Class Rep Elections
By SHILOH LIU ‘22
*Note, the author of this article wrote this prior to winning the election. The board believes there’s no conflict of interest*
After over a month of school, Class IV students have had chances to get to know each other and settle into their new high school lives. The election for Milton’s Class IV representatives is a sure sign that the school year has kicked into full gear. Class representatives are two students with different gender identities whom the whole class elects. The elected representatives will participate in the Self Government Association (SGA) meetings and co-host Class IV assemblies with their class deans, Mr. Lou and Ms. Kelleher.
The self-nominated candidates must submit statements to be reviewed by their classmates and give speeches during a Class IV assembly. “Then, voting on myMilton will open up for a particular day and all students in the grade will get a chance to vote for their top two choices,” explains Asia Chung ‘19, one of the head monitors for the Milton student body.
This year, there are seven girls and five boys running for the two positions. One of the candidates for this year shared why she wanted to run for Class IV rep. She found assemblies not as exciting as she had expected and, quite frankly, tedious. “I want someone to put effort into making something fun,” she said, “I don’t want a representative who is only good at speeches.” She didn’t know who the candidates would be, so she chose to run for it. “I have many good ideas in mind,” she added. She wanted to see those ideas come to life and turn the assemblies into energy boosts that would benefit all the incoming freshmen.
When asked how she felt about her upcoming speech on Tuesday, the candidate said she felt very nervous because “everyone else who gave their speeches on Friday was really good so far.” The pool is very competitive, especially since every one of the candidates is eager to win the election. “I feel that I am prepared and not at the same time,” she said. She has started writing her speech, but, regardless, she is still anxious of “making a fool of [herself], which wouldn’t be a great start for the year.” Running for Class IV rep is certainly a challenge for freshmen, especially when they have such a large course load and activities.
On another note, Chung sheds light on the SGA as a whole, an organization which “consists of the two head monitors, day monitors, boarding monitors, and a pair of representatives for each class” that strive to improve the school as best as they can. Together with their faculty advisors, Mr. Ruiz and Mr. Skinner, the students “talk about both current and upcoming events at Milton, plan fundraisers, discuss student and faculty issues, and sit in on Disciplinary Committee meetings.” The Class IV representatives will not only be involved in the planning for Class IV activities and assemblies, but also help to organize whole-school events that will affect everyone’s experience here at Milton.
Going through the election process herself as a head monitor, Chung also shared why she wanted to run in the first place. “I was on the SGA last year and working with our past head monitors, Kailee and Greg, as well as the rest of the SGA, was really amazing,” Chung said. She later mentioned that the can drive for Milton Food Pantry is one of her favorite events that the SGA hosted last year. Her experience as Class II representative motivated her to run for head monitor.
“I just really wanted to give back to the school, because Milton has done so much for me and provided me with so much over the last 3 years.” Chung expressed. As head monitor, she can contribute the most and voice her opinion to help improve Milton as much as possible.
The Class IV representative election that has taken place for the last two weeks is both exciting and stressful for the candidates. But however the election comes to a close, the ultimate goal for the representatives is to make Milton a better place for every student.