Dear fellow Evastonians and ETHS students,

I am Carmiya Bady, your new Student Representative. In this letter, I would like to introduce my platform and a little bit of what I am planning to do in the upcoming year.

One of the things I ran on was mental health days for students. Mental health isn’t discussed in the world, especially in schools, as much as it should be, and that needs to be addressed. Students handle a lot more than just homework, and it can completely stress people out. Students, knowing that they have days to recuperate when they are dealing with too much, will be relieved. Another thing I campaigned on was non-academic warm-ups in classes. The transition between two classes can be difficult when a teacher already has a warm-up ready for you to start in the passing period. A lot of the time our minds are stuck in the class before and need a second to adjust; non-academic warms ups at the start of each class will make that possible. The third thing I ran on is racial equity among encouragement and enrollment in Advanced Placement classes. The truth is, we do not have enough people of color in our Advanced Placement classes. We need to put more work and effort into getting students of color in those classes and making sure they have the resources to succeed in them. 

What is a Student Rep? 

You may be asking, what is my job? It differs with every person, but the basic job of the Student Rep is to lead the Student Union and come up with policies to present to the School Board that benefit and enhance the experience of all students. But along with that, I want to do more. I plan to get to know many different student voices and experiences. I plan to put myself in people’s shoes that I might not have considered. I plan to bring voices into this position that have never been heard. The special thing that I am bringing is togetherness. Evanston is a community, and I want to continue to support that. During COVID-19, it is important to maintain that community and support it since we don’t know what is going to happen, but we do know that if we trust the school and give its leaders feedback on how the system has worked and how it can be improved during this pandemic, we are going to be okay. 

Alongside being Student Rep, I am also a performer, an activist and a science geek, and I want people to know that they can email me at any time. I love to converse and just talk with people, but I am most excited about getting the ball rolling by starting with pushing the conversation of mandatory mental health days. I’m so ready for this upcoming year and filling the big shoes that have been laid out by the many prestigious students who did this before me. I can’t wait! 

I hope everyone is safe and well,

Carmiya Bady