Student government underwent a change Monday, Sept. 21st as SCA elections were held and results tallied. The elections that morning resulted in the selection of a new SCA reporter and secretary. Also selected Monday were the inter-class positions such as class president, vice-president and treasurer.

In the secretary ballot, senior Peter Kim ran against junior Kyel Towler. Kim came up victorious in this race. He is very excited to accept this position. He is glad to finally have a voice in an organized setting for students and believes he can incite change from his position of secretary.

“It feels like I have a voice in the student body. I can make something happen,” SCA Secretary Peter Kim said.

Kim will now look for ways to assert himself as the secretary of the SCA.

“I’ll probably help assist in events like homecoming. Maybe organizing and helping with spirit week ideas,” Kim said.

Kim points to his friends as inspiration to his involvement in student government. He specifically thanked Karan Chalishajar for his encouragement to run for SCA.

“I’d thank Karan, because he’s SCA VP. He has encouraged me to be part of SCA,” Kim said.

It was a journey for Kim to find himself in a student government position. According to him he had to grow into the type of person to accept leadership positions like the one he has now.

“I wasn’t really into this stuff last year, but over the course of the past year I’ve grown to be someone that fits in a leadership position,” Kim said.

The SCA Vice President since his election in April, Karan Chalishajar, had some thoughts of his own on the upcoming year and the SCA’s affect on it. Like Kim, he mentioned the SCA’s interest in school events including homecoming.

“Right now we’re really focused on homecoming. There’s only 4 weeks until that. After that nothing’s planned yet. We’re considering other options like senior privileges,” Chalishajar said.

Chalishajar also mentioned that he was pleased by the new members elected Monday for SCA.

“I feel like all the people who got voted in today are really great candidates and will do a great job,” Chalishajar said.

The other position filled Monday in the SCA was that of reporter. Junior Zach Benevento-Zahner won in that ballot against junior Brianna Cheng. Benevento graciously accepted the position with both uncertainty and optimism about the job.

“I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be doing as reporter, but I’m excited for this new opportunity,” Benevento-Zahner said.

Benevento believes he can attribute his victory in this election to his involvement in the HHS Band. Many of his votes, he said, came from the friends he was able to make in the band community. Benevento would like to make SCA to have more involvement in the school than in has in the past. He talked about his aspirations for the SCA as a group.

“I hope to make the SCA an active force in the school because lately it’s been non-existent,” Benevento said.

Benevento was also involved in the class president elections. In the junior class election, he fell to competetor Alanna Whitfield. In the freshman election, Chris Johnson was announced as class president. Gabby Wilson won the election for sophomore class president. The senior class president was voted to be Faith Runnells and current SCA President Josh Byrd was voted senior class vice president.

With these elections fresh in the mind of students and teachers the effects of SCA were brought up. Members of SCA expressed concerns that they would not be able to have a strong enough effect as a student government union. They still see the value of these unions and are encouraged to make change in the school. Teachers alike see value in these institutions. HHS government teacher Kris Vass took notice of the elections and had a few thoughts on prospects of student leadership at HHS.

“It’s a good thing and the leadership class we’ve added this year is a step in the right direction for sure. I’d like to get more students involved,” Vass said.

Vass invites even more students to be involved at the next election and hopes to see a more diverse population of students interested in student government at the next election and the many elections after that.