2016 School-Wide SGA Officer Candidates

Gabrielle Gracias (‘17) for President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

I really actually care about this school and everyone in it and I genuinely love SGA and I love creating things that I know people are going to enjoy.  And I am involved in a lot of clubs, I don’t define myself into one clique… and I try to be friends with everyone.  I think that I would be a great president because I can get everyone’s say… I love the school, and I have been in SGA and its been a part of my life for the past three years.  I’ve been working so hard to make this school better for everyone to feel more comfortable in.  I just think I would be a great President to try and unify the classes and to help everyone.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?

Well, I was Vice President last year and I worked closely with Brett Dashevksy and I really saw he tried and put so much effort into the school, and I just want to continue Lip Sync and all of the great things that he’s made and bring some back… I just want to make the school a better place.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East?

It’s definitely enhanced it, I meet so many new people and I have so many great experiences here because of it.  I got to be involved in so many more things… when you run for the whole school you have to get to know every single grade and try to get connections to every single grade.  I hope that everyone feels like they can come talk to me, because I’m always there to listen.  I just feel like SGA has been such a great experience for everyone.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit?

For school spirit, I think one of the main things that we don’t have… is that we’re not unified as a whole school and we’re more class-oriented.  I think that the five overall school-wide SGA [officers] should try to work a little harder to try to unify every single grade… We only have a formalized, everyone in SGA, [meeting] once a month and I think I would try to increase that to two or three meetings… The reason we don’t have school spirit is because if something is going on in the senior class… some of us don’t even want to go.  But when the school dances come around, everyone is like, “Oh yeah, we want to go.”  I think we need to have events more to unify the school before we can get the school spirit and once that happens then I think people will be… all together.

Sung Oh (‘17) for President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

I have a diverse friend group; I am very accepting of others. I represent a variety of people at East… I am part of theatre, I do volleyball, I’m in band, and I’m in Model UN, DECA, debate. I have a diverse background, and I do all these different things so I know different people.. So through these connections I can truly represent what East should be.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?  

I am interested in running for the position of school president because first, if I were not to run, there would only be one candidate and I believe that is not a democracy. I believe there should be multiple candidates and the people should be able to vote who they want as president. Not only that, but I feel as president I can truly bring a change to this school… one of my concerns since freshman year was the bathroom situation. I have talked to Dr. Chapman before and he is interested in working with me in trying to fix this bathroom situation.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East?

Being in SGA is basically my experience at East. Through SGA I have gone to all these school events that I would not have gone to otherwise. And this built up my school spirit. It also taught me so much. It taught me how to work with different types of people, it taught me to be more accepting to love everyone. And to make sure to do what is right and I feel like being in SGA has really helped me end enhanced my experience here. I don’t know what I would do without SGA because it has been part of my life here at East for the past three years.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit?

I noticed that in the past couple year school spirit has been pretty low at Cherry Hill East. But this year while I was vice president we saw a dramatic increase in school spirit especially with the Lip Sync competition … we had over 250 people come out..

The number of homecoming tickets we sold was dramatically higher than the previous couple years. Because I have this experience of increasing school spirit, I feel like I can continue to increase school spirit by being who I am. Like I said earlier, I am a very diverse person so I can connect East together.

Sofia Benedetto (‘17) for Vice President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

Students should vote for me because I have previously been vice president of the school, I’m really organized and I love to, you know, go out to all these school events and help participate and make things great in the school.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?

I am interested in running for this particular position because this position has a lot of impact in this school and I feel like I can make some great changes and you know help the student body come together and just have a great school year.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East?

SGA has really enhanced my experience at East, I have gotten to meet a lot of great new people and I have gotten to help plan all these great activities that being the entire student body together and it’s been a lot of fun.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit?

I am friends with a lot of different friend groups. I am friends with robotics kids, I am friends with SGA kids, I am friends with my friends group and I feel as if though I can bring all those people into just one collect group where we can you know just bring up the school spirit.

