It’s that time of year again! The annual Scheck Hillel, High School Student Government Elections came to pass, with many outstanding and intriguing candidates who were willing to put their voices out there, in an attempt to bring our community together as a whole and invision Scheck Hillel better than it has ever been! The purpose of Student Government is to enable students to come out of their shells and express their true beliefs on how the school can provide a more satisfactory and thrilling environment. During the election speeches, high school students had the remarkable opportunity to listen to the candidates’ opinions on new changes and improvements to benefit the school and the students. 

Every candidate offered exceptional ideas on how they are the candidate full of creative ideas for the school! Although every word spoken by each candidate was significant and influential, one key question every student was looking for the candidates to answer is how they can appeal to the desires of the student population and enhance the school if they were to be elected. One of the Student Government presidential candidates, Sofia Wengrowsky (12th grader) claims, “If I was elected, not only would I put all my time and effort into student life, but I would help improve the school in any way that students want. I believe I can improve the school because the love, passion, and dedication I have are like no other student. I will not only help improve school with what students want but also by bringing positivity and spreading it.” All candidates within their speech reflected upon how the students must and should be incorporated with improving Scheck Hillel.

The presidents do indeed have a crucial and necessary role in Student Government, but what about the class representatives? Each grade has one student that they can come to with any questions or concerns involving any of their grade’s school-related activities. Besides the president and vice president offering a lot of assistance for the school, the class representatives are the student’s number one go-to person! Sarah Chaya Sterental, who is running for 10th Grade Representative, depicts an influential and insightful explanation of how she can improve the school if elected. Sarah Chaya states, “If elected, I think I will be able to improve student involvement in certain activities the school offers and help boost the morale of the upper school population as a whole. I plan to involve students by trying to create more fun hands-on activities that provide a sense of purpose and community for all students.” The more school activities that are provided to students, especially high school students who have a lot on their plate, the more joyous they will arrive to school!

Post-election, students had a say on how they felt about the election, nonetheless expressing what a true leader, undoubtedly resembles. Students were able to finally take note and realize what type of students they have running, that can represent them and be the channel of their voices throughout their 2022-2023 school year. When asking students about their thoughts on what makes a great leader or president, there were many engaging responses. Sadie Lemmer, Scheck Hillel 10th Grader, expresses, “I think a good student body president knows what the students want and is able to be a voice for everyone.” Students seek a leader who will guide them through extracurricular activities and events, permitting them to fulfill a festive school year. 

Similarly, many teachers felt elated by the exceptional Student Government elections. For example, Dr. Barouk remarks, “What I like the most about the elections is to really get to see students go out of their comfort zone and stand up in front of the entire high school and share! We also get to see some of their personalities, and some of their ideas, and I think that is an exciting thing to get to see from students.” 

What about the ninth-graders? The newborns of the high school cohort. They are new to this high school life, so how do they want to make their next four years here the best that they can be? What are they looking forward to? According to 9th Grader, Avichai Meisels, he notes, “Well, I am looking forward to the Israel Trip. When I heard about funding for the Israel Trip from both of the 9th-grade representatives and the presidential candidates, I was very excited. I also understand that Shabbatons used to be a big thing in high school and I have always wanted to participate in the school Shabbaton. That is something that I would like to see happen.”

How did the candidates feel after the election? How do they feel the results turned out? Michael Stiberman, Scheck Hillel 12th Grader (presidential candidate) expresses, “Before speaking, I had my hopes that I was going to win, but it was not looking too nice. When it was my turn to give my speech, I just spoke from my heart and said what needed to be said. Now after seeing the results and seeing how I spoke, and feeling how I felt, I just feel more confident in myself, because, well the speech made me more confident.”

The 2022-2023 Student Government Elections was an amazing opportunity for students to express their beliefs on how they can better our school and home, Scheck Hillel. All of the students who ran for any student government position showed their courage and commitment to the school. And a huge congratulations to Esther Tamir, Daniel Wengrowsky, Lara Bzurovski, Leah Winterman, and Talya Shechter for being elected as 9th Grade Representative, 10th Grade Representative, 11th Grade Representative, 12th Grade Representative, Vice President, respectively. However, in a last-minute turn of events, the Presidency was split between both presidential candidates, Michael Stiberman and Sofia Wengrowsky, and a huge congratulations to the both of them and for all of those who were elected on such an amazing achievement. We can’t wait to see what you guys do!”