Editor’s Note: The order that candidates are introduced and discussed is purely based on the alphabetical order of their last names. “The Weekly” does not endorse any specific candidate for any Student Government position.

Not even a global pandemic can stop Parker’s student democracy, a tradition in the Upper School, from undertaking a full election season. In just a few short weeks, it will be time for the annual passing of the Student Government torch. Students must first, however, receive the majority of student votes to signal the proper holders of the 2021-22 torch. Prior to May 19 elections, “The Weekly” offered every cabinet candidate a chance to share their proposed policies and personalities with the entire Student Body. 

In this unprecedented school year, the Student Government presidential race has two candidates. For numerous years prior, the race for President was often a four or more way race. This year, only two juniors, Nsaia Pettis and Eli Moog, entered the fray. 

Moog is not a stranger to the Student Government stage. Moog has held a number of positions during his time in the Upper School. “My past involvement in SG has shown I’ll be up for this massive challenge,” Moog said. Moog’s prior experiences in Student Government inspired his presidential run. “The reason I’m running for this position is because Student Government really matters. Normally you think of Student Government as just going to Plenary, and you see a proposal, and it doesn’t really affect your life. But, if you look at the work we’ve done this year, and in past years, it clearly has the ability, when utilized correctly, to have a broad impact,” Moog said. 

Moog’s ideas go beyond Plenary sessions that pertain to the entire Student Body. “We did these Small Groups this year where you could choose your own breakout room and I think that’s an amazing concept. Small Groups used to suck, where there would really only be one or two people who wanted to be involved. We need to let students decide what their small groups want to be, even if that’s a break from Student Government to go outside and play basketball. If you don’t care, you shouldn’t have to,” Moog said. “Student Government works best when the Student Body is successful, and however Student Government can support the student body is a big win.” 

Finally, Moog shared some of his other ideas to improve Student Government. “It’s 2021, there’s no reason to have a secretary slamming on a keyboard. We can use voice dictation.” Further, Moog sees an opportunity for cooperations between the student publications. The ‘Student Voice’ and Weekly should work together in some way to promote each other’s work,” Moog said. “I think I’m passionate, engaged, and I think that my knowledge and work in the institution has made it better and that if I was elected to this I could continue the work Carter and Ava did to make Student Government so successful,” Moog said. 

Pettis, Moog’s opponent, takes a different approach. Pettis sees her high school experience outside Parker as providing a new perspective to Student Government.  “As someone who has transferred into Parker this school year, I have an immense amount of experience throughout the City and with people of all walks of life,” Pettis said. “From going to a public school in the South East side of Chicago, to volunteering at a daycare in South Loop, to doing an internship in Auburn Gresham, to tutoring in Avondale, I have mastered patience, active listening skills, and open-mindedness. Although these seem like simplistic skills to have; they have shaped my perspective to step into any room and be able to evaluate and tackle any situation.” 

In order to address concerns of student apathy in Student Government, Pettis has a plan. When asked how to combat this issue that infects the Upper School, Pettis plans on “including students in Student Government as president by prioritizing the underclassmen.” As a new student to Parker, Pettis brings a different lens to examining areas for improvement in Student Government. “This year has been rough and new to everyone, but it is especially hard for those who don’t have any guidance on how to navigate and get included in school. I also plan on engaging students by finding a similar interest within the group,” Pettis said. “This could be by talking about something that’s in the news, current events within the school, or doing check-ins to read the room and to make sure everyone’s well.” When discussing her goals for Student Government, Pettis aims “to create a fun, engaging, motivating, and empathetic environment for every student to enjoy themselves [and] make student government more lively so students won’t dread coming. I have high hopes and I’m setting high standards for myself so I can excel as your 2021-2022 president.”

For the first time in recent years, the position of Treasurer is a one person race, with junior Alex Carlin running for the position unopposed. As a current Senate head, Carlin knows the intricacies of Student Government. During her time as a Senate head, Carlin “witnessed firsthand the importance of providing Senate with a sufficient budget.” With those qualifications in both handling money and in the important role of Student Government, Carlin’s primary 2021-22 goal as Treasurer is focused on improving Participatory Budgeting.

In order to improve Participatory Budgeting, Carlin thinks more time should be allocated toward Participatory Budgeting during Plenary. “Participatory Budgeting is one of my favorite parts of Student Government, and I wish we did it more this past year. Although it runs well now, I think we can make it even better. I think it would better suit the student body if we did Participatory Budgeting on a rolling basis,” Carlin said. In addition to increasing time for Participatory Budgeting, Carlin sees room for improvement in funding the various student-led committees at Parker. “I’ve been a committee head, so I can understand the importance of funding committees. Before the school year starts, I want to meet with the DCA, so I can understand their expectations for the year and start preliminary budgeting accordingly,” Carlin said. Lastly, Carlin hopes to increase the centralization of the student experience. In her platform, Carlin proposed using excess funds to continue Parker traditions such as Oreo Friday, a new possible cash prize for sporting events such as March Madness, and even to begin Parker Palooza, which was proposed by Alex Schapiro during the 2020-21 election season. 

Unlike Treasurer, the race for Director of Committee Affairs (DCA) is a hotly contested three person race. Junior Jaydra Hamid, sophomore Jack Kahan, and junior Tess Wayland are all vying for the DCA role. 

Hamid, the current Inclusion Coordinator, is making her bid for Director of Committee Affairs. Hamid’s desire to hold the position of DCA stems from her belief that “the committee system is one of the most integral parts of student government.” While functional, Hamid sees much room for improvement in this “integral” committee system. “I want to lead in improving it [the committee system] and having people be excited about committee meetings and events,” Hamid said, “I want committee meetings and events to be approached with enthusiasm from all parties.” For each of these changes, Hamid believes she has the skills to get the job done. 

