On Friday, April 14, Deepti Pillai, ’24, was elected the new student body president for the ’23-’24 school year. After weeks of hard work on her campaign and enormous support from friends, she accomplished a long-held goal. During and after her campaign, she mentioned that she “cried at least twice during the week from joy.”

Already, she is working on making lasting impacts on the school. “One thing that I really specifically want to change is making Student Government a platform that every student can contact if they need support or help starting a club, activity or event,” she said. Another one of her goals as student body president is to advertise Student Government as a group who can be contacted when starting programs, if help is needed.

Because of her long history of being involved in Student Government, Pillai has always felt comfortable conversing with school administrators about a range of issues. This has helped her make strides in issues regarding funding and teacher oversight for school activities, resulting in several successes. However, she is aware that there are still a number of student issues to tackle. For this reason, she wants to make Student Government a platform that students can comfortably reach out to for starting a club or getting support.

Pillai explained, “I wanted to run for president because this position is a culmination of everything I have worked on in high school. I have a really strong dedication to bettering the experience of everyone at MHS, and I think this position puts me in the prime spot to enact change.”

Starting and creating her campaign was one of the most difficult steps to organize. “The process was a ton of work and very tedious, especially for the bracelets. I received a lot of help from friends, which made everything easier, and it was all work I really wanted to do and cared to be doing,” she shared. “My least favorite part was making the beaded bracelets at first, because I could not find letter ‘V’ beads, so I ended up hand painting letter ‘A’ beads upside down to make them ‘V’s. Also, when I was making T-shirts, I had many nightmare encounters with transfer paper.” Despite the challenges along the way, the results were incredibly rewarding in the end.

When planning her campaign, she knew immediately that she wanted her campaign to reflect positivity, inclusivity, happiness and creativity. “I really wanted to give out something that wouldn’t be thrown away quickly and that was unique to only my campaign.”

These values were clearly reflected in the brightly colored bracelets and hand-drawn coloring sheets that Pillai passed out leading up to Election Day, as well as the boards she set up in the Commons each morning for students to share what makes them happy, what inspires them and what their aspirations are. “This piece was pivotal to my campaign, because my goals as president are centered around these three things from every student,” she said.

For Pillai, the entire campaigning process was filled with joy and excitement. “There was this surge of so much happiness and support that I am so lucky to have received. Each day I went through incredible waves of joy and nervousness. I was running against a very kind, qualified opponent which made me relieved knowing that no matter the week’s outcome, a positive leader would be elected for MHS.”

Pillai’s efforts paid off in the end, and she is looking forward to making a true difference next year by approaching student issues with an attitude of positivity, inclusivity and community.

“My goals as president are centered around these three things from every student: [what makes them happy, what inspires them and what their aspirations are].” – Deepti Pillai, ’24