SLAS Times 2016/2017 Fall 2016 | Page 21

SLAS’S FIRST BEAUTY PAGEANT BY JENNIFER JIANG The Student Council at SLAS holds many annual fundraising activities to collect money for setting up activities such as prom and fun afterschool events that benefit the students. From past precedents, this year students expect the Student Council to prepare lots of fundraising campaigns through sales. However this time, instead of facilitating only the conventional method of selling, the Student Council initiated SLAS’s first male beauty pageant with three candidates running against each other to determine who was the most attractive. Jerry Wang, the president of Student Council, explained his motive for holding the contest, “The remaining funds for Student Council are short this year. Thus we will have to come up with new fundraising ideas to increase our funds. The beauty contest is pretty much the first idea we thought about because the money we make from it will count as our net profit. I also joined the contest as a competitor myself because I know someone must take the risks and represent the whole group for this beauty contest to work. And as the president, I am willing to be the first one to take it on.” The three participants for the beauty pageant are Florian Wadley, Alex Fang, and Jerry Wang, all of whom are officers for the Student Council. Students will be able to purchase tickets to vote for the most handsome candidate, in their opinion, during Wildcat time and lunch time. The votes will be collected and counted after the national holiday in October, after which the results will be announced when students return from holiday. In addition, rather than giving out awards to celebrate the winner, the Student Council will impose a harsh punishment on the losers instead: they will have their heads shaven in front of the entire school community on campus! “I don’t think the punishments are entirely fair for the losers,” argued Howard Yan, an eleventh grade student in SLAS. He continued to say, “this punishment causes too much of a long-lasting alteration on the physical appearance of the losers in the contest. I don’t think anyone wants to shave their head for a few hundred RMBs.” In addition, Howard added, “I didn’t want join the pageant as a candidate for the same reasons. I am afraid to have such a huge alteration on my physical appearance in school. Therefore, I am very surprised that the Student Council officers actually agreed to join the pageant and I truly admire their bravery to take on the punishments.” Student Council at SLAS is really working hard this year to meet the students’ needs and fulfill their goals. The beauty pageant thoroughly demonstrated the dedication of the officers of Student Council to the student body at SLAS as the candidates are willing to risk their well-constructed social image for fundraising. We must admire the bravery and spirit of the candidates and how they sincerely embraced SLAS’s core values. As a result, let’s participate in the beauty pageant by purchasing votes actively and supporting the Student Council to complete their goals successfully this school year! 21