Clarksburg junior Dahlia Huh was recently elected Student Member of the Board, the highest student advocacy position in the county. Huh ran against Poolesville junior Calvin Yeh for the title during the SMOB election on April 30.

Even having run for and held the position of Clarkburg SGA president, Huh’s transition from being a candidate to holding the title was a big one.

“When you’re running as a candidate, you’re very uncertain of the future, and you’re just taking it one step at a time,” Huh said. Now that students have chosen her to represent them, she wants to start making changes that will benefit schools.

Though one of her main goals is to convince the Board to pass policies she supported in her platform, Huh said that since each SMOB only serves a one year term, many of the policies will not be passed during her term.

Huh received almost twice as many votes as Yeh, with 69 percent of votes to Yeh’s 31 percent. A total of 59,611 votes were cast from all MCPS middle and high schools. 39,375 students voted for Huh, while 18,105 students voted for Yeh. At RHS, almost 64 percent of eligible students voted for Huh.

Freshman Luis Fuentes said, “I voted for Dahlia because I liked a�� what she advocated for, like free lunch and cell phone use [in class.]”

Huh supports Bring Your Own Device, a policy that allows students to bring their smartphones and tablets to school for use. She is also in favor of student access to school Wi-Fi, open lunch and reinstating drivers’ education as a school-sponsored elective.

Both students and teachers at RHS support SMOB elections. “I think it’s important for the students to have a voice,” NSL Government teacher Elizabeth Seabreeze said. “[The SMOB represents] a whole lot of people for the Board of Education. If there’s an issue that’s significantly important, then I think it’s important to have that voice there.”

Huh’s term will officially begin July 1, when the clerk of the court swears her into office. Until then, and after, she will continue to visit schools as she did during her campaign, rallying support for the policies she plans to work towards as SMOB.

“I think communication is very important. As SMOB, I want to continue doing school visits and really communicate with students face-to-face, one-on-one,” Huh said.