 In considering what it takes to succeed as DCA, Hamid sees one essential skill. “The most important quality in a DCA is organization. I am very organized and communicate well with others,” Hamid said. During her summer internship, which continued into the school year, Hamid was able to successfully balance her school work and put her “creativity and organizational skills to use.” In addition to her summer internship, Hamid was selected to attend a Student Diversity Leadership Conference. 

Hamid draws on the values of Inclusion Coordinator in her DCA goals of “getting everyone involved and fully participating in Student Government.” For Hamid, “the core of the committee system is inclusion.” With this perspective, Hamid’s time as Inclusion Coordinator “motivates [her] to want to improve it. I can follow through on inclusion in how committees construct their events, run their meetings, and interact with their members.”

Kahan, the current Parliamentarian of the student body and only underclassman in the DCA race, has a series of goals for the 2021-22 school year. “My goals as DCA for the ‘21-’22 school year are to create a more informative and supportive atmosphere for committee heads, re-energize the concept of committee meetings, and empower students to participate more within their assigned committees.” Kahan’s platform sets out his plan to meet these goals for DCA. “I’ll accomplish these goals by, in brief, holding a fall seminar for new committee heads, help committee heads and members amend their bylaws, establish monthly committee meetings that don’t impede on Student Government time (wherein committee heads are strongly encouraged to provide snacks), and sending out an anonymous committee feedback form after every meeting to the entire Student Body,” Kahan said. 

Kahan sees both short term and long term results. “These changes, if implemented, will set the committee system on a track to become a program for the entire student body to enjoy and make good use of, as opposed to its current state, where both accountability and enjoyment are low for committee members and heads.” As a Sophomore,  Kahan believes he “can look into both the worlds of Student Government/Cabinet and the committee system. Both of these aspects are vital to the understanding and proper management of the role of DCA.” Using this perspective, Kahan says he is “absolutely equipped to transform the committee system into something beneficial for everyone.” 

Kahan has also been actively involved in activities throughout his Parker career. “I’ve always been passionate about leadership, whether that has been in Robotics, Model UN, Tennis, or Student Government.” While Kahan stated that Student Government has improved since the beginning of his Freshman year, he “recognizes that there’s still much work to be done.” Kahan sees himself as the “perfect candidate to set the committee system on the track for success.”

Wayland, in her second year as an elected Cabinet official, the current Senate and MX Head, former Performing Arts Committee Head, and former Social Justice Representative is making her bid for the position of DCA “because my experience in and outside the committee system has prepared me to connect committee heads to resources, build institution, and create purpose and connection.” According to her platform, Wayland wants to make connecting the various “committee heads to resources by making access to Cabinet easy…building institution so no one has to reinvent the wheel (so) freshmen can feel welcomed to the Upper School…and creat(ing) purpose and connection by using our committee time better, supporting committees with outside meeting time, increasing collaboration, and keeping committee life fun.” 

The theme of connection continues as Wayland looks upon her Cabinet time as the final building block to a successful term as DCA. “Being a Senate Head has been one of the best parts of my time in high school,” Wayland said, “it only reinforced what I learned as a committee head, that people make Student Government worth it… Senate is made by the people who show up, and our job is to simply make sure we’re bringing out the best in those people, just as I plan to do as DCA.” Wayland also stated that during her time as Secretary, she was able to learn about the procedure of Student Government through taking minutes. “To me that was very important,” Wayland said, “Not only did it make me detail oriented, but also a good listener and synthesiser.” What many students around the Upper School see as a basic, entry level position, Wayland sees as an opportunity to “learn about the culture of Cabinet” in ways she “later used this year as Senate Head.” 

As a past committee head, Wayland has worked with “really great DCA’s in the past.” If elected, Wayland says she plans to loosely model her time as DCA off of the other successful DCA’s in the past. “They all brought what I hope to bring to the position: a lot of energy, their own ideas, and supportive leadership,” Wayland said. These former DCA’s have inspired Wayland to run in 2021. “I want to be that person for other people, because I know how much of an impact they’ve had on me.” Between inspiration from former DCA’s and “hoping to provide a quality experience” for other members of the Student Body, as well as helping people “believe in the committee system so students can believe in themselves,” Wayland hopes to earn over 50 percent of the vote from the Parker student body on May 19.  

In a repeat of the 2020-21 election cycle, the Senate Heads are running unopposed. Four sophomores, Gray Joseph, Charles Fardon, Rania Jones, and Samantha Graines, will be the only names for the Senate on the May 19 ballot. One of the focuses of these four Senate Candidates is ensuring a smooth transition between virtual Senate and in-person Senate. “As Senate heads, our main goal is to continue the interesting and productive conversations of Senate, whether it is in person or online. We know Senate next year is going to look different than it does this year, we just do not know how yet. Our goal is to make the transition from online Senate this year to hopefully in-person Senate next year as smooth as possible” said Senate Candidate Gray Joseph. In setting out their goals, Joseph said they plan on “ensuring that relationships between the Administration are maintained,  creat[ing] an environment where every student wants to come and all voices are heard through, and mak[ing] the Senate an environment that not only fosters important conversations, but also a good time.” Joseph’s passion for the Senate began when he found he “loved the ability to speak his mind, but also know that our voice was being heard.” Joseph wants this feeling of acknowledgement to be felt throughout the student body. “We ran for Senate this year because we wanted to ensure that the opinions of the student body are being properly communicated to the Administration.” Joseph, Fardon, Jones, and Graines, look forward to leading the lunchtime Senate during the 2021-22 school year.