Students voted May 31 for class presidents and officers for the 2017-2018 school year in English classes. Student body president-elect Pablo Rothschild shared the results on the announcements at the end of the school day.

Rising seniors elected Caleb Kim as president with Ray Crist and Clara Lyra as class officers, rising juniors elected Azraf Khan as president with Shehrez Chaudhri and Danielle Hazan as class officers and rising sophomores elected Ellie Block as president with Julia Choppin and William Dickstein as class officers.

Each grade held its own assembly for students to listen to their presidential candidates deliver speeches and answer questions about their campaigns during third period May 30.

Many of the elected students have worked in leadership previously. Kim currently serves as a junior class officer and said he takes pride in the work he’s done in charity weeks for mental health awareness, LLS, the environment and homelessness. Next year, he said he plans to lower ticket prices and collect more student input on school events.

“My main goal is to bring the class closer together,” Kim said. “People will be eager to go [to events] and we can still raise money.”

Echoing the sentiments of the other class leaders, Khan and Chaudhri, Hazan hopes to build on the charity weeks, Vike-A-Thon and Color Rush while also implementing more blood drives, she said.

“Blood drives are important because you can save a life by donating about a half an hour of your time,” Hazan said. “Every year we try to have one per semester, but we couldn’t have one second semester because of the dates.”

Block looks forward to creating new and unique activities that the entire school can enjoy, she said. One of her ideas includes a fundraiser where participants pay to see who can keep their hand on a bus the longest, inspired by the television show Zoey 101.

“I aim to achieve more student involvement, making fundraising events more fun and eventful for everyone,” Block said.

Regardless of their grade, the newly elected SGA officials all said they look forward to improving events, school spirit and fundraising.

“We have [many opportunities] to help make a difference in our school as well as in our community,” Kim said. “It’s very rewarding to see the results of our hard work.”

Azraf Khan and Shehrez Chaudhri are feature writers for The Black & White.