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• Hadia Bilal Ahmad
• (Grade 11) has served as grade 9 rep, Spirit Convenor, and as a consultant for Christmas Show, International Show, and Semi-Formal. Now running for SAC president, she hopes to see greater equality in the school. She plans to try to reduce student stress and place an emphasis on the role of school events in doing so. Hadia also hopes to create more opportunities for freshmen to get involved in MGCI. She would stay connected with the students by working towards having a day event and a suggestion box for SAC.

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• Kristina Akhtari
• (Grade 11) wants to be elected president to plan more events that keep spirit up, like pep rallies. She believes MGCI should embrace the multiculturalism in the school. Her experiences include her current position as Special Events Coordinator and her volunteer work with children and charities. Kristina wants to put herself out there and connect with all students directly since she doesn’t use Facebook. She plans to hold open monthly meetings for the entire school, to hear the suggestions and changes students want.

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• Nabeel Ahsen
• (Grade 11) wants to establish a closer relationship between the administration and SAC, and increase the professionalism between SAC and the student body. He also wants to have a more inclusive environment for SAC. As of now, Nabeel is really involved in the school because of executive positions that he holds. He has served three semesters in SAC, one as grade 10 rep and two as advertising coordinator. Nabeel was employed at a youth program focused on learning. When asked about the opinions of the student body Nabeel said that: “The president is all over the place and the student body needs to reach SAC as much as SAC needs to reach the student body. With people reaching out to SAC you are able to reach everyone whether you know them or not. Everyone comes to you, but I’ll also ask questions.”

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• JiaRui Pu
• (Grade 11) knows there is a major deficiency in communication between student council and the student body, and that the student body has so many great ideas which they express during elections. But if they aren’t elected the ideas go away. Jiarui wants to establish an online suggestion box for students to give in their ideas and then have these ideas read at the weekly student council meetings. Jiarui has been on council for two years as equity rep and external affairs officer. By being the student rep on parent council and the MGCI alumni association, she has also been associated with super council. These organizations have given her a better idea of where she wants the school to go and how to get the student body there. Jiarui believes that SAC is not utilizing the class rep system to its fullest, so she wants have open council meetings so any individual can see what SAC does. Finally, she wants to engage students in more activities by developing events like Homecoming week in which each day is dedicated to welcoming new students and connect the student body.

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• Yanxiu Wu
• (Grade 11) would like to bring up some controversial discussions such as assembly schedules, fixing the bleachers, and continue to invest in new student council initiatives that would benefit the students of MGCI. Being on council for nearly 3 years as junior rep, social justice rep, and VP has given Yanxiu lots of experiences in how to handle committees, participate in discussions, and know what the students want. He knows that students that do want participate in SAC discussions, but it is very difficult for them to make their voice heard. The policies the students want, such as a club focussed balanced budget, need to be pushed. If elected, Yanxiu plans on implementing various infrastructures to increase the interactions between SAC and the student body. Firstly, more meetings with the crucial class reps as well as having some open meetings so that interested students can see how SAC works, so that they can take a more active role in participating in discussions.

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• Vanessa Du
• (Grade 10) wants to enable communication with class reps, create transparency in school decision making processes, bring back assemblies, and increase the deliciousness of the caf food. Her active involvement in the clubs and teams at school, has taught her how to organize, plan, and deliver to the needs of our student body. Events such as the funfair show her willingness to put in the extra mile for results. Communicating with students is vital to ensure that SAC continues to voice their opinions. Maintaining a strong relationship with class reps, improving social media presence, and conducting polls and surveys are ways that Vanessa will reach out to the students of MGCI.

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• Barkhaa Talat
• (Grade 11) wants to make semester positions more useful and further utilize the class reps by updating them each week. By establishing more opportunities for students to get involved with SAC she hopes to involve them more. Barkhaa has held the position of grade 10 rep and was clubs convenor this year. This has taught her how to communicate with people and interact with the students. Barkhaa wants SAC to communicate more with grade reps, and then the grade reps more with the class reps. By communicating with both clubs and class reps, and holding more spirit events she hopes to bring the school closer together.

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• Ahmad Hassan
• (Grade 11) would make separate intramurals for different grades, make them shorter, and have more intramurals geared at the sports students want. Ahmad has been captain of the rugby team for three years, captain of the volleyball team, and also a member of Garneau’s Ultimate team. Being a member of the Marc Garneau Athletic Association, Ahmad has experience organizing intramurals. He wants as many people involved in MGAA as possible.

