“He really wants to contribute to the Harvard community,” Weickhardt said. “He’s still really close to his PAF-ees from last year, and he had a big get-together with them and you can just tell that they loved him. At one point they just started chanting, ‘That’s my PAF!’”

In terms of his participation in the UC, Kanuparthy said that moving up the ranks of the Council, including directing four of its five committees, first helped him realize that he could have a bigger impact on the organization and its future as president.

“I decided that if I want to make an impact on the culture of this organization, if I want to make an impact on the student body, I might as well run and see where it goes,” he said.

Horvath, on the other hand, has never participated in the UC. As an actor on campus, Horvath describes her social group as generally uninvolved in student representation to University and College administrators.

Horvath, an English concentrator living in Quincy, has performed in plays including “The Thing About Air Travel” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” during her time at Harvard.

“I come from a constituency who never votes,” Horvath said.

But when last year’s presidential and vice presidential winners Samuel B. Clark ’15 and Gus A. Mayopoulos ’15 succeeded in their joke campaign for UC leadership, Horvath said, she became deeply interested in the UC’s affairs.

Though some might question the relevance of her acting background to representing the student body, Horvath said she thinks the communication skills that she gained through performance will enable the pair to lead a successful campaign.

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“Someone asked Ronald Reagan how an actor could be president, and he said he didn’t understand how a president couldn’t be an actor. I think that’s very true, in terms of being effective, and an effective communicator, and being adamant in what I want,” Horvath said.

Referring to her 12 years of experience with communication exercises in theater school, Horvath also said that fulfilling a leadership role requires adopting a confident facade.

“A lot of it is faking it. Not being unsure of yourself is extremely important, [and] presenting the image that you’re someone the administration should listen to and needs to listen to,” she said. “I know how to be a squeaky wheel.”

A PLATFORM THAT (HOPES TO) DELIVER

Kanuparthy and Horvath promise to bring undergraduates four “deliverables”: guaranteed summer storage in the Houses, the chance to review floor plans of Houses that will undergo renewal with an eye toward keeping in-suite common rooms, better funding for new and small student groups, and increased transparency during the ongoing development of the Smith Campus Center.

Horvath explained her frustration with the College’s current storage situation. Following renewal, Quincy no longer offers space for students to store belongings over the summer, a development which will likely affect all Houses as the renewal process continues. Kanuparthy added that Harvard does not cover the cost of external storage providers.