i thought after high school i was done with student council elections...

but no. not the case. i often forget that while this is a university setting i'm teaching in, it is set up very similar to a residential high school - we have the same schedule every day, the focus is on teaching study skills and habits, we encourage the students in and out of the classroom constantly, we run extracurriculars aaaand now we have an official student government. which we had elections for tonight.  brought me back to the good 'ole days where elections were held in a huge auditorium, everyone packed in tight, administrators and teachers running around making sure people were quiet and respectful and everything ran on time.  obviously, we held elections on our roof (the only space large enough for all the students, faculty and staff for over an hours), obviously we started 30 minutes late and obviously, we had to stop speeches for about 5 minutes during the call to prayer (did i mention there's a mosque less than a block from us? it took about 2 days to get used to the call to prayer and i usually don't even realize it in the background of everything nowadays).  

it was AMAZING to see the students stand up in front of their faculty, administration and peers and speak to why they should be elected to student government.  not surprisingly, our students have pretty stellar backgrounds - they are the ones who overcame huge obstacles in their home countries and made it to the top of their classes anyways.  it was especially exciting to see some of our students who are less comfortable with speaking english get up amongst girls who have much more experience with english, and they really did a fantastic job.  

there are always the worries about student government being a popularity contest, of course, but with a class of 131 students, they pretty much know everything about each other and that isn't going to change over the next 6 years they study together.  Most candidates made some mention of 'our AUW family' or 'gaining 130 sisters' upon arrival.  really inspiring.   While many of the speeches were: introduction, experience, "vote for me!", a few students were able to identify concerns and issues that the students have - a great sign that they will use the student government ASAP as a sounding board for complaints and a springboard for change.  As we, the teachers, have the most face time with the students, we've been hearing a lot about the problems they're facing...homesickness, inability to call home on a regular basis, the heat (many, like us, aren't used to the pre-monsoon humidity)...and while we're certainly sympathetic ears, the best way for them to learn leadership and problem solving is to lead the initiatives themselves for more computers, more free time, more activities, etc.  

it's rather exciting. hopefully it doesn't interfere too much with their schoolwork?