Photo courtesy of Olin Kimball

Upcoming SGA President Sid Scale and Treasurer Olin Kimball bond at the 2022 Whitman High School track meet, a sport featured in all three pep rallies. “I’m definitely really excited for the Pep Rally and to hype everyone up for the sports seasons,” Scale said.

Game themes, Homecoming and Pennies for Patients (P4P) are some of the events that the SGA carefully plans to transform their visions into reality. Ethan Mendes, Bryan Kibet, Luke Liden and Lauren Kim developed many new events for the WJ community, such as the Talent Show for P4P fundraising and Adam Sandler Day as a spirit day. However, ever since SGA leadership departed on May 25, the question on everyone’s mind is: what does the new leadership have planned?

On March 28, WJ students listened to the new SGA candidates’ speeches and voted for who they wanted to hold positions in the coming year. Votes were meticulously counted and the results were anxiously revealed on March 30 on the SGA Instagram page. Students voted for Sid Scale as president, Alex Levy as vice president, Olin Kimball as secretary and Michelle Kim as treasurer.

“I’m pretty confident about us. I feel like it’s gonna be fun, you know, especially like actually putting your ideas into the school. And we can actually do it instead of imagining it,” Scale said.

The 2022-2023 SGA created new traditions and events for the WJ community, and their departure can induce pressure on the incoming SGA.

“Honestly, I think this current year’s SGA was very good. They got us one hour lunch. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to reach those heights, but I’m certainly going to try.I think the people we have in the positions are very passionate and they’ll get things done and so will I,” Levy said.

Along with pep rallies, sport game themes are a critical part of every sports season and encourage students to show up and show out for the WJ teams.

“Instead of posting what the [game] theme is a couple of days before, the SGA could post it at the start of the season or overall a little earlier which I think would be a nice change and cause more people to come to the games,” Scale said.

SGA, along with each grade’s leadership, is the main body for creating and planning events for students and the WJ community as a whole. Working with the administration is a huge part of SGA and is necessary for an active SGA to create fun, inclusive events.

“Definitely communicate with [administration] and communicate the idea that this is what the students want because, I guess, we are the voice of students in a way so sort of bringing that sense into it and just hoping to do something good,” Kimball said.

Pennies for Patients, an initiative that helps those struggling with leukemia and lymphoma, is one of the main organizations that WJ raises funds for. Along with past events like the Mario Kart Tournament and the Burrito Mile, the 2024 SGA has some new ideas to take P4P to the next level.

“One cool fundraising event [for P4P] that I want to do is a movie night, where we all go out on the turf on the football field, and we get one of those humongous inflatable movie screens where you know, we can serve food and it would be super fun,” Levy said.

Next year’s plans are currently being developed by the SGA and administration in order to get a head start on the 2023-2024 school year.

“So there’s a lot of things that we want to happen immediately starting next school year. So that’s going to need to be talked about over the summer. So I intend on making a meeting with Principal Baker and just talking about some things that I want to implement, like Wildcat Wellness and the improvement of Wildcat Wellness,” Levy said.

Hopes and confidence for the upcoming year are high among the SGA, as well as new ideas, events and changes that will excite the student body. “I think we’re gonna be a good SGA because I think we are all gonna put our energy into [SGA], and I think we all wanna see WJ be the best it can be,” Kimball said.