We're really proud of what we're doing here," Cartwright said. "We just have to stand on that and wait to see what happens."

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