2025 Junior Caucus Endorsements

Mufei Yu and Mitali Jhaveri 

DYNAMIC: The Yu-Jhaveri ticket shows a clear ability to work collaboratively with one another. Yu and Jhaveri are close friends and have worked closely together in the Sophomore Caucus; Yu is co-president and Jhaveri is a finance department member and SU budget analyst. They have both demonstrated a long standing interest in student government; Yu was also Freshman Caucus co-president. Jhaveri has run for caucus twice and was endorsed by The Spectator on both occasions.  

PLATFORM: The Yu-Jhaveri ticket proposes strong plans to aid the junior student body, from opportunities for college planning to engaging events. The ticket has proposed the most feasible plans to achieve their policies, compared to their competitors. The ticket also has a clear understanding of budgeting and event planning as a result of their previous student government experiences. Moreover, they also have strong connections with external organizations such as Y Tú También and other caucasus, confirming their reliability. The ticket has placed an emphasis on receiving feedback and suggestions from the junior student body in order to best cater to them. 

OVERALL REVIEW: The Yu-Jhaveri ticket is highly dedicated, and its candidates are experienced and ambitious. As evident by their dynamic partnership and ambitious—yet feasible—plans, the ticket clearly is devoted to improving their junior year. Their events including De-Stress Fest, AP Study Session, and college tours clearly show the potential of this ticket to improve the school. Their proposed, consistent engagement through weekly emails and surveys to really understand the needs of their grade confirms their dedication to caucus. Additionally, Yu and Jhaveri’s prior experience and knowledge of how Stuyvesant’s student government works makes them the most experienced candidates who will be able to manage the Junior Caucus effectively, despite the predicted stress. Thus, The Spectator endorses this ticket. 

Melody Qu and Mace Elinson

DYNAMIC: Qu and Elinson first met in Freshman Caucus and became good friends thereafter. Their experience in the Student Union has given them crucial insight into the aspects of Stuyvesant that need the most change. Because of their close friendship, Qu and Elinson say they are not afraid to disagree and continually revise an idea until they reach an agreement. They also claim to be extroverts, together knowing the majority of students in their grade. They have a fairly equal dynamic, each taking turns to build off of the other’s points without interruption. 

PLATFORM: The Qu-Elinson platform centers around creating engaging events, connecting students, improving communication, and fostering a stronger sense of community. They hope to address the culture of individualism and academic toxicity at Stuyvesant by planning events that encourage participation and motivate students to branch out and explore new extracurriculars. The most notable event proposed is the Cosplay Con, in which the Qu-Elinson ticket aims to bring together people with interests in anime and the arts. One of their other major priorities is to increase transparency through biweekly newsletters, event polls, feedback forms, and accessible college readiness guides to support students. To reduce ticket costs for Junior Prom, the Qu-Elinson ticket plans to launch a fundraiser every two months and implement a detailed planning timeline starting six months in advance. Overall, their platform presents a solid vision with clear goals and a strong sense of direction.

OVERALL REVIEW: The Qu-Elinson ticket largely emphasizes community and communication in their policies and planned events. From their experience in Freshman and Sophomore Caucus, the Qu-Elinson ticket has policies that are realistic and demonstrate a level of planning and forethought that reflect their organizational skills and enthusiasm regarding community, though they lack creativity. Their events and initiatives are feasible, yet tread on the heels of already established organizations and events within Stuyvesant, such as hosting Open Mics and making affirmation walls. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket. 

Hernan Bonilla-Jimenez and Shane Bacchus

DYNAMIC: Having known each other since last year, Shane Bacchus and Hernan Bonilla have an amicable friendship. Bacchus possesses experience in graphic design as a member of the Freshman Caucus social media department. Bonilla is described as social and outgoing—a characteristic central to their policy of transparency. If elected, the ticket will adopt a divide-and-conquer strategy by splitting caucus responsibilities according to their respective strengths. Additionally, they emphasize an equal balance of power in their dynamic.  

PLATFORM: The ticket’s main policies center around building unity within the student body through events such as a Clash Royale tournament, football game watch parties, and Kahoot reviews for exams in the lecture hall. Additionally, the ticket proposes giving volunteer hours to students who help custodians clean up the school, increasing religious adaptability, and hosting student-teacher podcasts. While these policies are idealistic, the ticket lacks an understanding of the limitations of the Junior Caucus office. They believe that current policies, such as bake sales to fundraise for JProm or current college opportunities, are effective, but they have no suggestions for how to further improve them. The JProm themes proposed are identical to this year’s. Most of the ticket’s proposed interactions with the student body are through “word-of-mouth” engagement, based on Bonilla’s existing popularity with their cohort; they believe that surveys are ineffective at achieving true transparency. 

OVERALL REVIEW: Overall, the Bacchus-Bonilla ticket shows enthusiasm for serving the needs of the student body. The campaign aims to foster a sense of community at Stuyvesant through partnerships with clubs, fun events, and to increase awareness of various issues. However, their events and policies fail to be unique, and the ticket lacks concrete plans in terms of engagement, funding, and implementation. Although the ticket demonstrates feasibility and passion, this is overshadowed by vague proposals and a lack of forethought for Junior Prom and caucus logistics. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket.

