After understanding the importance and impact of Harriton’s student government this past year, Lorenzo Solon is now running to be your next Student Council President. This year, Lorenzo is the Vice-President of the Ronald McDonald House Charities Club and plays on the baseball team. With a year of student council experience, he brought food for council events, and he sold ads and managed concessions, raffle baskets, and the silent auction for Mr. Harriton.

The Banner was able to speak with presidential candidate Lorenzo Solon about his vision for Harriton in the future, how he plans on implementing his plans, and his involvement in Student Council.

While reading Lorenzo Solon’s responses, keep in mind the duties of the Student Council President:

• Be the spokesperson for Harriton’s student body, inside and outside of school.
• Attend School Board and Student Council meetings.
• Oversee all committee actions and actions of other officers and members.
• Conduct Student Council elections.
• Chair the Student Rights Committee, which acts upon concerns of the student body by proposing policies to the school board and administration.

What initially inspired you to run for president?   

What may be surprising to some people is that this is actually my first year in student council.  I knew that student council existed during my first two years of high school, but I only thought that it dealt with events such as Mr. Harriton, Quidditch, pep rallies, etc. When I joined this year, I realized how important and how much of an impact council actually had within the Harriton community. But my real inspiration to run for president came from Harriton’s student body itself. Through my two and half years at Harriton, I have been very fortunate to meet and work with many unique people with diverse talents, interests and passions. This made me realize how much potential we as a group have, and how much can be accomplished if student at Harriton had their voice heard.

What is your greatest strength as a candidate? What do you have to offer to the student body?

My greatest strength as a candidate is my ability to bring together people of different backgrounds and interests. I believe that this may be the most important quality a student leader must have and will allow for more ideas to be produced and expanded upon. This concept, I think, is what student council is all about – assembling the student body in order to accomplish their goals.

What is your primary goal if elected president?

My primary goal if elected as president is to expand student council’s availability to the student body. I realize that there are many brilliant individuals who are not a part of student council, but that should not affect their overall involvement with the Harriton community. I want to bring the major issues present within our school to the attention of the student body so that they can make their own decisions and provide their own opinions on what the best solution is.

What are your other goals for the upcoming school year and how do you plan on implementing them?

My other goals are based on making small changes within Harriton in order to make it a better place. I truly believe in the saying, “Success is a series of small wins.” So next year, I plan on adding more tables and places to eat around the hallways during lunch and utilizing the TVs around the school for announcements regarding sports events and dismissal times.

These are just a couple of small things that can be changed in Harriton, but small changes build up into bigger, more meaningful transformations. For anybody reading this, if you have any suggestion, idea, or complaint, no matter how small, please email me through my student email and I will respond as soon as possible.

What is your favorite thing about Harriton’s student body?

As a mentioned before, my favorite aspect of Harriton’s student body is incredible diversity that it contains. Everyday as I walk the halls from class to class, I am always astounded at the different people who I pass by. I have a great respect for every single student at Harriton because I know that they have something unique to offer to this school.

What would you do as president in the following situation: inappropriate music comes on the speakers at the end of Mr. Harriton by mistake. How would you deal with this?

The first course of action would be to issue a formal apology to both the audience and the administration because such a mistake would be unacceptable. Next, we would find the source of the mistake whether it is a single student or a lack of communication between the stage crew and officers. Once the problem is found we would give an explanation to the principal and tell the truth about what happened, as open and honest communication is a keystone in any student activity. However, the most important course of action would be to learn from such a mistake and make sure that it would not happen in any future Student Council events. It is very unproductive to dwell on past mistakes, but it is important to learn from them for the future.

What are some challenges that you think you would face as president? How would you deal with those issues?

One major challenge is the fact that Dr. Eveslage will not be our principal next year as he moves up in the district. I know that students and teachers alike loved Dr. Eveslage and his presence will be greatly missed. I think that what he did the best was try and develop a personal relationship with individual students as he would routinely stand at the doors of the school and walk around the lunch room. With Dr. Eveslage gone, there will be a void in the student’s lives. Next year, if I am elected president, I know that it is more important than ever to develop a personal relationship with both the student body and the administration in order to keep communication smooth and efficient.

Voting ends at 2:40 today, April 12.