Ten senators, a Form Three president, and a Form Three vice president were all elected by the KO community between September 11 and September 19, and these elected leaders have plans to impact student life, academics, and athletics this school year.
Form Six held their elections during a form meeting on Thursday, Sept. 11, while Forms Three, Four, and Five held their elections on Friday, Sept. 19.
The Form Three elected candidates are freshmen President Elizabeth Raccio, Vice-President Zoha Shamsi, and Senator Uzayr Ahmad. The Form Four Senators are sophomores Julia Atanasio-Villa and Siri Tokala. The Form Five Senators are juniors Ida Chapman, Elyssa Ofori-Boadu, and Marco Ramirez. There are four Form Six Senators due to a tie, and they are seniors Jason Chen, Tadhg Dillow, Justin Morle, and Gabby Post.
To run, candidates were required to deliver a speech lasting approximately three minutes. The students were told to be positive, explain why they would be a good fit for the position, and share their ideas. The candidates delivered their speeches in a form meeting, and students had until the end of the school day to cast their digital ballots on a Google Form. The winners of the elections were determined by whichever candidate had the most votes. If running for a position where multiple candidates were elected, then positions were filled in order of vote count, with the second-place candidate earning the second most votes, the third-place candidate the third most, and so on.
Senior and Form Six President Dorian Ciscel said that he plans to make senior year count by having a shared space for seniors to come to, celebrating achievements, and leadership roles. “I definitely want to represent all of the achievements that my class is making,” Dorian said. “We accomplish a lot of big achievements, we take on new leadership role,s and I want to make sure that we can celebrate those sorts of achievements, especially with sports teams, doing really well, and captains getting recognition for that. And in the performing arts as well.”
Dorian is also very passionate about ensuring the Senior Green is utilized to its full potential. He has noticed that after COVID-19, the senior class does not spend as much time on the Senior Green as in years prior. He wants to ensure that this year, seniors are back on track, whether it is throwing a frisbee, completing an assignment, or just talking with friends.
Junior and Form Five Vice President Danica Arwen De Dios focused her campaign on DEI and the importance of embracing diversity. “I really like involving myself in DEI work,” Danica said. “We’re adding more race and culture into our school, I think we should embrace that.”
Danica also believes that it is essential that her classmates trust her and find her an easy person to come to when they have an idea or concern. “The reason why we have vice presidents and presidents is for people to have someone to check up on the class,” Danica said, “and those are people the class trusts. That’s why there’s a voting election, because we trust them as leaders, to take our feedback and report to the whole school and make something out of that.”
Siri ran a campaign promoting that she would listen and advocate for the student voice. “I think SGA is important because it’s a great way to involve student voice, and for students to come out in the community, and to help create an impact,” she said. She believes that students may hesitate to speak up to adults and wants to use her position in SGA to make sure that the student voice is prominent when making decisions.
Siri plans to work with the other Form Four elected candidates as well as Form Four Dean Tricia Watson to implement some ideas she has. Some of her plans include hosting a form breakfast with the Parent Association and organizing an end-of-the-year trip or gift, but overall, she wants to ensure that her form has opportunities for bonding time to create a stronger community within KO.
SGA Advisor Carolyn McKee emphasizes that the impact and success of SGA rely on the students. “It’s going to be the role that all of the members of the committee are willing to play and the work that they’re willing to put in to make things happen,” Ms. McKee said.
She also thinks SGA is important because student input is necessary to create a thriving community at KO. “Student input is really important,” Ms. McKee said, “I think without it, the adults spend a lot of time trying to fix things or improve things without really knowing how it’s impacting the students,” Ms. McKee said. “And I think that student voices can be used for good to make KO a better place.”