Juan Ochoa Bravo and Angela Li 

DYNAMIC: Juan Ochoa Bravo and Angela Li have a very sweet dynamic, with Li taking a slightly more talkative role. The two met in their Japanese class—a class they emphasized had a smaller and subsequently closer group of students—and seemed to have bonded by sitting next to each other and working in a Japanese dance group. They have some similar interests and appear to see eye to eye on their intended policies. Both have minimal caucus experience, with Bravo being a member of the Sophomore Caucus and Li not having been in caucus before. However, both candidates have compact and meaningful leadership experiences outside of student government, with Li being the blog writer for Flour Power and a part-time receptionist, and Bravo volunteering for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Both candidates also contribute to their middle schools, with Bravo helping with open houses and Li organizing unique events, such as Christmas programs and events catered towards individuals with special needs. Bravo’s strengths seem to be on the outreach side while Li’s lie more on logistics. Through their dynamic and personal endeavors, Li and Bravo have shown themselves to be extremely caring individuals with a desire to create genuine change within their community.

PLATFORM: The Bravo-Li Ticket places a strong emphasis on cultural appreciation and genuine inclusivity. For example, they wish to bring back the Lunar New Year event that their Freshman Caucus had but didn’t bring back in sophomore year. Additionally, Li and Bravo want to expand their outreach of events and policies to include the whole grade, not just a select group of people, due to the current sophomore caucus’s lack of inclusivity to all Stuyvesant students. They wanted to do this by expanding their outreach to Facebook and sending out consistent biweekly emails to the entire grade, detailing all caucus-led events and outside internship opportunities. Li’s role as the blog writer for Flour Power can be helpful for biweekly emailing. Some of their policies to fundraise for junior prom were unique and realistic, such as a thrifting fundraiser in which students can trade, donate, and buy clothes, with all proceeds going to the prom. However, other ideas were ambitious and unrealistic, such as a nightclub fundraiser. Their academic initiatives were also similar to other tickets, as they explained their plans of having one Google document study guide for every single junior class organized in different tabs.

OVERALL REVIEW: The Bravo-Li ticket makes a good potential candidacy. Despite the lack of large experience in the SU or Caucus, they prove themselves to be very sweet, ambitious, and genuine individuals with their intended policies and mannerisms. Nevertheless, their ticket includes a lack of feasible policies and a bit of uncertainty in their roles within the caucus. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket. 

Sahn Choi and Ellie Hahn

DYNAMIC: Sahn Choi and Ellie Hahn bonded over being in Robotics together during their freshman year. While they have both since moved on to other clubs and commitments, they continue to share similar activities, such as playing musical instruments in Orchestra. They’ve become close friends and claim to know each other’s character fairly well. 

PLATFORM: The Choi-Hahn ticket’s slogan is “what we say we will do,” reflecting their promises to be honest and hold themselves accountable. While they don’t have prior experience in the Student Union, they are both leaders in their respective clubs. Their policies focus on student comfort and making junior year less stressful. They intend to involve some lesser-known universities in college tours and plan to host bimonthly Caucus-led study sessions. 

OVERALL REVIEW: While Choi and Hahn have some good ideas on how to improve junior year for their grade, their policies are relatively overused and lack a lasting impact. They don’t have much prior experience in student government, but both seem committed to the role of caucus presidents if elected. However, other tickets offer relatively more holistic and innovative platforms. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket.

Ziling Liu and Ethan Zheng

DYNAMIC: Liu and Zheng are close friends who complement each other very well. Both offer valuable leadership experience through various clubs—Ethan is a prominent voice in Public Forum debate, while Ziling is the president of her own club, Stuy Connect, and the vice president of the Appleseed Youth organization. Liu focuses on communication with the student body and generating ideas, while Zheng focuses on execution, highlighting their strength in splitting responsibilities and delegating tasks. They have a natural ability to build on each other’s ideas and play to each other’s strengths, making them an effective team. 

PLATFORM: The Liu-Zheng ticket centers its platform on the pillars of Academics, College, Connections, and Events (A.C.C.E.). They claim to be different from other tickets through their focus on connection with the Junior student body using various forms of communication (emails, Instagram posts, digital bulletin boards). With attention to detail, they recognize that junior year is one of the toughest years at Stuy and wish to enhance the Stuyvesant community overall. Thus, they aim to alleviate junior-year stress by coordinating events, aiding college preparation, providing additional academic resources, and offering special assistance to juniors holding leadership positions in clubs.

OVERALL REVIEW: Overall, the Liu-Zheng ticket has a strong dynamic between its co-runners and stands on a focused platform of communication and understanding, especially of the various stresses that junior year may bring. They aim to provide extra academic resources and special events to alleviate stress throughout the school year, though some ideas are more plausible than others. Thus, The Spectator does not endorse this ticket.