The people have spoken, and Woodstock’s latest round of election results are now official. Kritin Garg and Khushi Agrawal, long time favorites in student government in the Class of 2019, have been selected by their peers to be student presidents for the 2018 to 2019 school term.
These results came two days after the voting and only four days after their campaign speeches, marking an end to this very short election season.
While the competition for the role of the male president was pretty much decided due to the fact that Garg ran unopposed, the election for the female president had been a stiff competition between Agrawal and Meher Datta, Class of 2019.
“I feel relieved.” said Agrawal. “I was a little scared, as my opponent had a lot of support and was a great candidate.”
However, she now wants to put that rivalry behind her, as she said she’d like to tell Datta, “Let’s work together and make everything you wanted to happen, happen.”
On Datta’s part, while she said she was “a little sad about losing,” she also said she’d be glad to “work with her [Agrawal],” She even offered some words of inspiration for the new President-elect, saying, “Be the Obama the school needs you to be.”
Quick to work for the needs of their electorate, the presidents-elect have already begun working on their first actions as student body leaders.
Garg said that he was “working on a lot of things already,” mentioning among them working to change the schedule such that labs will be during school times rather than after school. He was also pleased to announce that he’d already got “weekly Ritz cinema outings” implemented; the first of which will be on Saturday, April 28.
Agrawal said, “My first action will be to set a date for UN day so we can celebrate the school’s International diversity, and I have already started working on some details regarding the coming academic year structure in terms of academics and enrichment .”
The newly elected Agrawal and Garg also had some words for the student body, with Agrawal thanking them for all their support, saying that she hopes she “can prove my ability to carry this position,” promising to work hard.
Garg also said he would “try to deliver and make this a better place for you guys [the students]. This place is for you and I want you guys to enjoy your time here, and I promise to work my arse off for you.”
A survey of the student electorate found that most felt confident in their choice of representatives.
“I think they’ll do well,” said Iqbal Zaheer, Class of 2019. “They’ve worked together as class governors before and they have good chemistry.”
Tenzin Dorjee Nepali, Class of 2019, had similar views, saying, “I feel confident [in them]. They’ve been here a long time and are very hard workers so I think they’ll excel at their duties.”
But this confidence was not just from students who have been here for a long time and know them personally. Even new students, having joined just this year, expressed positive views.
Jaideep Grover, Class of 2019, said, “We elected them because we see something in them,” although he also said that the election result held no excitement as “everyone knew what was going to happen.”
Ismail Elainain, Class of 2019, went even further, saying, “I think the pair have really good chemistry, so I think they can make good changes to the school to satisfy staff and students.”
However, not all were so sure that their new presidents’ promises would be fulfilled.
“I think they’ll try their best,” said Tenzin Yugyel Norbu. “But there’ll be problems.”
“I’m not sure of that [that their initiatives will be implemented],” said Nepali, though he also expressed his belief that they would try hard.
thewoodstocker.com 