The long awaited student government elections are upon us. Eastside High School has been ready and waiting for their new representatives to take the stage and begin their decision-making for the excitement of the 2023 – 2024 school year. Fall is coming, and it brings with it the exhilaration of upcoming events, including, but not limited to, preparations for Homecoming, the thrill of Spirit Week, chants for football games, scrumptious bake sale fundraisers, and potential pep rallies. But the questions present in everyone’s minds are: Who will I vote for? What are my options? Let’s take a look…
Elections will be made for president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer across all four grades (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior), but a fifth, and most prominent, group of representatives will be chosen to run the overall workings of Student Government as well. This group is known as the Executive Representatives. Running for the crucial role of President this year are Sofi White and Justice Alexander, for Vice President is Rachel Turney running unopposed, Treasurer will be a competition between Ella Hood and Aryaman Sriram, and last but not least for Treasurer we have running Daniel Huang. But who do you believe should win your vote? Let’s delve into why each candidate wants to be in their respective position and what they believe they can contribute to the Eastside community by doing so.
To start off strong, the first presidential candidate is Sofi White, who joined Student Government Sophomore year as Treasurer, and climbed up the ranks to Vice President the consecutive year. She hopes to expand Eastside’s student government and provide more opportunities for participation within the club. White stated that she wants to prioritize reaching outside of the IB program and facilitate more major program and IB student interaction, hopefully creating stronger bonds within the school. In order to promote this hope for unification and bonding, she intends to plan more school sponsored events, for example a senior sunrise, in an effort to help students “enjoy being at school.” Continuing, we have her steadfast opponent Justice Alexander who has been a consistent senator throughout her years at Eastside and could bring a fresh viewpoint for where she believes Student Government (SGA) should go as she arrives on the scene. Like many candidates in the running, she strives for a stronger connection across the student body and has many stead-fast plans for unity at Eastside. Moving along for Vice President, our options are limited, but in no way lacking in strength, the candidate presented this year is Rachel Turney. Turney has been an indomitable class president throughout her two years of SGA and believes that as Executive Vice she could help close the communication gap between IB and Major program students as well as lead underclassmen for future SGA endeavors. Turney stated she was worried about school morale in underclassmen and hopes to, “show them that eastside is the bestside” through school events like cookouts and color wars.
Moving further along, the elections for treasurer and secretary contribute even more perspectives about SGA, its functions, and its future. Both of the treasurer candidates have been very active in SGA since their freshman year and have pragmatic approaches to the fundraising department of Eastside’s SGA. Ella Hood has stated that she hopes to encourage more fundraising through bake sales and put that money towards events that benefit the student body. Aryaman, on the other hand, is a worthy advisor with what he has planned as well. In the running for secretary, Daniel Huang has a driven and already active plan for our Eastside SGA as he hopes to unify the student body and wants to make participation in school activities more accessible to all students. Huang hopes to create more opportunities for events during the day rather than large, expensive extracurricular events.
However, as the gears of this student government start to turn, friction begins to spark. After interviewing many students both in and outside of our SGA, many underlying problems have come to light regarding the SGA workings. Junior student government member Jiselle Natividad as well as executive treasurer candidate Ella Hood claimed that the paperwork and time it takes to get events approved is a common roadblock, but nevertheless continuously overcome. Another issue is the lack of time the students have to organize events because, due to Eastside’s multitude of class options, SGA is a purely extracurricular club, as opposed to the full class period that it allotted at other schools such as Gainesville High School and Buchholz High School. Only a limited amount of time is designated for officers to meet, procure, and share ideas. Digging deeper, there are also some political controversies within and surrounding the SGA. Many students find that the student government elections resemble more of a popularity contest than a political election to better the school. Some students go so far as to say that it creates conflicts that are, “negative for the community and learning environment.” However, these claims are contradicted by many student government officers and in the words of Daniel Huang, “student government is a very collaborative environment.” Regardless of the controversies, student government is an important part of the Eastside High School student experience and these elections are crucial for all of our student body. Each of this year’s candidates display thrill and enthusiasm for what they plan to bring to the table for the overall benefit of the future of the school.
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Who will you select as your next leaders? It’s your job to choose who best fits your future needs at Eastside high school and make your voices heard – vote at the link below!
