The class of 2029 voted for Freshman Student Council on Friday, Sept. 5, during Office Hours in the University High School Gym, electing Dhayaart Senthilk as president, Eloise Enes as vice president and 30 other students for council. As a part of the Associated Student Body at UHS, council members’ job is to promote school spirit through organizing events and leading the student body.
“What inspired me to run was to be able to make a change at our school or anywhere — no matter how big or small the change is,” Council Member Cheska Corona said. “I really like [having] a sense of community and working together with people.”
Since so many freshmen ran for these limited positions, students took time and effort to increase their chances of getting elected. During the week leading up to the elections, candidates hung posters around UHS to win more votes. They used eye-catching designs that employed bright colors, entertaining slogans and characters from popular media. The posters each had their own theme, from references to online games like Among Us to Old West wanted signs. Some candidates, such as Council Member Alishba Siddiqi, went one step further to earn student support.
“I had a big yellow hat on my head and on one side it said, ‘Alishba for Council’ and [on] the other side it said ‘Vote for #103,” Siddiqi said. “I decided to do that because I realized that when I was walking across the school, I’m not really looking at the walls [with posters].”
In addition to promotional material, speeches were another important part of elections. Since students only had 15 to 30 seconds, depending on the position they ran for, they had to make every second count to make themselves unforgettable. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t always on their side. Between candidates’ mistakes and sound system issues, some speeches were difficult to hear; however, those who were able to push through these obstacles emerged as strong candidates.
“I was very nervous at first because I was at a new school and I only knew so many people,” Corona said. “I was very anxious about putting myself out there and getting people to know my name, but once I got there, I was like ‘it’s not that bad,’ and I started to enjoy the experience more.”
Participating in student council is one of the many opportunities available to students to initiate positive change at UHS as they enter their high school careers. Not only are they a vital part of ASB, but members also create lasting memories and friendships.
“Filming all of the campaign videos and doing my campaigning and having my friends support me through the whole process was really memorable,” Council Member Annie Zhang said. “I was really grateful for that.”
