Student Spotlight - President Anya Tsukerman

Anya Tsukerman is our newly elected president of the student council. You’re probably wondering how she got to this point.

Well, to start off where it all began, President Tsukerman was born on September 28th, 2006, in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She grew up with her mom, her dad, and a younger sister named Mia. She started school at PS11 and competed on the chess team. In 2016, Anya and her team made it to the 2016 Nationals, where she and her fifth-grade team went on to have a strong 9th-place finish. When her chess juices weren’t flowing, she enjoyed figure skating, achieving a quad axel when she was only 10 years old!

Then, young Anya enrolled in BASIS for middle school. She excelled in mathematics, being placed in one of the highest classes that the school offered at the time. Now that her chess and figure skating days were over, she enjoyed drinking iced coffee, calling people bad words, and indulging in soccer boys. These passions of hers continued throughout middle school and well into high school. Some say that she still is nuts about these activities today.

At BASIS, she is highly involved in the student body and has started many clubs during her time here. In tenth grade, she started the newspaper club called the Basis Brief, employing 6 committed writers at the start of the club. She was also chosen to be a student ambassador by demonstrating a commitment to the community and excellence in education.

However, in eleventh grade, things took a turn for the worse for young Anya. A couple of weeks into school, she found out that the admin of BASIS had created the student council without notifying her although it was her that had been proposing it to several admins in tenth grade. She felt betrayed and ignored. This lit a fire in her passionate soul. Although behind on the workings of the student council, she was determined to catch up and ultimately become the president of the council.

Elections for student president were soon and she knew she would have to put her blood, sweat, and tears into her campaign if she wanted to win. Her opponents were soon revealed as students began announcing their campaigns. Gabriel Gonzales and Zachary Switzsky, both her classmates, announced their respective campaigns. Switzky would be running with his younger brother JJ and Gonzales partnered with Arry Jeejeebhoy in his campaign. Jeejeebhoy was a friend of Anya and she considered him an ally. When she got wind of this news, she was in shock. How could he do this to her?

Tsukerman knew she would need to find a strong running partner to gain the votes of fellow students. She chose Lola Ojamaa, a freshman in high school and Tsukerman’s close friend who was also involved in the BASIS community. She quickly began spreading her vision for the school if she became president while also worrying about sabotage from her opponents. All was fair game in this race and this was shown through sabotage from opponents and their supporters on her campaign posters. Because of this, Anya also did not hold back on her opponents, making sure to refute any false or impossible claims made by her opponents.

On election day, the atmosphere was tense. Anya was making last-minute preparations by handing out the last of her campaign stickers. However, someone was missing. Gabri had to go compete at a soccer tournament and was absent, exemplifying his lack of commitment to this role. The admin at the school recognized this and stripped Gabri’s and Jeejeebhoy’s places on the ballot, taking away Anya’s main competition. However, some extreme supporters of Gonzales still displayed loyalty. But when a voice came over the speakers during the 7th period, the winner of the election was announced as a landslide victory in favor of Anya and Lola.