Freshman Caucus 25-26 Endorsements

Ella Lee and Richard Lin

DYNAMIC: Having met in the summer before freshman year, the Lee-Lin ticket, composed of freshmen Ella Lee and Richard Lin, demonstrates a great deal of experience and a strong partnership. Both candidates share a mutual commitment to promoting community within the freshman class through different events. The ticket considers itself highly collaborative, valuing open communication and accountability. However, their division of responsibilities remains somewhat undefined, as most of their initiatives are presented as complete joint efforts between the two. They do plan to modify this based on the availability of each person. Lin does have previous experience in student government, having been president of the student union in middle school. The pair has shown their proactiveness and ability to collaborate effectively through their outreach to faculty, guidance counselors, and other student leaders.

PLATFORM: The Lee-Lin platform focuses on easing the transition to Stuyvesant for freshmen and building community throughout the grade through feasible efforts such as by hosting fun events. For example, they intend to collect photos from student submissions or different freshman caucus events, culminating in a scrapbook to make freshman year more memorable for students. They also plan to host different movie night and game night events, which they say are more scarce for freshmen as opposed to the other grades.

The pair aims to ground their platform in feasibility, such as by reaching out to and planning ahead with the guidance office, the main office for their colored printers policy, and cafeteria staff for their lunch menu announcement policy. In addition, their platform hopes to help freshmen learn more about the school and adapt to the Stuyvesant environment by releasing a document with teacher emails and office hours; creating documents for career paths and clubs; and hosting speaker events with upperclassmen.

OVERALL: Overall, the Lee-Lin ticket is highly enthusiastic and focused on the community, with a platform that is both practical and creative. Their willingness to contact staff throughout the school shows an understanding of implementing policies at Stuyvesant. While their individual roles as co-presidents is yet to be specified, they demonstrate a balanced partnership and transparent communication. Thus, The Spectator endorses this ticket.

Avril Wei and Oscar Savonije

DYNAMIC: Freshmen Avril Wei and Oscar Savonije have been close friends since kindergarten, having attended elementary and middle school together. The pair demonstrates passion for caucus, as well as respect and comfort in their communication with each other. They have planned events such as Clash Royale tournaments and possess leadership experience, with Savonije being the president of the pair’s middle school’s student council and both being former captains of sports teams. Savonije describes himself as more introverted than Wei, which may create an imbalanced dynamic between the two. However, their close relationship and leadership experience should balance this out. Further, the ticket emphasized their reliance on managers, if necessary, who they hope will address the diversity of the student body’s needs. 

PLATFORM: Many of the Savonije-Wei ticket’s policies are focused on community-building and schoolwork management. The pair plans to mandate teachers to provide physical copies of homework so that students can complete assignments during free periods. They plan to enforce this through an anonymous teacher complaint form, which may be difficult to get administrative approval. However, the pair has discussed their policies with Stuyvesant staff members, including assistant principals. Further, they hope to add hooks to bathroom stalls throughout the school, which they have talked to custodians about. Savonije-Wei also wants to host events, including more Clash Royale tournaments and water gun fights. Overall, these ideas would be beneficial to the freshman class and are enthusiastically- and well-planned.

OVERALL: With a close relationship, as well as passion and experience for student advocacy, the Savonije-Wei ticket shows promise as successful freshman caucus presidents. Even if there are still opportunities for improvement when it comes to the execution and specificity of policies, the pair has shown communication with Stuyvesant staff and their grade-wide community, as well as specific ideas for what to implement and how to run their campaign. Thus, The Spectator endorses this ticket.

Alexander Sirotkin and Levon Tzvetanov

DYNAMIC: Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin and Levon Tzvetanov became good friends as Speech and Debate partners. Tzvetanov and Sirotkin both have experience in student government: Tzvetanov served as his middle school’s student council president, and Sirotkin served as his middle school’s student council representative. In this dynamic, Tzvetanov’s strength comes from his ability to communicate well with his peers, and Sirotkin prides himself on his dedicated work ethic. 

PLATFORM: The Sirotkin-Tzvetanov platform revolves around making the freshman experience as memorable, enjoyable, and flawless as possible. They hope to create a digital “Freshman Resource Library” that functions as a student run hub with past study guides, notes, and practice quizzes. However, ARIST has created such study guides. The pair lacks originality and feasibility in their policies, since they advocate for additional seating and allowing students to leave during lab free periods, which past caucuses have falsely promised. Additionally, Sirotkin and Tzvetanov strive to bring the freshman class together through monthly “meetups,” inside and outside of the school building. For example, one event idea they have is a scavenger hunt within the Financial District. However, they lack clear implementation plans; they hope to rely on Student Union funding coupled with traditional fundraising ideas like bake sales.

OVERALL: Overall, the ticket’s lack of originality makes them indistinguishable from other running tickets. Moreover, the infeasibility of their plans clouds their goals of easing the transition into Stuyvesant. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket. 

