Scarsdale High School Elects New Student Leaders

On Wednesday, December 11th the walls of Scarsdale High School were lined with colorful posters with catchy slogans as candidates made speeches in front of the whole school in preparation for the school government elections. Candidates were vying to be elected as school president, vice president, secretaries (there are two positions), and treasurer.

The process of running for one of the positions in school government requires the candidates to post flyers around the school and give a short speech to the rest of their peers and faculty. Generally, these flyers and speeches are funny in nature.
For example, often posters will include pop culture references or pictures of celebrities with the candidate's own picture photo-shopped in place of the celebrity's face.

After a school-wide vote, the winning candidates were announced. The newly officers are:

President: Amanda Shuster
Vice President: Matt Mandel
Treasurer: John Kaspers
Secretaries: Leah Kashar and Lindsay Kim

Here are interviews with the new school president and vice president.

President Elect: Amanda Shuster

Grade: Junior

Campaign Goals: "I tried to keep it simple and I just wanted to get my name out there. For my posters and flyers, I basically just kept it clear and wrote "Vote 4 Amanda".

Government Experience: "Last year, I was the house representative and I really enjoyed being involved in the school."

Privileges: "I don't have that many privileges as president that the other government members don't have because we all work as a team. As president, I will have to lead the government meetings once a month, and meet with faculty and administration or anyone else who wants to have an event at the school."

Goals: "We're still in the transition period between the old and new government members so we haven't had much time to discuss many new ideas. But, in the one meeting we did have so far, we did discuss working on a spirit week for the school and developing different community service events for the school. "

I am looking forward to accomplishing our goals for the year. This seems like a solid team of new government members that will help to make positive changes in the school.

Vice President Elect: Matt Mandel

Grade: Junior

Campaign Goals: "Elections at the high school are generally won by candidates with comic appeal so I tried to give my fliers and speech substance with humor. I tried to involve movie reference in my fliers. For example, in one of my fliers I played off the quote from Mean Girls, "On Wednesday we wear pink" by writing, "On Wednesdays we vote for Matt" in an attempt to relate to students."

Government Experience: "I've been in government for four years, including middle school as well as freshman and sophomore year. I really like government because I think it's a good opportunity to give back to the school by creating events people will enjoy. I want to have an influence on projects around the school."

Privileges: "As a privilege, I get to come to school an hour earlier on Tuesday every month for a government meeting." [Laughs]

Goals: "We had our first meeting today, and we discussed some projects the old government wanted to fulfill before they left, and those are going to be the first projects our government undertakes. For example, in the fall we had a very successful spirit week so we want to do that in the winter for winter sports teams leading up to the boys and girls final basketball games."

"I am really excited to be vice president to be working alongside Amanda, Lindsay, Leah, and John. The old government members were great role models and I hope we will be as successful as they were."