Ben Bliss (‘18) for Vice President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

East students should vote for me because for the past two years I have been serving as a class representative and I believe I have learned what it takes to be the school vice president.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?  

I am interested in running for this position because as a class representative I have been doing things with the freshman dance and sophomore cotillion but I would much rather be helping the school with school wide dances and school wide events like the Lip Sync competition they did this year.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East? 

Being in SGA has let me meet a ton of new people, and has helped me become more social because when I met these new people I felt comfortable sharing my ideas with them and it was good helping the school out.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit? 

To increase school spirit I can plan better events, make the dances more fun and get more attendance at the events through more advertisements throughout the hallways and on social media.

Aaron Finkelstein (‘18) for Vice President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

I know a lot about the role because my older brother Mitchell actually previously took position as vice president and I am a passionate kid, I always try my hardest, I will try to help the president, whether Sung or Gabrielle, in any way possible… and that’s why [East students] should vote for me.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?

Like I said my older brother actually inspired me to run. It seems like it has great benefits and if I could impact the school in any positive way, it would be amazing.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East?

I actually didn’t participate in SGA my freshman year. I just didn’t run for anything but this year as a representative it’s been so much better…Ms. Cullen and Ms. Sysinsky, they really help bring a new perspective of the school in my eyes and I feel like we are helping 2018 class right now but it would be even better if we could help all the classes out.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit?

I feel like I have always had a good ability to draw people together, whether its my friends on the lacrosse team or the people in my classes so if I could convince different people to go to school events like homecoming dance or project E dance or even the basketball games…If we get more people out that will obviously increase school spirit.

Madeline Levin (‘18) for Vice President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

I am very hardworking and I really like getting involved.  I think that, at the school level, I will be able to really show how much I can be involved and how much I can make the school events better and improve the attendance at school events to get them more engaged, every single grade level… I’m very outgoing and I feel like I am a great candidate for the position.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?

I am my class Vice President right now and not that I don’t like what I am doing right now, but I feel like I will be able to show my potential more at the school level.. Also, I like the school events and I think that would be fun to plan.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East? 

It’s definitely enhanced it because at all the events it’s like I know… what goes into it.  It’s a really easy way to get involved in so many other things… and since I’m involved in other sports and clubs it really does give me a wide variety of things I’m involved in and I like being busy, so i like getting involved.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit?

Well I think that the whole thing is people get involved because their friends are doing it or people get involved because certain people are in it, so I think that it is just getting everyone involved and getting everyone engaged is really important but it is also knowing people.

Tobi Friedman (‘17) for Vice President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

I think East students should vote for me because I have had a lot of involvement in SGA not only here but also in middle school… I’ve learned a lot from that.  I really love helping the school and I’m willing to listen to anyone’s suggestions.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?

I’m interested in this position because I really like helping SGA in what I’ve done as a representative and I want to do more and VP is a perfect position for that.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East? 

It has made my experience at East amazing because I have been able to be a part of major events like Spirit Week and Mr. East and helping with things like that.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit?

I’m very approachable, so I am willing to listen to anyone’s ideas and make sure everyone has a say and I will make sure all the activities are as much fun as possible and make sure that they appeal to all the students at East.

Aditi Lohtia (‘18) for Vice President

Q: Why should East students vote for you?

I have been in SGA for two years, so I have a lot of experience and I know how to handle to responsibilities of an SGA officer.

Q: Why are you interested in running for this particular position?

I have been in Student Governments of some sort since elementary school and I love contributing to the school and, also, I have been Vice President of my class for two years, so I would like to experience how it is to be Vice President of the school.

Q: How has your involvement in SGA enhanced or worsened your experience at East?

Because of SGA, I actually come to events, like almost every single event.  If I wasn’t in SGA, I wouldn’t even know about them.  So, being in SGA allows me to experience all of the events at school… I am more active in school activities because of SGA.

Q: What can you do as a school-wide SGA officer that will increase school spirit?

I plan on advertising more for events… I also plan on having more events.  I also want to enhance the Lip Sync which was introduced again this year.