The 2014-2015 student council was announced with sophomore Jantzen Nakai as President, junior Joshua Kishaba as Vice President, junior Rylie Sumimoto as Corresponding Secretary, junior Sydney Lau as Recording Secretary, and sophomore Isabel Wiemken as Treasurer.
Many of this year’s candidates acknowledged the 2013-2014 class council’s work, and promised to uphold this year’s standard in their speeches.
“This year was awesome. Our current student council did a phenomenal job, so I will work very hard to follow in their footsteps,” said Wiemken. Having been a member of her class councils for the past two years, Wiemken stated that she was ready to take on the new responsibility of student council treasurer. Her main goal is “to make high school a comfortable and memorable experience for everyone.” She also said that she wants to give the student body opportunities to interact with students from other grades.” Having run unopposed, Wiemken added, “I feel like there is even more pressure on me to do a good job as the treasurer since the position came so easily to me.”
Sumimoto, who ran for the position of corresponding secretary against freshman Alyssa Futa, also wants to build on this year’s momentum. “I really meant what I said when I said that I wanted to serve with the same creativity as this year’s student council,” she said. “Skatie Hawkins, intramurals, and Entrepreneur Day were all really fun ideas that I would like to continue as well as add to.”
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“I always wanted to run for Student Council and expand my horizons.”
Jantzen Nakai, newly elected Student Council President
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She compared her election win to an audition. “I was so stoked. Seeing my name on that bulletin was like getting a callback for High School Musical, and I was Gabriella. My opponent was really tough, and I’m sure the votes were really close,” said Sumimoto. Like Wiemken, Sumimoto comes with prior class council experience, serving as vice president for the past three years. She said, “While it was really hard leaving the class council, I knew I could do a lot more and create bigger changes and improvements in the student council.”
Nakai shared her sentiment saying, “I always wanted to run for the student council and expand my horizons. I really wanted to see what it would be like to run an entire school council instead of running a small class council, which I enjoyed these past two years.”
Nakai went up against junior Christian Chee. “When I found out [about the results], I was overwhelmed,” Nakai said. “Not only was I extremely happy, but at that moment I felt as if a great deal of responsibility had been handed to me.”
Nakai, who served most recently as the president of his class council, said that his main goal next year is to make Spirit Week more fair. As to his credibility and objectivity as newly elected student council president, he said, “I understand the responsibility of my role. I now no longer [only] represent my class, but the entire school body. Though at times people may accuse me of favoring my class, hopefully they will look past my class council history and instead look at me as their unbiased student body president.”
The high school student council is responsible for events such as the Winter Banquet and Spirit Week. It is also responsible for planning other all-school socials.
