Last Friday, candidates for the junior and senior classes made their respective speeches in front of the student body as they bid for the position of class president. The freshman and sophomore classes made their speeches on Monday. This year’s election will be notedly different from past ones. Instead of voting for a president of the whole school, MBHS students will vote for presidents for their own grades.

Brian Faughnan, head of the student government remarked that the new system has been adopted to disperse responsibility among the classes, and increase involvement from the underclasses. When asked if a hierarchy would be maintained among the presidents of different grades, he said that the presidents will share equal titles, but also that “hopefully upperclassmen will provide guidance to their peers.”

A vast number of candidates have emerged in the student government to fill the newly created positions. For the senior class, incumbent Jacalyn Goldzweig Panitz is running for reelection against Ray-ven Hill, who previously served a term as Class-body President in her freshman year. Hill states that she “wants a system where, as a class, we could have one voice.” She intends to run on a realistic platform, consciously straying away from making promises that cannot be kept. From Panitz, who unsuccessfully strived for a junior trip in her previous term, “I think that we got a lot done last year, but we didn’t finish. I’d like to finish what we started.”

Panitz will not be joined by her former running mate, Vice President Sarah Carrillo. Junior candidate Imani Clement wants to add more JV teams to the school, organize an overnight trip for the junior class, and create a more college-intensive environment for Juniors. Her opponent, Antonio Brewer confidently states, “I’m a good leader, I can lead the class effectively and am qualified to run.”

The election for freshman president is split between three candidates: Stone Herbas, Michelle Rengifo, and Josh Vales. For the sophomore position, the candidates are David Lebron, Ariel Makower, and Tess Aguiar. In the junior election, Antonio Brewer will face off against Imani Clement. The motivations that these hopefuls have for running, and their plans for bettering the school, are varying. Freshman candidate Michelle Rengifo poignantly states in her campaign speech, “the secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

Josh Vales considers himself to be a natural leader, and adds that he “enjoys doing menial work that others don’t have time to do.” Sophomore candidate David Lebron, who ran for treasurer last year, states, “I feel like I owe the school some dedication.” Lebron attempted to transfer out of the school the year before, but was declined.

Regardless of the outcome of these elections, the outpour of school spirit and energy that the candidates have all shown is reflective of a new era at Millennium Brooklyn. With the school seeing for the first time this year its complete student body and the passing of its first graduating class, it can certainly look forward to a more cooperative, engaged and supportive student government.