Meet The Candidates: Prospective Student Representatives Make Their Case

With the election for Student Council and class representatives for the 2018-2019 school year quickly approaching, all the candidates running for office met in Panther Square during both lunches today, Apr. 4, to campaign for the election tomorrow. The candidates handed out candy, food and stickers and encouraged many of their fellow classmates to vote for them. They spoke about about their platforms, ideas, and why they felt they were qualified to represent the student body. Here is what they had to say:

Jonathan Chen:

Student Council President

I ran my campaign by emphasizing my credibility and experience as President for the past three years.  This school is my biggest source of pride and for the past three years I’ve been training for this moment to be Student Council President and it means the world to me. People should vote for me because I’ve trained under Ms. Valero and Ms. mallard for the past three years and I already know the activities office inside out and I’ve helped planned the junior events so I know everything inside out and I will make our senior year the best out of every senior year

Joe Largo:

Student Council President

My biggest thing was reaching out to everyone and making sure they know who I am so that they are not voting for a random person and they know that they have someone up top that they are familiar with and feel comfortable with.. People should vote for me because I am all about Palmetto. I go to every event. I was in Mr. Panther, and I just feel like they should have a person up top that they can relate to and will treat them as nicely and openly as I will.

Ben Spiegelman:

Student Council President

My campaign has been based around reaching out to all different grades and making sure that voters realize that I’m a qualified candidate, with three years of student council experience. I’m running because I feel I have the qualifications to better the school. I want to lead this school to a successful school year. People should vote for me because I am outgoing, determined and I’m ready to get things done.

Milena Van Der Reis:

Student Council President

Having served on Student Council since freshman year, I have a profound understanding of the commitment and responsibilities associated with this position. As Special Events Chair this year, I am confident that I have mastered the communication and collaboration skills that are essential to succeed as your President. If elected, I promise to ​forward the students’ valuable​ ​feedback, suggestions and​ ​ideas to our school administration. My primary goal as President is to cultivate a safe learning environment. I would also like to bring a new energy to our pep rallies and enhance our school pride at sporting events.

John Whiting:

Student Council President

For my campaign, I asked my friends to spread the word that I was running and to vote for me and I also posted some videos and pictures on my social media too. I am running because I want to bring all the classes together and unite them because we are all too separate and we should be a whole rather than individual classes. People should vote for me because I am a legacy, I am qualified, I am fun and know how to connect and relate to people and I think that if people voted for me we could have a really fun last year at Palmetto.

Ross Ladis:

Student Council Vice President (running unapposed)

Caroline Bayer:

Student Council Secretary

I am running for 2018 Student Council Secretary. If I were elected, I would make the newsletter in the start of the year with club information as clear and innovative as possible to invite more students to join the clubs at our school. Part of my campaign is also taking accurate minutes for the student council monthly reports and helping create the agendas for student council. I would like to make dates and schedules as clear as possible for students in Student Council and others who may be attending student council meetings but are not on the board or in Senate. I would also like to help other students who have questions about Student Council while making sure it runs with technical responsibilities.

Melody Rizzo (not pictured):

Student Council Secretary

My platform is based on getting the school more involved in student council even though all the meetings are open to everyone, I don’t think enough people are aware of that and it is really important that more people get involved especially with everything that has been going on in school, students should definitely have a voice and express how they can better this school because this school is awesome and is a support place. Vote for me because I will appreciate my position and secretary is all about staying organized and managing your time and I think I’m very good at that so I hope people will acknowledge that.

Ben Almirall:

Senior Class President

Simply put, I feel like our past candidates have not been putting Palmetto first. I want to unite all the students and have them all together. I also want to organize different events and activities outside of school and the agenda to connect all the people. People should vote for me because I think I can do a great job as President.

Mia Zaldivar:

Senior Class President

For my campaign and my platform, I really tried to get votes and reach out to kids from all the classes and not only get their votes but also try and connect with them and make new friends. I made shirts that said ‘Vote For Mia” and have been handing out stickers all week too. I think people should vote for me because I’m an organized, disciplined, hard working person and I also am already very involved in student council and the school and have a lot of love for Palmetto and want to make my classes senior year the best it can be.

