Student Government Campaigns

Following last week’s Student Government Candidates screening in front of the faculty, on Monday afternoon the entire student body and faculty gathered together in the school assembly hall to hear the candidates publicly campaign for their respective positions in the Student Government.  This was an opportunity for each student candidate to give a speech explaining their reasons for wanting to be elected, as well as take a few questions from their peers.

One by one, each candidate would come up on stage and face their student body, with the faculty watching behind them.  Usually each student would begin their campaign speech by raising their fist and yelling “Determination!” and the student body would follow by yelling back enthusiastically “Is Our Motto!” (Oh, of course I forgot to mention the school motto for Mzumbe is “Determination is our Motto”) Each candidate’s presentation was different, and all of them took their campaign very seriously.  While some were received more enthusiastically than others, each candidate was well prepared and eager and willing to lead their school in any capacity that they could.  You could see the passion that the students had for wanting a responsibility to be a leader in their school.

It was yet another fun and interesting experience to be a part of in my first few weeks at Mzumbe.  I was quite impressed by the level of English that each of the students spoke.  They were all very eloquent and had no trouble speaking in English comfortably.  Also, it was yet another opportunity to hear the views of the students directly and gain an understanding of some of the needs that the school community has.  For me, I was quite interested to hear these points because it gave me a few ideas of how I can personally contribute to the students and the community as a volunteer.  For example, a number of the candidates expressed their disappointment in the operation of the library.  They also mentioned they were hoping to start a school website and also have more opportunities for recreation and sports as well.  These are all areas that I hope that in the near future I can help with.

After today’s general campaign assembly, the students will now vote for their new student body, which will be announced later this week.  It’s been a fascinating process to observe so far, and one that was certainly different from my experience in high school.