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• Ferdows Nayimi
• (Grade 11) wants to see more sports available for intramurals and more jerseys for them. He wants to encourage more students to participate in sports teams and intramurals. Being a member of the football and rugby team has given him experience at Garneau, but he also participates in after school sports programs. He would like to use social media to establish a fan page and hold meetings to talk to students to get their opinion on improvements.

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• Michelle Nyamekye
• (Grade 10) would get money for the Athletic Council so that students can have prizes for those people who win tournaments, so that more tournaments could be run. Her involvement with sports is very large as she has made every single sports team she has ever joined. Michelle would get herself out there and talk to students more to find out what sports everybody wants to play, since there is a limited amount of sports that students have tournaments for.

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• Muhammad Farooqui
• (Grade 11) really wants to solve the problems in our school. He believes teachers don’t take enough interested in bullied and stressed students so he’s looking towards making teachers more accessible. He has experience working with the Liberal Party and Kathleen Wynne in two campaigns so he understands the voting and debate process well. Muhammad has worked with our current SAC president, is a member of the Art Council, and is very connected. He will go around the school and connect with people to spread the word that he’s available.

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• Zameer Bharwani
• (Grade 11) had issues finding a staff advisor for his clubs and would like to create a list in which staff advisors are listed. Over the past three years at Garneau, Zameer has started and run six different clubs and teams. This has let him work with several clubs convenors and gain his own experiences simultaneously. He understands the flaws and pros of the current system. To connect with the student body, Zameer would want to be more web-based in which students could access this information at any time of day.

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• Henry He
• (Grade 10) wants to see over 35% Garneau students being part of at least one extracurricular club or team. Being part of a huge variety of clubs from EcoTeam to the Rugby Team, as well as the honour of being the President of his own start-up club YADD Garneau, Henry has a passion for getting involved. He is also the Grade 10 Rep for Semester 2. Henry wants to implement and monitor student involvement with constant communication throughout all channels (Facebook, Twitter, the Reckoner, email) between each of the clubs, students, and SAC, and expand Clubs Council and Clubs Fair. He also wants to coordinate communication between clubs and teachers to facilitate the startup process for new clubs.

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• Kashfi Manji
• (Grade 11) wants to accept all clubs equally and have them extend beyond the school so that they may get recognized for their efforts.He was junior rep in grade 10 and has attended SAC and president’s council meetings. Last year, he was VP for Christmas show which required him to organize meetings and fundraisers. Kashfi will make sure every voice is heard and give priority to clubs by talking to people and working in different areas.

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• Shela Qiu
• (Grade 9) Shela would make sure to have a list of all the clubs at our school so all the students have access to them. She thought of creating a sports tournament for clubs participants so they can connect among the school and connect among themselves as well. Shela has been involved with extra curriculars: she was on every sports team at the school last year and now has club meetings every day of the week. Shela would go out to talk to the students and get to know a lot of people. During club council meetings, Shela would develop contacts so that she could meet the needs of the clubs.

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• Lily Song
• (Grade 9) is the co-president of World Without Worms Garneau and has worked under the SAC executives this past year. She is also in several other clubs, holding executive positions in a number of them. Lily hopes to improve communication between clubs and the students by introducing an events schedule at the beginning of each semester, as well as make it more convenient for students to find out about the different clubs and what they do. She wants to make it easier for students to start their own clubs and help existing clubs become more successful through workshops. Lily plans on improving accessibility through social media: she hopes to keep the clubs site up-to-date and set up a comment system to gather feedback.

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• Gavin Xu
• (Grade 10) wants to promote the smaller and medium clubs of MGCI as well as make the clubs fair a more professional event. As of now he has had lots of experiences working with clubs.Being in so many has inspired him to lead his own club which started in October this year and still runs today. He has also been a class rep. If elected, students would be able to communicate with Gavin either directly or through Facebook page that will post regular updates on events of clubs both big and small.

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• Japhet Elias
• (Grade 11) wants to have more engaging assemblies with more dynamic presentations. By opening up a way of communication for students to talk to, he hopes to find things that aren’t the way they should be. He has now spent 7 years with the Heart and Stroke foundation and volunteered at orphanages which has given him firsthand experience with helping people in need. If elected, Japhet wants to make a website with a poll for students to voice their concerns and establish monthly meetings on improvements to be made.