Christie Chan and Sophia Wang 

DYNAMIC: Freshmen Christie Chan and Sophia Wang have known each other since elementary school and share a strong bond, even though they did not attend the same middle school. Both candidates are passionate about making freshman year memorable and connecting students. Wang is outgoing and detail-oriented, while Chan is more reserved.

PLATFORM: The Chan-Wang ticket hopes to host events such as themed movie nights, monthly mental health days, and a freshman dance. They plan to fund these events through bake sales and raffles, though the two do not seem to have an exact plan for fundraising enough money to execute many of their goals. Furthermore, though their ideas were realistic, their plans remained vague. The pair also hope to host a career and opportunity information session for freshmen with Mr. Blumm and create a study-buddy program where freshmen with the same teachers can study together in small groups.

OVERALL: The Chan-Wang ticket is clearly passionate about making freshman year memorable, and their vibrant dynamic promises a good team that will listen to the voice of the student body. They aim to host various seasonal events throughout the year that respond to students’ mental health and relaxation needs. However, Chan and Wang do not have a clear logistical plan for their events, and the funding for these events is overly dependent on bake sales. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket.

Zoelle Luk and Vanessa Chiu

DYNAMIC: Freshmen Zoelle “Zoe” Luk and Vanessa Chiu have a long history together and are good friends. They went to the same middle school, dance together, and have shared many extracurricular activities, including a summer program earlier this year. Their closeness will likely lend itself to their collaboration and their ability to compromise. In their cabinet, they plan to look for responsible leaders and intend to focus on collaboration and teamwork. However, they did not elaborate on how they’d divide individual responsibilities.

PLATFORM: The Chiu-Luk ticket plans to focus on a freshman hangout corner, which would be located on the ninth floor, close to the freshman lockers. The hangout would be stocked with board games or card games as entertainment, given the current phone ban. Their policies also include a freshman yearbook that would feature student-submitted photos and would be similar to the senior yearbook, both in content and in cost. They would collaborate with the Indicator for production. The ticket also mentioned an anonymous mental health check-in survey. Based on the responses, they’d ask the guidance office to plan support events. 

OVERALL: The Chiu-Luk is very community-focused, and both candidates emphasize their ability to juggle extracurriculars with schoolwork. Their main policies are freshman yearbooks, a freshman hangout corner, and a mental health check-in survey. Both candidates demonstrate strong teamwork capabilities and a balanced relationship with each other. The Spectator does not endorse this ticket. 

Zoe Desai and Raya Dana

DYNAMIC: The Desai-Dana ticket, composed of Zoe Desai and Raya Dana, became close friends in middle school upon learning of their similar, future high-school journeys. They are relatively comfortable working together, delegating responsibilities based on strengths (with Desai handling social event logistics and Dana leaning towards a more organizational role), and plan to have a more flexible work schedule, shifting heavier workloads depending on availability and coursework. In terms of experience, Dana has previously worked in student government positions in her old middle school and is now part of Stuyvesant’s Student Union Clubs & Pubs’ department. There are concerns about their schedule—both of them have numerous other commitments outside of school—and Desai’s lack of experience with student government roles. However, they have a strong, balanced dynamic.

PLATFORM: Desai and Dana’s platform revolves around transparency and building community within the freshman class. To do this, they plan to host study groups led by both freshmen and upperclassmen and coordinate alongside the ARISTA EventsCommittee to award service hours, as well as social events for freshmen such as movie nights, sports viewing events, or field-day-esque events in the spring at the pier where freshmen can work together and meet new people. Regarding advertisement, they plan to connect with the student body through their Instagram, morning announcements, and a suggestion box where freshmen can submit concerns. The Desai-Dana ticket focuses on plausible changes rather than promises with no weight and pride themselves on their honesty with the freshman class. However, many of their plans still feel slightly speculative at this stage and have an unclear timeline.

OVERALL: Desai and Dana suggest a transparent and honest freshman caucus that fosters a united community amongst students. Overall, their policies are feasible, although slightly generic and vague. Moreover, there are also concerns about workload due to their other commitments. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket. 

Shompurna Dewanjee and Ashna Khemani

DYNAMIC: Freshmen Shompurna Dewanjee and Ashna Khemani have a solid dynamic, with both of them meeting at the beginning of the year and becoming friends since. With their mutual interest in running for caucus, they decided to team up and take the initiative to make a change within the school. Their strengths as a team include strong communication and having outgoing and approachable personalities. The pair has prior experience in student leadership—Dewanjee has worked as a leader in a tennis club, and Khemani was a part of the student council in middle school for two years.

PLATFORM: One goal of the Dewanjee-Khemani ticket is to address the inaccessibility of AIS and ARISTA. They propose tutoring sessions during free periods, hosted by other students who will receive volunteer hours as an incentive. They hope that this will allow tutoring sessions to be easier to fit into busy schedules. They will also host teacher-led mini lessons to review key concepts before major exams, aiming to provide more help than AIS tutoring can. To address the issue of library overcrowding, they plan to allow supervised access to empty computer labs and classrooms with computer carts. However, these ideas may not be feasible, as they require major teacher involvement without a defined incentive for them.

