By: Sarah Sheinker, Staff Writer
After voting for the SMOB in April have you ever wondered what they actually end up doing? Ambika Siddabathula, our newly elected 2018-2019 Student Member of the Board, has been working endlessly to ensure a great year and a positive student influenced future, for Howard County.
Ambika first decided to run for SMOB when she was in middle school and the current SMOB had asked her what she would like to see changed. She told the SMOB something along the lines of school start timings while thinking to herself “This is a joke, you guys aren’t going to do anything I tell you”.
Two years later the issue came up for review and she realized maybe something she had said made an impact. She knew that if she could just “Encourage more students to have their voices heard and advocate for what they want” change would actually happen. Ambika started with her SMOB campaign.
The position of SMOB is voted on by students from 6th to 11th grade. The only part of the election process students see is the televised question and answer session, but there is a lot more that goes on that we don’t see. This year was different than those in the past and gives more opportunity for student input. There was a 132 delegate convention, along with 6 or 7 candidates who wanted the position. From there, only 2 candidates would be nominated and go to the final election.
Ambika’s platform has three main objectives, representation, communication, and implementation. For representation, Ambika wants to show the diversity in decision making. This means everyone would have a voice, instead of only students in leadership clubs and organizations. For communication, Ambika understands that what the board believes is often different from students’ views, which creates distrust of the school board among students. Ambika wants to make sure that everything flows through the three levels of board of education, to administration, and finally students. Finally, for implementation, Ambika wants to educate the students about how the implementation process works and how the school board works to get policies implemented.
The day that Ambika found out the results she was bombarded with support from family and friends. Prior to this glorious moment, she was so nervous and excited, she said: “I was in the media center during hawk time, and they were voting, and I was hiding under the desk so no one saw me…”.
As SMOB, Amika has many responsibilities such as voting on policies and different issues. However, she can’t vote on budget, personnel, and lunch. She researches on what’s going on around the county. Her goals for the end of her term are vast. She wants to create a student council to represent a diverse spectrum of people, have videos made that educate the students about policies and the Board of Education. “I come in every meeting and I’m a little nervous because I’m the only student there but they always make me feel like family, and they always make sure I’m well accommodated for…”. Ambika speaks very highly of the board and she always feels respected and welcomed when in meetings.
Ambika wants to make an impact on HCPSS and all its students. Encouraging even one student to come forward and speak their voice would be a success. Her goal is to empower people and make sure that all students have a say in what happens in the county. She says “If I can do it you can do it too”.