Class of 2025 elects their representatives for the school year

Freshmen+Rajas+Apte%2C+Eva+Li+and+Lindsey+Tuckey+cast+their+vote+during+student+council+elections+on+Friday.+Freshman+candidates+campaigned+to+be+representatives+for+their+class+through+video+speeches+during+the+school+meeting+slot+on+Wednesday+and+delivered+short+written+prompt+responses.

Arely Sun

Freshmen Rajas Apte, Eva Li and Lindsey Tuckey cast their vote during student council elections on Friday. Freshman candidates campaigned to be representatives for their class through video speeches during the school meeting slot on Wednesday and delivered short written prompt responses.

by Medha Yarlagadda, Reporter

Freshmen voted on Friday to elect Rushil Jaiswal, Sam Parupudi, Jason Shim and Eric Zhang for this year’s freshman student council and Daniel Chen, Jia Jia Jiang and Gabe Li for the freshman student activities board (SAB). 

Freshman candidates campaigned to be representatives for their class through video speeches during the school meeting slot on Wednesday and delivered short written prompt responses. After watching the video speeches for 15 freshman council candidates and seven student activities board candidates, elections took place in the journalism room during lunch on Friday. 

Harrison Chen (9), who is new to Harker, mentions that since he does not know the class too well, he hopes that through student council efforts, the class is more comfortable with each other and demonstrates a stronger sense of togetherness by the end of the year. 

“To be on the student council, you would have to be somewhat assertive and confident in your own ideas and confident in yourself, or else you’ll never get out there and be able to accomplish anything, so I’m looking for that,” Harrison said. 

For returning freshmen familiar with their former middle school classmates, the voting process involved less research into each candidate’s background.

“I’m glad that I already knew the people who were running,” said Genieve Malinen (9), who helped her friend put up campaigning posters around the school. “I’m glad that I was able to participate.”

I think with this, we’re going to get four people representing four diverse groups of the school, so I think that this can actually gauge everyone’s opinion.

— Andrew Liang (9)

This year, voting was conducted in-person in contrast to the previous year’s online voting process. Students voted through a ranking process on computers, which was administered through the polling booths. 

“It was fun to do elections remotely because it was very convenient, everyone was able to vote from their laptops,” upper school theater teacher and freshman class dean Jeffrey Draper said. “But I think that having a polling station and having students take the election very seriously adds something to the process.”

The freshman elections used the voting system developed two years ago. Instead of a hierarchical approach with different positions, each grade has four student council representatives and three SAB representatives. One of the candidates, Andrew Liang (9), discusses his thoughts on the system, saying it is a more fair representation for their class by limiting the emphasis on popularity. 

“I think with this, we’re going to get four people representing four diverse groups of the school, so I think that this can actually gauge everyone’s opinion,” Andrew said.

Representative Sam Parupudi (9) mentions that they want to bring in new ideas and address as many student concerns as possible. 

“My main goals are to get the people to speak more,” Sam said. “Our class in particular isn’t very spirited, and I want to change that, because high school has a lot of opportunities in which it is better than middle school in terms of fun and spirit.”