Amidst the countdown towards the end of the year, the Prep, Lower Mid, and Upper Mid classes held elections to decide their class presidents for the 2022-2023 school year.
In May, each class met to listen to presidential campaign speeches of the running contenders. Students cast their votes immediately after these speeches. After voting concluded, the winning pairs were determined to be Nouri Badrous ’25 and Petal Hammam ’25, Nell Dwyer ’24 and Jacquo Pierre ’24, and Sydney Jean ’23 and Eli Rippetoe ’23.
Jean and Rippetoe initially considered running together this past fall, as they realized they shared common goals and ideas about the changes they wanted to enact within their grade. Jean, a head of Baking Club, a board member of Black and Hispanic Student Association (BaHSA), and the Senior advisor of Girls Who Lift, said, “We realized that we lost a lot of traditions and things that make [the school] fun after coming back from the pandemic. We were motivated to bring that back to our class. [Bringing back the fun traditions in the past] were in our personalities and since we were already friends before, we thought we’d give it a go. We are on class council together this year and we know our class dean pretty well also, so it just seemed like a really good fit.”
“We realized that we lost a lot of traditions after coming back from the pandemic. We were motivated to bring that back to our class.” SYDNEY JEAN ’23
In the Lower Mid class, Dwyer and Pierre also look to use their different backgrounds and interests to create more opportunities for class bonding and foster an inclusive environment. Dwyer is a board member of One Love and Students on Financial Aid (SOFA) and serves as a Blue Ambassador. She said, “We really want to make sure to uplift everyone in our grade to create a stronger class community. Our class is a wonderful community, especially since we spent a lot of time together during the year with the pandemic, but we want to make sure to uplift individuals in our grade that might not always be recognized and make everyone feel supported.”
“We want to make sure to uplift everyone in our grade to create a stronger class community.” NELL DWYER ’24
Hammam and Badrous are excited to work with each other as co-class presidents to implement various plans for next year. Badrous, a board member of the French Club and a player on the Boys JV Soccer and Wrestling teams, said, “One of our first priorities is to have a bonfire at the farm during opening days. This will not only help the new students to know our grade and be incorporated into us, but also give opportunities for returning students in our class to bond as well.”
However, the pair also discussed the potential challenges that they will need to address. Hammam, a member of the girls varsity golf team, a varsity volleyball player, a board member of student activities, and a head of Middle Eastern Northern African Affinity Group (MENA), said, “This year in class council, it’s been really hard to find times for the class council to meet and also to figure out time to do stuff, since the [school] calendar is pretty busy. So, I think we’re going to create agendas for all the class council meetings and we’re going to have weekly meetings on our own too, maybe with our class dean also.”
Dwyer also mentioned challenges with time management that her pair could face. She said, “[Jacquo and I] are both involved in a lot of different things on campus, because we’re interested in [them] and want to change things on campus, so [the main challenge] is being [present and on time to all the events and meetings].”
