BY CHRISTINA APPIGNANI & EMRAUDE BONNET
During homeroom on Friday, September 23rd, seniors logged onto their chromebooks in homeroom to vote for who would be their final class officers at Malden High School. 24 seniors ran for 7 positions, and each senior put posters around the halls on windows, doors and walls all around the school. The positions available were president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, social media chair, historian and prom committee chair positions.
The winning candidates were Vivian Nguyen as President, Rachel Tran and Jesse Bouley as Vice Presidents, Victoria MacDonald as Secretary, Cleverina Cong as Treasurer, James Mac as Class Historian, Athena Goon as Social Media Chair, Blue and Gold member Leah Tramondozzi and Anna Truong as Prom Committee Co-Chairs.
The election process was different than any other elections ever at Malden High School – the election was done electronically instead of on paper. Class advisor and 9th grade guidance counselor Heather Northrop explains that this was because seniors had already started senior privileges, explaining that “the problem with that is [she] has a really hard time getting the message out to all the seniors in the school once senior privileges start, as some seniors come in late, leave early or are out of the school.” She further explains that doing the elections electronically “allow people who come in late still have the opportunity the vote.”
However, Northrop later realized that there was an error with one of the election ballots. For the vice president section, one of the candidates was left out of the ballots. To fix this, Northrop re-opened the elections on Wednesday, September 28, but only for the vice president positions. The rest of the positions will remain as they were voted in the original election. Northrop met with all of the other candidates Monday morning, and she said that “[the candidates and her] are all on the same page with this decision.”
Northrop’s last year as a class advisor to the Class of 2017 may be her most challenging one yet, as she is now the sole advisor of the class since her former co-advisor, former chemistry teacher Amelia Collison, switched schools. While Northop is a little nervous for this challenge, she believes that “everything will be fine and [she] is confident that [the Class of 2017] will get through the year just fine” She mentioned that “lots of people in the school have come forward to help out the class.” Although she previously had someone else to rely on with Collison, Northrop claims that “[the seniors] have been doing this for so long now that they are very independent.”
The class officers have set some goals for their final year at MHS. President Nguyen hopes to embrace the class motto “Challenge Accepted” She believes that it would “be a major accomplishment to have more of [her class] be prominent in future events”. She also wants her classmates to look back on senior year as “the best year of their high school career”. Social Media Chair Goon is hoping to “spread the message about upcoming class meeting and fundraisers throughout the class’s social media accounts” She also wants her fellow classmates to “feel update and involved in prom decisions” and looks forward to working with her fellow officers.
