![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
Dances, spirit days, and fundraisers are a staple of the high school experience, and here at Silver Creek, there is one club that handles most of those events: Student Senate.
Student Senate is a club where students practice the teachings of government and apply them to their school community. The club is supervised by Silver Creek High School teacher Steve McNichols and The Student Body President and Vice President.
Every April, the club holds a school-wide election to select the next student body president and vice president. The candidates are juniors who have met the criteria and qualifications for this role. This year the candidates are Paige Selby and Paige Schleper and the other party is Brooklyn Baum and Om Singh. Currently, the office of Student Body President is held up by senior Summit Louth, and accompanied by his Vice President, senior Walker Brandon.
“I think the hardest part about being Student Body President is organizing events. Because events are mainly planned by the Student Body President and then delegating the smaller decisions down to the other members of the Senate,” said Louth.
As Louth’s term is almost at an end he reflects on some of the challenges that he faced in his time as the Chief Executive of the senate. He also has a recommendation for his successors to follow when they assume the office.
“A good president is someone active, someone who is enthusiastic about participating in school, someone who is effective at communicating, and most importantly someone who cares,” said Louth.
Both parties that are competing for the position have put the ideals expressed by Louth at the center of their campaign policy. The Selby-Schleper party remarked that those ideals are why they ran for student body president.
“We decided to run for senate leadership positions because we wanted to build an inclusive environment where every student feels safe to voice their academic, social, or general concern relating to school,” said Selby.
This is the first semester that Selby or Schleper has been in the student senate. But this does not mean that their resume is empty as together they have been a part of varsity athletics, performing arts, Universal High School, Silver Creek Leadership Academy, National Honors Society, and many other programs at Silver Creek.
“While [not being in Student Senate] might be seen as a weakness, we believe that this has allowed us to understand how to get more students involved with student government and with the school’s community in general,” explains Schleper.
Being in touch with not only the Senate but also the various organizations is important to both campaigns in this election. The Baum-Singh campaign expresses their participation in clubs and how it connects them to Silver Creek.
“Both Om and I had the opportunity to be a part of numerous Creek organizations, including the Student Senate, and have never been afraid to show our school spirit,” said Baum. “ I know, I never miss an opportunity to support Creek and attend school events with full Creek spirit.”
Showing their school spirit is not the only way that Baum and Singh want to connect with fellow students. The candidates also want to reach more students about events and meetings of the Student Senate that are happening at Silver Creek.
“We would like to increase the access points for the Student Senate. We feel that as of now the Student Senate isn’t accessible to everyone and [as President and Vice President] we want to improve the Senate’s social media, adding a senate suggestion form, creating virtual announcements, and making other resources available to the student body,” stated Baum.
As both campaigns compete against each other for the title job, they both express great respect for one another and look forward to working together in the future. Supervisor of Student Senate Steve McNichols reflects on student body presidents past and present and what makes them successful and says, “Being able to delegate and empower people to take ownership of student senate and to not do it all yourself.”
Each campaign hopes to fulfill this goal by including more people in the student government process and also taking more perspectives into account when making decisions. The school-wide election will be held on April 17th, and students will be able to vote for their preferred candidate in their advisory classes.