Joey Kravetz:

Senior Class Vice President

I plan on bettering spirit week more games more competition because spirit week isn’t very fun right now. There is not a lot of competition in any nature whatsoever so I will improve that. People should vote for me because I’m fun, I’m new, I like to keep things real but I also like to have a good time.

Justin Saruski:

Senior Class Vice President

For my campaign, I have been using these stickers that I’ve made and I think it is a very good platform to spread the word. I’ve also posted on social media like Snapchat and Instagram and I think that was also a big help. If I get elected I plan on making senior year the best it can be. I want to make pep rallies more fun, the events to be slightly cheaper to help the students who can’t afford it and just ultimately make things more fun. Like I l said, I want to make senior year the best it can be for everyone;it is our last year here and I feel like if I was part of student council, I could make it amazing.

Sam Zimelman:

Senior Class Secretary

Basically what I’m gonna do is make the events super fun. I’m planning them with Mallard and Valero and the events are gonna be less expensive, more fun, off the books, and it’s gonna be really sweet. People should vote for me because I’m a people person, I connect with everyone, I have experience with everyone who’s running, I know a lot of people.

Kara Toister:

Senior Class Secretary

I’ve been having my friends campaign for me and posting things on Instagram. I want to work with the President and Vice President and make new, fun, traditions for the senior class that haven’t happened before. People should vote for me because I’m super dedicated and I’ve been on student council for the past three years and I always help plan homecoming and other things.

Christian Kanzki:

Junior Class President

Well, I actually have to reach out to a third party group, people who don’t usually vote, I have friends who sit in the crowd, do their work, but don’t necesarilly  know how to vote, so I plan to reach out to them, get more voters, and use that to win the poll. People should vote for me because people always say they want to bridge the gap between student council but they never say how. There are tons of people who don’t even know how to sign up for the club and I want to be the one to go up to them as a friend and help them out and see what they think because a lot of them don’t even go to the student council meetings so I want to be the one to do that.

Michael Milian:

Junior Class President

Well I’m running for re-election with my current vice president Evan Golinsky; we’re going to try to keep things rolling how they’re rolling because things are going pretty good and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. People should vote for me because I think I’m the most experience candidate and I like to be active in the school.

Mariana Gama (not pictured):

Junior Class Vice President

My slogan is “Step up your Gama” because Gama is my last name and people should step up their game. My campaign is basically that I want to make the class different because we don’t have a lot of activities, we haven’t had a lot of fundraisers this year, so I want to change that and I want to change the way we manage our fundraising. People should vote for me because I want to have a fundraiser each month, I’m very friendly, I care a lot about this school and am very passionate  and I feel like we are very divided and we need to unite more.

Evan Golinsky:

Junior Class Vice President

I am going to raise a lot of money for the school, as I already have since I’m the current Vice President of Sophomore class and I’m going to make our school safer. I’m running because I love to win. People should vote for me because I’m the best candidate and the current Vice President already.

Vincent Li:

Junior Class Vice President

My platform is to resist the administration’s attempts to attack students because the administration is currently not doing very good things. For example, they spend more time targeting students who are late by a couple minutes rather than targeting bullies. People should vote for me because I’m the only qualified candidate.

Mazen Selim:

Junior Class Vice President

Well since I’m Vice President I’d have to help the President so I’d try to organize fundraisers, since our class is very poor right now, and talk to teachers to give extra credit for it to encourage people to actually go out and support their class. I would try to get the class more involved either by more open student council meetings or just by asking their opinions. People should vote for me for those reasons.

Nicolas Arbelaez:

Junior Class Secretary

My platform is all about raising money for our class and helping the school. I want to get students more involved in the fundraisers and make them realize that if we want to have a good, fun senior year we need to start getting money now. People should vote for me because I think I’d do a good job and accomplish all the things I want to for my class.

