Although it lacked primaries, debates and polls, election season at RM left its mark on the school. On April 30th and 31st, the winners of the Student Government Association (SGA) elections were announced. Junior Emily Tucker was elected SGA president, Junior Jeremy Blair was elected SGA vice president, Junior Monica Cho was elected secretary, and, in a surprise twist, Sophomore Jiayi Yang was elected SGA treasurer.

Infamous for his use of famous rap artist Tupac Amaru Shakur’s lyrics during his election speech, Yang was on the receiving end of a warning from Ms. Toni Kellinger, social studies teacher and SGA sponsor. “She tells me I need to be a lot more serious,” said Yang, laughing. “Take that how you will, but I think that being the only junior next year, I’m going to have to represent the views of the junior class.”

SGA president Emily Tucker is nothing if not serious. Echoing the eco-savvy sentiments of national politicians, Tucker said she is “really looking to firmly establish the recycling program at RM. It is kind of ridiculous that we are the worst school in the county when it comes to recycling.”

Tucker also stressed possible reorganization of the club cabinet, the organization that represents the myriad of clubs at RM. “I think there needs to be reform with the club cabinet so that our club leaders are better informed,” said Tucker. 

The SGA has an ambitious event calendar planned for next year, including a Powderpuff football game in the fall and outside pep rallies that will be held on the new turf field. The senior class wants to host pre-game and post-game events and make prom more affordable through organized and expanded fundraising efforts.  

The desire to increase the number school events was a common theme for all of the SGA officers. “We need to get RM on the map,” said Junior class secretary Vincent Abad-Santos. “Next year we will bring events that RM has never, ever, seen before.” 

Dissatisfaction with current school policies and events motivated many newly elected officers to run for election. “I was tired of people, myself included, talking about all of the things they wanted to change without taking any action,” said Junior class president Caitlin Veator. “I wanted to make some changes I thought would really benefit the junior class.”    

None of the officers believe their work will be easy. “We know there is a ton of work in store for us,” said Senior vice president Eli Sinai.  Yang added, “It’s going be really tough to balance all of the [academic] work next year and SGA, but I think that SGA is really important, and we have a job to try and represent the students at RM.”

“I hope we will be able to make a lasting impression at RM, especially in terms of recycling,” said Tucker, “I think everyone on SGA is going to work really hard and I think we’ll get a lot accomplished.”

Senior class president Patrick Maguire plans on 2009 being “the greatest senior class to ever graduate from Richard Montgomery.”