Last Wednesday, Ames High’s student body voted in our next set of co-presidents. Juniors Louis Dupuis, Hangil Lee, and Cheyenne Pritchard beat out also-worthy opponents Sam Ennis & Katrina Henderson and Kevin Babcock & Cody Brown. Our future leaders hope to usher in a new era at Ames High marked by better communication with the staff and lots of new and fun ideas. “We envision an Ames High more connected to Principal Evans,” said future co-president Hangil Lee. “A lot of the students’ and Principal Evans’ desires are overlapping, but a lack of communication often doesn’t make it very apparent. Realizing our agreements will help us settle any disagreements and create a better Ames High.” How do they plan on doing this? You might have missed it while jamming out to “Dynamite,” but they explained this in their campaign video. “Every week student council has an opportunity to talk to Mr. Evans,” said Pritchard. “Next year, we want to give every student that opportunity by allowing students go in with us and talk to him every week.” In addition to helping the school run more smoothly with Mr. Evans, the trio plans to instigate many new ideas to spice up student life at Ames High. With their help, next year we will have music back in the hallways, a junior/senior room to enjoy, and a more exciting courtyard. In addition to these great improvements, however, the group also has plans for a few other small things to make Ames High a little more exciting. Some of these ideas include “a talent show, an opinion box, different flavored crush cans, breakfast bake sales, monthly dance shows, continuing date auctions, court yard lunch-outs or grill outs, and monthly hallway themes,” explained Pritchard. So how did this great trio unite? Lee and Pritchard started thinking about running together as early as last year. “Cheyenne and I started talking about running together last year,” said Lee, “and since Louis had been coming to every student council with me, we thought it’d be fun to run with him too.” They hope that having three people will help them to better cover all the tasks associated with being co-presidents, especially when one of them gets busy. “Having a three person team will help us a lot during times when one of us is tied down,” said Lee. “Cheyenne’s busy schedule in the winter due to basketball also led us to a three person team because winter madness is one of student council’s biggest events.” Because they have three people and because they are ethnically diverse and have a member of both sexes, they believe they are ready to connect with more Ames High students. “Having diverse gender/ethnicity will help us connect to a variety of students,” said Lee. “Although we all stem from the same group of friends, we believe having that diversity will help us reach out to multiple groups.” There can be little doubt that with Dupuis, Lee, and CP on the job, Ames High will be a happier and more welcoming place next year. With many fun ideas to spice up student life and have every student’s voice be heard, the 2012-2013 school year should be one to remember.