College first year, Daniel Kim, was elected Class of 2029 president.
Credit: Chenyao Liu
Penn Student Government announced the results of the Class Board 2029 and Undergraduate Assembly elections on Monday.
College first year Daniel Kim was elected 2029 Class president with 187 votes — 23 more than the first runner-up, College first year Zheng Kang Teo. Wharton first year Esteban Machorro was elected as the Class of 2029 executive vice president with 238 votes.
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Kim wrote that he “really appreciated the connections and friends” he made throughout the election process, recalling how he campaigned as “Daniel Kim, DK, and [his] barber name DKUTz” while cutting hair for three hours outside McClelland Cafe.
“I wanted people to believe in me as a person first, rather than my policies and implementations,” Kim wrote, adding that he talked to voters not about the policies that he wanted to establish, but “about the person that [he] was.”
The Class of 2029 elected College first year Solon Osei-Agyemang as vice president of external affairs, College first year Shiven Dawda as vice president of internal affairs, and College first year Ryan Loughran as vice president of finance.
College first years Sophia Chen and Sara Turney were elected as the College class chairs, and Engineering first year Wesley Leeroy was elected as Engineering class chair. Running unopposed, Wharton first year Sinan Erkurt was elected Wharton class chair, while Nursing first year Ariana Escarne was elected Nursing class chair.
Osei-Agyemang, Teo, and Loughran were also elected to fill seven of the eight new student representative seats on the Undergraduate Assembly, along with College first years Ameera Karim, Charmaine Chinodakufa, Sophie Rivell, and Wharton first year Samyam Khatiwada. College first years Advait Wattal and Cavance Snaith tied for the eighth seat, after both receiving 217 votes.
“A runoff election will be held only between the two tied candidates,” College sophomore and Nominations and Elections Committee Vice Chair Ananya Shah wrote in an email sent to the candidates.
Voting for the runoff election will open on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 9 a.m., and are set to close on Friday, Sept. 26 at 11:59 p.m.
“When I opened the form to read the results, I was in shock that I tied with another candidate,” Snaith wrote in a statement to the DP. “During the campaign, I found it difficult to convince Penn first year students to participate in the voting process and now I imagine it is going to become more difficult.”
Despite his initial reaction, Snaith described his optimism for the upcoming election, writing that he is “excited to get back out and [take] this as an opportunity to socialize more with first years and potentially establish new relationships.”
A request for comment was left with Wattal.
College sophomore Eshaal Ubaid — who is also a DP staffer — was elected as the new UA transfer representative, winning 29 votes, 9 more than runner-up and College sophomore Kate Patterson.
The election round also included four special elections, two seats for UA College representative, two seats for UA Engineering representative, one seat for Class Board 2027 Engineering representative, and one seat for Class Board 2027 Nursing representative.
College sophomores Ayesha Mallick and Ishika Narsingani were elected as UA College representatives, and Engineering sophomore Jack Moriarty won one of the two UA Engineering representative seats after running unopposed.
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Nursing junior Elayna Rinker was elected Class Board 2027 Nursing representative. The Class Board 2027 Engineering seat remains vacant, as no candidates ran for the position.
Reflecting on the election, Kim wrote that he hopes to be a “president who anyone is comfortable enough to come up and talk with.”
“I believe that Penn is an amazing school,” Kim wrote. “However, because of its amazing qualities, sometimes it presents challenging moments for the students, especially us freshmen, who are getting used to coffee chats, interviews, and hours of homework—the preprofessionalism. During these times it’s hard to find a light in a day, a chance to smile and ease off, the president I want to be is a friend.”
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