Makenzie Farkas:

Junior Class Secretary

This would be my second year as Secretary and I just really want to help keep our class on track and make new things so we can have an amazing senior year. I think people should vote for me because I’m really organized and I can keep everyone on track. I’m very good at streamlining conversations and getting stuff done.

Michael Salmon:

Junior Class Secretary

As my campaign, I’m focusing on my plan to make a lot of money for the school and for the current Sophomore. I’m running because I hope to raise money for our class so we can have a great senior year. People should vote for me because I’m a G.

Antonella Paz:

Sophomore Class Secretary

For my campaign I really just want to show that I’m relatable to the students so I put ugly pictures of myself on the poster and I’m just trying to be very relatable. I talk to my voters to try and get to know them because I don’t want to seem like I’m above them I want to seem like I’m a normal student and I like to listen to their opinions too. I’m sophomore class president now and if I’m re-elected there’s a lot of stuff I would like to do, because I’ve been through a very hard year myself, so I would like to help others students who are going through hard times with confidence and depression because I’ve struggled with that. People should vote for me because I’m relatable.

Jesse Weingarden:

Sophomore Class President

My campaign is all about, if you don’t vote for me, then you’re not doing the right thing. Basically I’m trying to beat out the former president, I feel like I could be best for student council, I was in it this year on the senate, and I feel like I’m prepared for the job. I think people should vote for me because I possess some great leadership qualities and I feel like I connect with the rest of student council very well.

Ethan Josefsberg:

Sophomore Class Vice President

I am running because I want to win and I think that I can do a lot of good things for student council, the school, and for our graduate class. People should vote for me because I’ll work hard, put on fun events, try to raise money, make prices lower, and all that stuff.

Shayna Lehman:

Sophomore Class Vice President:

I consider myself to be a friendly person, in a non self-centered way, so for my campaign I’m  just trying to talk to freshman that I don’t know, faces that I don’t know in my freshman class, and try to get them to know me and know that I really care about this program and that I would love to do it again, because I was Freshman Vice President, and I like to get the word out to people through social media and some videos and stuff. I think you should do what you feel is right, but if you were to vote for me I think that I could do much more than what I did this year and because I genuinely am so passionate about this and it’s not because I want the credit or the title it’s because I genuinely love it and I really want to get the student body involved.

Andres Laventman:

Sophomore Class Vice President:

Well my slogan is “The Laventman who Mexican” because my last name is Laventman and I’m from Mexico. I plan on bringing back the school store, I want better security in the school, I want to make social clubs outside of school, open the library up after school so people can study openly and essentially just convince people to come to Student Council meetings and voice their opinions because I don’t think they’re being voiced correctly.

Sam Berlan:

Sophomore Class Secretary

So my campaign is “Donut miss out, vote for Sam without a doubt.” I chose that because it’s happy and very relatable, I mean who doesn’t like donuts, and i feel like it’s something to bring freshman in and I really just want to help everyone out next year and get people involved because I feel like the student council is so limited and i feel like we could really include more students. People should vote for me because I want everyone to be involved, I want to help anyone when they every have problems, and I just really want to make sure everyone feels involved and knows they have someone to talk to in school and want to help organize the program as Secretary.

David Spiegelman:

Sophomore Class Secretary

My campaign is going pretty well. I’m getting the people who I don’t talk to a lot to vote for me. I’m running because it looks really good for college and I want to have a good leadership position. People should vote for me because I’m the best candidate for the job.

Dylan Goldstein (pictured with Shayna):

Sophomore Class Secretary

My campaign is “Another One.” I feel if it is not broken, don’t fix it. I would like to maintain the the momentum from the great freshman class that we have brought to Palmetto.
am running in order to continue to serve my students and make Palmetto the best school it can be.

I have helped lead the freshman to a very successful year and I have the experience to do the same in my sophomore year.

Sofia Vinueza:

Sophomore Class Secretary

I’m running because I think it’s a great opportunity for me to get everyone in my grade involved more and I think people should vote for me because i’m organized and I feel that i’m good at making sure we would get things done.