For the second straight year, freshman class office elections were held after the start of the school year. Voting for the class officers of the Class of ‘29 occurred via email from Aug. 27-28. Results were released on Aug. 29.
The two presidential candidates were Aditya Karanam and Josie Mih, while Ashlyn Hong and Sherwin Dowlat ran for vice president and Sihyun Kim and Joyce Yang ran for treasurer. The only person running for elected representative was Amaira Bawa.
In a change from previous years, the ASB appointed two representatives instead of one, for a total of three class representatives. According to senior Ava Cai, the ASB president, this was done to have a bigger freshman class office this year in order to catch up with Homecoming preparations.
The final results of the election were released on Friday, and are as follows:
President: Aditya Karanam
Vice President: Ashlyn Hoang
Treasurer: Sihyun Kim
Elected Representative: Amaira Bawa
Appointed Class Representatives: Josie Mih, Sophie Haque
Campaigns lasted from Aug. 25-28, with candidates using a variety of media to increase their outreach, including both physical posters as well as Instagram reels.
Appointed class representatives didn’t campaign at all for their position and instead went through an interview screening process. Haque preferred to become an appointed class representative as she had a lack of time for a larger role in class office. Five candidates were interviewed in total by the ASB leadership team.
Though the freshman class officers are behind the other classes in terms of Homecoming preparations and donations, they are already planning ways to catch up, whether it be to lead the freshmen during quad day or brainstorming ways to increase freshman attendance for football games. According to Karanam, there are also plans for a boba fundraiser, as well as other events based on class preferences.
“I’m looking forward to new experiences,” Karanam said. “Since it’s the beginning of school, there’s going to be a lot more work, but it should still be really fun and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