OVERALL:

While the Dewanjee-Khemani ticket works together well and has interesting ideas, their policies lack concrete details. Some rely heavily on the participation of teachers, who may not be willing to spend extra time outside of their busy work day. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket

Kangsan Dickerson and Jerry Dong 

DYNAMIC: Freshmen Kangsan Dickerson and Jerry Dong met in their AP Biology class and have developed a close relationship that balances optimism and practicality. Both share similar interests in potential events and policies for helping the freshmen body adjust to their first year at Stuyvesant. 

PLATFORM: Dickerson and Dong’s main goal is to improve accessibility and transparency within the Stuyvesant community. They propose ways to help students adjust to the device ban through supervised device-friendly rooms, increasing computer access on every floor, and encouraging more paper-based assignments. They also hope to hold a club food festival, gaming tournaments, and support freshmen through an anonymous hotline. Though these policies and events are optimistic, Dickerson and Dong did not expand much on the logistics or the execution of these ideas.

OVERALL: The Dickerson-Dong ticket shows impressive enthusiasm and understanding of the limitations of a freshmen caucus. They hope to focus on smaller changes with big effects. They aim to prioritize the frustrations of students to create policies such as instrument maintenance and extracurricular accessibility reform. However, many of their policies and events were vague, containing little-to-no descriptions on how their visions would be executed. Other policies are narrowly focused on reforming the club system or are likely infeasible, such as device-friendly rooms and accommodating early arrivals. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket. 

Tsundruk Norbu and Jacobsen Lefluer

DYNAMIC: Freshmen Tsundruk Norbu and Jacobsen Lefluer have a clear idea of what their roles would be as co-presidents, with Norbu working on the more technical aspects, such as running the website, and Lefluer acting as frontman and dealing with student and administrative communication. Norbu is involved with several coding communities at Stuyvesant while Lefluer does Model UN, making this a logical responsibility breakdown. They are friends and seem to have a good working relationship, which would serve them well as presidents.

PLATFORM: The Norbu-Lefluer platform focuses on mental health and connection. They would like to have unused rooms throughout Stuyvesant to be used as “Destress Zones” for students to relax. They also have ideas for a mental health support buddy system, a function that,  while well-intentioned and useful, may already be supplied by the Big Sib program. Using Norbu’s coding experience, they also want to create an AI chatbot specifically aimed at helping Stuyvesant students with their mental health. However, it is worth noting that replacing human connection with AI may be a slightly misguided attempt to help students. Norbu and Lefluer also want to have a school lunch meal plan sent out to students every week with a form to request changes to the menu or new lunch ideas. Further policies would be decided based on communication with the student body, mainly through polling and interviewing. They detailed that these decisions wouldn’t be made solely through majority ruling but would rather take into account diverse student backgrounds and create policies that benefit all.

OVERALL: Although the Norbu-Lefleur campaign offers a genuinely compassionate platform that clearly takes student perception into account, several of their proposals, such as the AI chatbot and the buddy system, seem unfeasible and/or overlap with existing programs in the school. While their intentions are sincere and their desire to listen to the student body is admirable, their plans require further refinement and the practicality of some of their proposals need to be reevaluated. Because of this, The Spectator does not endorse this campaign. 

Peter Skorney and Dongkyu Won

DYNAMIC: The Skorney-Won ticket, composed of freshmen Peter Skorney and Dongkyu Won, brings a close duo with new ideas to the table. The pair met in middle school, where they participated in Model UN together and grew close. Both emphasize their connection to the student body—Skorney through his sociable nature and Won through his networking skills. In regards to how they plan to implement their policies, the pair does not plan to divide up the work and to instead collaborate on feasible, self-sustaining policies. 

PLATFORM: The Skorney-Won platform puts forward a variety of ideas with varying levels of feasibility. Many of their plans build on existing projects in Stuyvesant, including a project similar to BooGrams in which students write encouraging notes to their peers, events like dances and seasonal celebrations with increased visibility, and a website similar to the Stuyvesant Facebook groups where freshmen can anonymously ask and answer questions exclusively to other freshmen. They also proposed some newer ideas, such as creating a stationary bank for students to get items like pencils or rulers if they don’t have one and designating specific classrooms for students to use during their free periods to study. 

OVERALL: Although the Skorney-Won ticket certainly has a strong dynamic and connection to the student body, their policies—while mostly feasible—lack ambition and creativity. Most of the duo’s proposals were undeniably similar to existing projects at Stuyvesant or do not do much to address the concerns that the pair hopes to assuage. Additionally, their plan to delegate responsibilities and acquire the resources for projects is underdeveloped; Stuy Stationary relies on student donations; dances and parties require extensive funding; and their path to this funding was limited to a suggestion of bake sales and ticket pricing. Therefore, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket.