Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio — these presidential candidates were named most frequently when 47 Parker high school students were asked on October 7 who, they predict will win the 2016 Presidential Election.

Clinton was most popular, receiving 51% of the votes. Sanders followed with 20% of the votes. 11% of the voters placed their luck on Trump, and Rubio and Bush earned  9% of the votes each.

The Democratic presence *word I can’t read* the Upper School student body at Parker, according to this poll, is greater than that of Illinois, as 55% of the state’s voters are Democrats, according to NewsMax, compared to 71% here.

According to RealClearPolitics, Clinton and Trump are the two candidates who have the biggest chance of being nominated by their parties.

Politics about the election play a significant role in the lives of high school student, with discussions on the subject occurring anywhere from twice a week to six times per school day, according to this poll. As Republican and Democratic debates cross their TV channels, upper school students wonder how the presidential candidates will shape the nation with their campaigns.

Senior Cari Lieberman is counting down the days for her first voting experience.

“I finally feel like I get a chance for my voice to be heard,” Lieberman said. “I really want to see a president with experience and who can understand the perspective of both political parties. While I feel like the most qualified candidates in this race are coming from politically active families, I believe that passing the nation back and forth between the same two families is not what is best for this nation.”

The 2016 Presidential Election has become a conversation starter among students during the school day. In a recent American Literature class, a laptop sticker illustrating “Feel the Bern” provoked a discussion on the previous night’s Democratic debate. Before a recent Model UN symposium, students debated which presidential candidate was more active on Instagram.

During second semester of this academic year and first semester of the next, Upper School history teacher Andrew Bigelow will be teaching a course focused on the 2016 Presidential Election. The course this Spring will focus on the primaries whereas the class next fall will focus on the nominees of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee, according to Bigelow.

“It’s an exciting time to have to teach the Elections course during the primaries because they still haven’t chosen a candidate,” Bigelow said. “We get to watch all of the debates, we observe multiple views of people running for president, and we can even begin exploring the primaries and senate races right here in Illinois.”

Senior Elliott Lancry, an enrolled student in Bigelow’s Elections course, keeps up with politics outside of class by reading articles from CNN and watching the presidential debates live. Based on his observations in and outside of the classroom, he sees the role of politics at Parker as having changed.

“I think over time people have become less educated about who they’re choosing, and they’re doing it based off of more publicity stunts,” Lancry said. “People are taking less time to develop true opinions about who they’re voting for.”

Junior Cecilia Sheppard sees Upper School students doing their research. They want to be informed so they can develop opinions on the candidates based on their campaigns rather than their previous scandals, according to Sheppard. She predicts that students will become more involved in politics as the debates increase in frequency and the hype around the election strengthens.

“I think in history classes they’re doing a good job with giving us an idea of who each of the candidates are,” Sheppard said. “People are actually doing their research because it’s an extra-credit opportunity to watch all of the debates.”

When Bigelow assigns a debate as an extra-credit opportunity, he asks his students to write a reflection about what they learned. He also starts every class with current events as a way to incorporate updates on the election, among other topics.

The election has allowed students who have a passion for politics to pursue their interest through extra-credit opportunities and students whose interests lie elsewhere to gain some insight as to what exchanges and events are occurring among the candidates, according to sophomore Zach Hirsch. The election has not created much tension between Republicans and Democrats in classroom activities, according to Hirsch. He notes that outside of the classroom, though, tension between the Republicans and Democrats has become apparent.

The role of politics at Parker depends on the students and the teachers, according to Bigelow. He hopes that history classes will continue to provide students with opportunities to contribute to the political activity at Parker.

“I think Ms. Barr and I do a really good job of providing multiple perspectives in our curriculum to make sure we’re not just giving a view that defends our view of the political system,” Bigelow said. “It’s important to look at history through multiple lenses, and that’s what we do in our debates, in our papers, and our class discussions. Our hope is that everyone feels comfortable voicing their opinions.”