Student body elects new representatives

By Annie Lin

Assistant Graphic Design Editor

On April 28, the Student Council of the Overseas Department hosted elections for next year’s student representatives. This year’s election featured a total of fourteen candidates competing for eight positions on the Student Council. The newly elected Student Council consists of Judy Wu and Ethan Chen as President and Vice-President, Abigail Lee as Secretary, Ashley Liu as Treasurer, Ryan Chu as Sports Director, Tina Tang as Art Director, Tanya Chang as Activities Director and Claire Huo as Communications Officer.

This year, three separate tickets competed for the positions of President and Vice President. Judy Wu and Ethan Chen, who won the most votes out of the three, ran their campaign on building a more democratic school environment by having students decide on the field trip itineraries and assembly activities. They also proposed continuing the Talent Show while reintroducing the YearEnd Party, which resonated with the opinions of many students.

“Overall, the competition was very intense because of how each pair of candidates had their own strengths,” said Judy Wu, Student Council President-elect. “Our victory is an indication of the student body favoring democratic expression and Ethan and I will try our best to fulfill that wish.”

Whereas the presidential race was very competitive, candidates for the other offices ran unopposed. Nevertheless, each candidate promoted their campaign through social media, posters plastered around campus and by going from classroom to classroom to engage with students.

“Although there were no competitors for my position, there was still the worry that I wouldn’t meet the threshold requirement of 100 votes,” said Claire Huo, Student Council Communications Officer-elect. “This means that I still needed to campaign actively in school and on social media to appeal to the student body,”

On election day, instead of hosting the campaigns in the gym during assembly as tradition, the candidates’ final speeches and campaigns were shown during the assembly period and lunch time as pre-recorded videos. This allowed Grade 9 and Grade 10 students who were taking the TOEFL ITP to evaluate the different election campaigns .

“It was considerate of the Student Council to pre-record campaign videos for students like me who had to take the ITP exam,” said Emily Kao, Grade 10. “But I would still choose going to the gym because it is more exciting to watch candidates actively debate and engage with the audience.”