Voting for the 2024-2025 National Honor Society (NHS) officers kicks off Monday, offering an opportunity for current NHS sophomores or juniors to have their voices heard in shaping the future leadership of the organization.
“This is my first year in NHS and I had fun seeing the campaigning process and am excited to vote for my favorite candidates,” sophomore Rupal Shirpurkar.
The election process begins with candidates submitting applications for one of the six roles available. Three candidates are chosen for the officer positions from this pool of applicants, while six are selected for junior officer roles. Once the candidates are finalized, the campaign period commences, allowing each contender to present their vision and goals for the NHS community.
Since 59% of teens use Instagram according to a Pew Research Center report, social media has been crucial for candidates like junior Ashvita Suresh Kumar, running for NHS president.
“A lot of us [candidates] have social media campaigns where we talk about what we stand for, our goals for NHS as a whole, etc,” Kumar said. “For me, social media has helped promote the bracelets, chocolate, candy, and cookies I’ve been giving out. I’ve also focused on having a more interactive campaign that way voters can learn more about my goals and my events in a fun way.”
For junior Abhi Pasam, competing for the Technology Officer position, his main focus revolves around streamlining processes and enhancing member experience.
“As technology officer my main goals revolve around making the experience for members easier and more efficient,” Pasam said. “First, I plan to revamp the way members check their hours. Right now there is an unintuitive Google Sheet that only allows one member to check their hours at a time. I aim to create a website that allows members to enter their user ID and see how many hours they have and how close they are to the hour requirements. I also plan to create a database of volunteer opportunities from the Remind as it is currently harder to find older volunteering opportunities.
Junior candidate Jennifer Kim running for Communications Director, emphasizes the importance of community engagement and social media presence.
“My campaign goals work to enhance NHS member experience by fostering community and engagement through social media,” Kim said. “This includes collecting feedback to steer towards community needs, utilizing my artistic abilities to produce enriching media, and providing digital coverage of events to excite involvement from current and future members.”
As the campaign period unfolds, candidates like sophomore Ava Clerkin, running for Junior Officer, are eager to increase engagement among members and promote open communication within the organization.
“Some things I would like to implement as a junior officer would be to increase engagement with our members, get people excited about volunteering, and highlight communication between officers and members,” Clerkin said. “I think that it is very important that everyone in NHS has a voice and I would strive to make that happen as a junior officer.”
The candidates for NHS officers are listed below:
President:
- Aashi Oswal
- Nolan Sow
- Ashvita Suresh Kumar
Vice President:
- Amogh Aryan
- Srilasya Kamma
- Michelle Quan
Secretary:
- Veda Mullangi
- Sia Parpelli
- Sheen Saxena
Communications Director:
- Ram Bonthala
- Jennifer Kim
- Krish Pokle
Technology Officer:
- Ishrith Gowda
- Abhineeth Pasam
- Rishub Rathod
Junior Officer
- Ava Clerkin
- Sydnee Fry
- Ramya Hariharan
- Sankeertana Malakapalli
- Aashi Patel
