Overview

The role of class historian holds a major responsibility for capturing all the memories from the year. The historian will do so by providing future classes of South with a record of the 2024-2025 school year through a series of photos and videos. This year, the elections are particularly important since South will be reaching its 20th anniversary – a very special milestone.  The Class of 2026 is presently running a tight race between four candidates, who are vying for the currently empty seat: Lilah Dingas, Mahnsimran Dhankhar, Gavin Byruch, and Avneesh Purswani. 

Gavin Byruch:

Gavin Byruch is an experienced leader with a great appreciation not just for South, but the people in it. He was Chieftain Choir Officer at his middle school, which created close relationships between him and his peers. Now, Byruch is prepared for the role of junior class historian and to make it a fun year at South.

“CB South is a great environment with great people and to be able to keep track of the success would be an honor,” said Byruch.

One of his main concerns is making South a united community and creating less separation between “friend groups.” In continuation, he hopes for students from both Unami and Tamanend to be fully introduced and get to know each other. 

Byruch has acknowledged the need at South to reform and improve pep rallies. They can take a long time to set up and there is a general lack of enthusiasm and engagement seen in the students.

“Pep rallies can be a hassle sometimes with loading the students and then it not being that fun anyway. I would like that level of fun to grow as our time at South shortens,” Byruch said.

Byruch offers potential for a fun junior year where respect and support can grow amongst the Class of 2026. He aims to foster this kind of friendly environment in the 2024-2025 school year.

Byruch states, “I don’t care if you have eyeballs for ears or feet for hands. If you are a CB South student you have my respect.”

Lilah Dingas:

Lilah Dingas is an approachable and outgoing member of the South community. This is her first involvement with student council, but she has been an active member of the community through her experiences volunteering at a preschool. Through her run for class historian, she hopes to boost school spirit and get the student body involved around the school.

Dingas aims to get the Class of 2026 more invested in events around the school.

“I feel like nobody’s going to anything. I feel like that should change,” Dingas reflected. “Even Black vs. Blue, which is really fun, but nobody really went.”

Consequently, Dingas has no shortage of ideas on how to increase involvement. First, she wants to make use of both disposable and digital cameras to capture all the memories, moments, and excitement of junior year. Her biggest plan, however, is a time capsule to “capture junior and senior year and look back on everything.”

This is a very popular method for class historians, including at CB South. In the past, South class historians have been known for making photo collages and mementos with disposable cameras.

Dingas describes herself as a team player, and believes her friendly personality will be an asset to her campaign and assist her in raising school spirit.

“I’m very outgoing and am easy to talk to. I don’t mind talking to people I don’t know for the first time,” stated Dingas.

Mahnsimran Dhankhar:

Mahnsimran Dhankar is experienced in leadership both in student council and as the National Junior Honor Society secretary in her freshman year. As secretary, she was tasked with helping members navigate National Junior Honor Society and with delivering a speech at the induction ceremony. As junior class historian, she is looking to have as many fun events as possible and ensure student participation.

Dhankar sees the lack of involvement in South, how students rarely come to school functions, and she would like that to change. 

“Other events like the Winter Dance got cancelled because people didn’t sign up and I think that was an issue of not knowing. Not many people knew about it,” Dhankar commented.

She has pointed out activities from this year which went unnoticed and without a large turnout, including the Winter Dance, Black vs. Blue, and pep rallies. However, Dhankar has a solution in mind for this problem: she believes that if student council works to increase advertising, the student participation will grow. Student council has made advertising efforts in the past with posts and stories on Instagram, but Dhankar acknowledges that the minimal amounts of advertising for important events needs to change so student awareness of events can grow.

Dhankar also has her own ideas to introduce to South. One that she proposed is the possibility of organized activities open to students at Lunch and Learn. She feels this would be an effective way to “get students’ minds off school.” She feels that preserving South’s old traditions and developing new ones will make it feel more connected.

“There’s a lot of different sides to the school, which are all really great,” she explained. “If we were to connect all these groups we would have a more united school.”

Evidently, school spirit and involvement are important values to Dhankar. As historian for the Class of 2026, she would be focused on drawing students into events and making the year memorable.

Avneesh Purswani:

Avneesh (Neesh) Purswani is a former Representative on the Unami Student Council, and he is prepared to begin building is repertoire at South with a potential position on the student council as the historian. While he has not held additional leadership positions at South, he is also involved in DECA, the Computer Honor Society, STEM Club, and Research Club.  

Purswani has entered the historian race because it is currently an empty seat, granting him an opportunity to enter the student council without facing an incumbent competitor. He also sees it as an opportunity at bringing people together, as he believes the photos the historian will collect can allow for reflection on the highs and lows of the school year.

“It’s a new role, and at the end of the year I think it’ll bring us together as a whole…, seeing all our pictures through the good and the bad…I think it will really bring us all together,” Purswani said.

When asked about his ideas for change at South, Purswani stated that he would like to see more events that can tap into every group of students. However, he quickly turned to reemphasize his plan to be very focused on documenting the year, fulfilling the responsibilities of a historian. He has also promised to take a lot of pictures at school events and present a student’s point of view in his photographs. He emphasized his priority of using these images to bring people together and cited them as a means of deciding what can be improved at South.

In addition, he has also described himself as a very social person, and he views that quality as an asset to getting people involved with student council activities. 

“The whole point of historian is to document the year, and I feel like I’d be really good at that,” Purswani added.

Purswani has had a slow start to his campaign and has not released any formal advertising posters. However, he recently joined Yash Rajapathak and Shreyas Raju in campaigning for historian alongside their campaigns. While group campaigns are not usually permitted, the team of candidates have notably gained a decent following as a result of their efforts. It has yet to be seen whether that will be the deciding factor during Monday’s election.