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• Helen Feng
• (Grade 9) plans to have at least one major awareness event per a semester and she hopes to make everything as fun and interesting as possible. She is currently involved in SAC as grade 9 rep for both semesters and has helped organize the funfair and other equity events. By using the MGCI Facebook page Helen hopes to find the issues and concerns of the students. She wants to increase the activities at Garneau and have class reps bring anonymous ballots with the opinions of the students to SAC meetings.

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• Maria Kashif
• (Grade 10) has a platform in which MGCI has another clothing drive and have a very strong committee with consistent meetings. She also wants to have movie screenings in the library that are focussed on promoting equity, and also celebrate events such as International Day of Peace which leads to a huge event at the end of the year. Maria was grade 9 rep last year, and equity rep this year. She has more ideas and feels that she can do an even better job this year. Maria hopes to use SAC’s Facebook and twitter to really connect with the student body in addition to personal connections.

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• Arora Chen
• (Grade 9) is focused on two policies: Firstly, Arora wants to increase student involvement in the school. She wants to get supercouncil to run meetings in our school so that students can get involved in those. Secondly, Arora wants to improve the t-shirts and apparel. She would do this by having students design logos and then vote online to see what they like. Arora was junior representative for the first semester which means she went to supercouncil meetings with senior executives. She also worked very closely with this year’s external affairs officer during this year so she is familiar with the ordering process. Arora would like to implement a suggestion box system where each month class reps can bring the suggestions to SAC. Arora wants to ensure there is a line of connection between SAC and the students.

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• Rohit Das
• (Grade 11) would give a larger voice to the student body. by creating a suggestion box in which students can put their opinions into them about what they want to improve in school and then passing them onto parent council. In order to communicate the messages of parent council to the student body,and those of the student body to parent council the external affairs officer needs the leadership and people skills, both of which Rohit has. Rohit is also able to manage a schedule in which he can attend parent council meetings. He wants to hold more events that give opportunities for students to input their opinions about what they want to change. As well as have a better relationship with the student body to get the messages out there.

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• Ali Patel
• (Grade 11) wants to find out what merchandise students want so that they can show their Garneau spirit better. As well, he wants to open up some SAC meetings. Ali has experience volunteering with a group of youth in which they were able to participate in open discussion. While there, he was in charge of financing and ordering materials. Ali wants to use various forms of social media to get the opinions of the student body.

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• Uwais Patel
• (Grade 11) wants better SAC sweaters and better apparel. He wants to have more variety sothe student body can be proud of what they wear. Uwais was the treasurer for Christmas Show and has been given the task of designing wristbands and t-shirts. He hopes to gather the student’s ideas through a tumblr so that individuals can anonymously post opinions.

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• Dorothy Qian
• (Grade 9) would like to have a greater transmission of information and increase communication between students and super council. She has experience working with SAC and has also been involved with both parent council and super council. Dorothy wants more information sent out to the students and plans on doing this using social media. As well, she wants to set up polls and forums to gain the opinions of the student body.

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• Derya Kurt
• (Grade 11) was the head chairman for organizing several events at her previous school. Now she is running for Grad Convenor and hopes to hold meetings with class reps so that the opinions of their classes is heard. As well, Derya would go around school to get ideas from the student body to ensure that prom is an event everyone remembers with enjoyment.

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• Faria Abedin
• (Grade 11) is very focused on student involvement and wants to make sure that not only people in prom committee are involved in fundraising. Faria had a club called the Tom’s Club that involves donating shoes to people which gave her experience organizing. Her first and foremost responsibility would be to do surveys and talking to people up front. By doing this, she hopes to gain a better understanding of what the students would like to see in their prom.

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• Mariam Sheikh
• (Grade 11) wants to make prom more convenient to everyone by reducing the price to $80 or less. She hopes to accomplish this through a capable committee and several fundraisers. Mariam has been on the Christmas show committee and in the Greenhouse Club which has helped her teamwork skills. Through a Facebook page, Mariam would determine themes and actively spread the word.

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• Nehemiah Yordanos
• (Grade 11) wants to ensure that graduation and prom are a lot of fun. Being a team captain and avid sports player, Nehemiah is used to giving people positions and working together as a team to get things done. He hopes to use these skills for fundraising and ensuring prom is at the best location possible and ticket prices are reasonable. When asked about getting opinions from the student body, Nehemiah said: “In order for [prom] to be successful you need to get input from the people who will be attending, that’s the only way it will really be great.”

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• Jaffer Bakhari
• (Grade 11) wants to host an end of school dance for students to let out stress before exams. He hopes to talk to everyone about these dances both before and after to gain their opinions. Since he’s helped out with semiformal in the past, Jaffer has experience with organizing. He wants to use Facebook to gain song requests and any dance ideas.

