While it is the end of a school year, including finals and graduation, a new leaf is also being turned over with a fresh set of student government positions at Hickman. This includes president, vice president, secretary and for the first time, historian.
Abdulrahmon Adekunle:
Next year’s president will be Abdulrahmon Adekunle (11).
“It felt really good and really accomplishing to win. I felt like I proved not only to myself, but also to others, that this was something that I truly cared about. My passion to run for president [was to] actually help make change because I just felt like Hickman had been lacking so much,” Abdulrahmon said.
Abdulrahmon’s sister Rahmat Adekunle was president during the 2023-2024 school year. She inspired his run this year.
“I have been wanting to run for president since eighth grade, when my sister was elected, and I started sort of working with her,” Abdulrahmon said.
Abdulrahmon’s campaign was different from other strategies, as he used trending videos of his friends and other students through social media to appeal to the student body and gain momentum.
“I also kind of spent that day calling and texting everyone I knew, asking when they’d be free, if they could do this…It took a lot of planning and scheduling, because I needed to get multiple people,” Abdulrahmon said.
Following his win, Abdulrahmon and his vice president, Jackson Gooch (11), have already mapped out goals for next year.
“Me and Jackson [are] staying true to our promise that we really want to increase student involvement. We are going to middle schools to extend the opportunity to incoming freshmen who struggle to have positions on student government, to give them the opportunity to sign up to be on subcommittees now, which is something we’ve never done before,” Abdulrahmon said.
While Abdulrahmon was excited to receive the honor of this position, he also respected the other candidates who ran against him.
“I think one thing that I could say is I believe that everyone who campaigned tried their best, and I deeply respect the other candidates, and not just people running for president and vice president, but historian and secretary as well,” Abdulrahmon said.
Jackson Gooch:
Running alongside Abdulrahmon, Jackson Gooch will be the vice president for the 2025-2026 school year.
Gooch felt the win was a positive experience, “[I feel] really good and accomplished, and I think, well deserved.”
Jackson and Abdulrahmon ran as a team. According to Jackson, Abdulrahmon asked him to run together in February.
“Then we did a lot of prepping with asking people if they want[ed] to be in the videos. And we spent a lot of time editing and getting people on board and making the T-shirts,” Jackson said.
Jackson said he is a likable guy and has a lot of connections to students and teachers who helped him campaign.
“We talked to a lot of different teachers, and a lot of teachers [put] posters in the classrooms,” Jackson said.
Jackson felt it was important to get the word out about his campaign for a turnout in his favor. He also explained that he and Abdulrahmon have lots of plans lined up for next year at Hickman.
“We talked to a lot of different clubs, and then fundraising with a bunch of different organizations,” Jackson said.
Lynn Yoon:
For the first time, Hickman now has the position of historian. This position will be filled by Lynn Yoon (10).
“I just wanted to help the school, and this year, historian was a new position that got made. And so I was also interested in running social media. And I thought it would be interesting,” Lynn said.
This was Lynn’s first year in student government at Hickman, but she explained she has prior experience.
“This is my first year, but also in middle school, I was in student council…in Korea,” Lynn said.
She used this prior knowledge to get ahead of the game on campaigning.
“I think my strategies were just [that] I made posters, kind of like before everybody made posters and just started putting them up as soon as we’re able to. And I also made a social media account,” Lynn said.
Lynn wants to set a good foundation and example as the first historian for historians in the future to follow.
“Since it’s a new position, though, I want to give a solid, good start of historian, and just want to make sure people around the school know what’s happening,” Lynn said.
Esupat Mollel:
In the 2024-2025 school year, Esupat (Esu) Mollel (11) ran for secretary, but unfortunately didn’t win. This year, she decided to run again and was successful.
“I ran last year, and I sadly lost, but I really do care about the student body. I see ways [to improve] the school that I think the leadership roles people have, right now, have not been able to,” Esu said.
Esu has high aspirations for the future at Hickman.
“I think that I want to take what I have learned over the years to help students and improve the way that they perceive school,” Esu said.
Since she has been a part of student government before, she has taken note of what she wants to see next year, including a “Powder Puff” game.
“I have been talking to a lot of admin already, and I went to districts and state for student council, and I’ve talked to them about how they set it up and want to get student engagement to create it,” Esu said.
Esu is happy with the results of the winning candidates and is excited to work with Abdulrahmon.
“I love the other candidates too, but I would work better with Rahmon, because he has really good ideas,” Esu said.
