The Cherry Hill High School East Student Government Association has determined its members and their roles for next school year after recently completing its last election for this school year. On May 25, 2017, 20 candidates from the freshmen, sophomore and junior classes were chosen by their peers to become class representatives for the 2017-2018 school year.

The freshmen class had the most candidates running with over 50 people, while the sophomore class had 29 candidates followed by the junior class that had 22 candidates.

In order to run, each candidate had one week to get 75 signatures from his/her classmates in his/her grade level and write a paragraph explaining why he/she would make an ideal SGA class representative. In addition, each candidate had to sign forms agreeing to the SGA constitution.

New class representative, Aliza Kotzen (‘20) said, “I mainly campaigned for myself through snapchat and word of mouth,” which she thinks was effective for the position of class representative.

All 60 winners will have a chance to demonstrate how qualified they are to represent their grade the following school year by being responsible for planning school dances, spirit week, class fundraisers and spread information to each grade class about their grade level.

A number of students who ran have previously been involved in SGA. For instance, 52% of students who ran in the sophomore class were currently in the SGA homeroom, and 100% of these students won a position as a class representative. This is very convenient because they are already aware of what is expected of them.

Brooke Olin (‘19) who is going to be a class representative for her third year said, “The advisors have set expectations for all class representatives and being a previous class representative has made me learn these expectations and gain their trust.”

However new class representatives will be able to learn these expectations quickly and  those who did not win can still participate in SGA by supporting all of the activities that SGA sponsors.

Two-year class representative, Avena Patel (‘18), said, “People who don’t win positions can always directly talk to SGA representatives, the vice presidents and president of their class to pitch ideas. They can also direct message the class twitter and instagram for more information on how to be involved.”

The voting for this election was completed in a new, more efficient way through Google Classroom for the classes of 2019 and 2020

in which each student could access the ballot on their own technological device.