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• Tracey Frimpong
• (Grade 11) wants to have more dances over all while getting students’ voices into it and meeting with people. She has many connections with venue managers and DJs and has hosted many parties with city of Toronto Parks and Recreation, the OSC, and been to many club venues. Tracey plans on making a Facebook page where students can put suggestions and ask questions. She knows that it’s difficult to get a dance every month because of fundraising and planning, but wants to determine what students specifically want, by incorporating an “ask” box.

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• Merve Kolcak
• (Grade 11) volunteered with Walk of Life and participated in Sharp, an acceptance program. She hopes to make Garneau a more welcoming space for students, and plans to introduce classroom suggestion boxes to keep in touch with student opinions.

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• Maheen Sani (Grade 11) wants to ensure that the whole school is aware of what’s happening around in the world. Maheen lives by three words: knowledge, compassion, and action. If elected Social Justice Rep, she hopes to call in guest speakers to raise awareness. Maheen wants to partner with the Equity Rep to create even more events for the student body.

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• Vicky Xu (Grade 9) would like to get the school more involved. She would like see an annual student letter writing campaign to voice our opinions to the government. Vicky said that: “If students get the opportunity to interact more with their peers and work together to achieve social justice, our school would be an even more amazing place.” She wants to form a spot in which students can just voice their concerns about what students can do to change our school. One of the ways she would do this is by setting up a suggestion box in the galleria.

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• Freshtah Akbari
• (Grade 11) wants to increase excitement and encourage committee members to work their hardest. She hopes to have a sold-out show once again. She was vice president of International Show committee and a class rep for 3 years at MGCI. Since the strike made it difficult to communicate with students, Freshtah would constantly promote and communicate with members of SAC and the student body. Three months prior to the show, she began to make herself available for questions and comments in the SAC office.

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• Laxcika Satkunalingam
• (Grade 11) wants to create an international show committee where opinions of various cultures at MGCI can be expressed. By starting the committee meetings at the beginning of the year to allocate sufficient time for the April show she hopes to streamline the process and pull off an even more successful show. Being part of the Christmas Show, Greenhouse Club, and serving as an alternative class rep for Grade 9 has given Laxcika the experience with SAC and organization. She would be sure to attend all meetings, update all members of her committee with contents of SAC meeting, and ensure that everyone is aware of what is going on both inside and outside her committee.

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• Khadija Aziz
• (Grade 11) is president of Art Council, helped with Mental Health Awareness Week, and is otherwise very involved with students and in clubs. If elected Spirit Convenor, Khadija wants spirit going all year round and to plan more than just three spirit events. She hopes to change the perspective of the students and utilize current resources more, such as the SAC Facebook page (with photo albums and posts) and the SAC bulletin to keep engaged.

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• Mahad Khoker
• (Grade 10) wants more outdoor activities to encourage MGCI’s school spirit, he also wants to introduce themes of the month as an ongoing events. Students that best honour the theme would receive prizes. Mahad has worked on Christmas show committee which has given him experience organizing. He really wants to utilize social media as a means to connect with students in a two-way fashion.

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• Vithusan Ravikumar
• (Grade 11) wants to get as many people as he can involved in the spirit events at school. Last year, he participated at the Christmas show and has organized a similar production at church. Vithusan wants to use surveys and visit classes to learn what holiday shows and spirit events the students want.

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• Farzeen Saleheen
• (Grade 11) wants to make sure that the clubs get the money they require and everything is balanced out so that when it comes to the point where they’re managing events, there is no rush. Farzeen has experience with accounting and has worked over the summer at the Women’s College hospital and dealt with their fundraising. By dealing with the special events convenor and other SAC members, Farzeen wants to use their experience hosting events to learn more about expected costs.

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• Jerry Wu
• (Grade 11) has really focused on increasing club funding and other social activities like the spirit day carnival. Next year, he wants to create a treasury council which will allow treasurers to access the information more easily and give them fundraising ideas. Jerry is running for this position again because he is very enthusiastic about his job. He doesn’t see this position as a lot of work because of his involvement with math and financial activities. By creating a new initiative known as student council budget consultation, Jerry hopes to gather opinions of the student body. As well, he wants to streamline the process for treasurers to access money for their clubs and do their jobs better.

Photos by Lily Song and Sabrina Bertsch.

Layout by Quincy Lam.