GENCO: Our New Leaders, Ready to Serve

This year’s GENCO elections were extraordinarily competitive, as there were three to four candidates for many positions, far more than there have been in previous years. While this may be good news for our voters, this made the elections quite tense. We hope the votes were in your favor, because the below are our new grade representatives of 2016-2017.

For 9th grade:
President: Eddie Kim
Vice President: Brandon Lee
Secretary: Lisa Mo
Treasurer: Gabriel Kim

This year’s ninth grade candidates were strongly persuasive as they tried to convince their grade to take their side. Several of the representatives this year were MSSC representatives of previous years. Some of the students were doubtful about these representatives, as some thought that last year’s student council activities were a bit disorganized and uneventful, but in the end the candidates were able to sweep away their worries with their eloquence. The representatives promised us that they were “running for us” and wished to “uphold our happiness.” In Brian Park’s speech he said, “We have the power to shape our school, so we must embrace it.” One could feel the tension in the room as the candidates battled against one another to gain the desired GENCO positions.  (This section of the article was written by staff reporter Sohum Thadani.)

For 10th grade:
President: Martin Kim
Vice President: Ai Ni Chew
Secretary: Sherry Kim
Treasurer: Elizabeth Kim

Seeing the Koreans rise to power at the same time with almost the same last name, some of you may wonder was this a coincidence . . . or a conspiracy? A tenth grade student, Stanley Wang, feels amused by the situation, stating, “It’s quite funny to think about it for tenth grade at least, because three fourths of the positions are held by Koreans, and their last names are all Kim. The Koreans dominated every single position besides the vice president.” Nothing has been confirmed yet, but now that the Kim Era has started let’s hope it may live long and be prosperous.

For 11th grade:
President: Gwen Farm
Vice President: Jae Min Kim
Secretary: Elieen Jeong
Treasurer: Yiu Wai Yuen

This year’s 11th grade elections incorporated a good amount of humor, generally more than the other grades. For instance, at the end of his speech, candidate Leoul Woldemariam promised that he would teach the grade to “dab” as well as he could, earning some hooting and laughter from the crowd. Victorious vice-presidential candidate Jae Min Kim told us that the strong competition made him nervous. He went into his speech feeling fairly confident, but “it turned out the other speeches were very good.” When asked about his hopes for the year ahead, he said, “I’m really looking forward to it. I’m going to make the 2016-17 year great for juniors!”

For 12th grade:
President: Tomoka Yamada
Vice President: Kelvin Fan
Secretary: Nino Lee
Treasurer: Sammi Xu

The senior competition was fierce this year, with nine candidates on the ballot: Nancy Peng, Chris Renfrow, Ibrahim Sahour, Stephen Zhou, Tomoka Yamada, Kelvin Fan, Nino Lee, Sammi Xu, and Punya Bhargava. After all, it’s the seniors’ last year in high school, and their last chance for a role in student government. It’s a shame not all of the candidates can retain a position, but the competition did leave an impression on some of the seniors: “It was an exciting moment in my high school life because it was the first time I witnessed such competition,” said Bryan Hu.

In an unusual turn of events, we even have one of our previous principals, Nino Lee, taking over the position of GENCO secretary! May his legacy continue. On another note, the speeches were creative and entertaining this year. From Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King Junior to Donald Trump references, Chris Renfrow cracked up the audience with his opening, “Four score and 4 months ago, I decide to run for your senior class president. I have a dream that one day, AISG will rise up and we will make AISG great again.” Similarly, the Beacon’s own Stephen Zhou amused the audience with his repeated use of “alright” and his over the top promises stating, “As long as you’re brave enough to say what you want, I’ll be brave enough to make it happen! Alright!” Sammi Xu ended her speech on the note of pizza: “I promise that I’ll treat this position as the way I treat pizza, and I love pizza!” Kelvin Fan also made some funny puns, ending with, “Vote Kelvin Fan for president! I’ll be your fan and make sure your senior year is cool. And if it gets too chilly, I’ll make sure you get the hoodies you deserve!” I hope our last year of high school will be as great as the speeches this year.