Not only is Canada having federal elections this month to elect their next Prime Minister, NANMO also held thrilling elections to vote for a new president and ministers to lead the Student Union. Student Unions play a pivotal role in schools’ diversity and cultural development. This year at NANMO, the new SUID (Student Union International Department) elections took place on September 27th, 2019. The 16 passionate candidates gathered in the front row with all the students and school leaders waiting for the moment when the former President of the Student Union, Annie Chen, announced the beginning of the solemn elections. “Let’s now welcome the first candidate, Helen Huang from 11B. Please give her a round of applause.” A thunder of handclaps from the crowd rose at once. The audience was looking forward to seeing what kind of talented people were going to show up on the stage, and craned their necks forward. While some candidates were trying to convince the audience that they were the best candidates by showing off all their valuable awards, practical experiences, and career goals, other competitors seemed on the edge. The spacious hall was filled with heavy tension throughout the whole process. Voters were either discussing with each other or being amazed by what was showing up on the screen, especially their super high GPAs and abundant past accomplishments.

At the end of the elections, the organizers got feedback based on how the whole election process went. One thing that amazed the public was that even though all the candidates were informed that their presentation could be carried out in either Power Point or video form beforehand, nearly all candidates included both of them during the introduction, which showed that they had all put great effort into their presentation and that they were aware of the importance of the Student Union. This is recognized as a great sign for this year’s SUID’s success.

The results announced a week later didn’t confound the public expectations. Big congratulations to Nancy Gu from 11B who was elected as the new president of the SUID. Compared to other competitors, Nancy, who has been a class monitor for 11 years, is influential, organized, confident, responsible and courageous. She will lead our school towards a more diverse system along with the help of our SUID ministers. Without a doubt, this reveals the trust her classmates put into her. All the students who got elected have a great attitude and are talented in different fields, which means that they can complement each other by cooperating. We hope they will bring striking improvements to our school this school year!

By Alicia