Fifth Former student council – Courtesy of Ryan Shams
It’s six months into the school year, and the Student Council is chugging along. Each form has its own goals for the year and has completed several projects.
Third Form President Chris Li shared a goal that all student council presidents had in common. “We want to help the school,” Li said.
He then moved on to their second goal, which is to make opportunities for the grade to do service. He organized a project where the grade helped clean up a preserve.
Fourth Form President Ray Kresge said, “A big goal is strengthening connections within the class, as sophomore year is crucial for relationships. We’ve had several activities to foster these connections, and we think it has been a success.”
The Fourth Form student council is also currently running a sock drive. Krege also aspires to set up a Dollar Dog Day, potentially for the season-opening game of the Phillies.
Fifth Form President Ryan Shams’ goals are different from those of other grades.
“Our first goal is to gather the class’s opinion through a monthly opinion poll,” he explained, “Our second is to inform the grade on possible careers through career sessions. The third goal is to have fun community bonding sessions (e.g., trivia competitions). And the fourth goal is to inform the grade on elective courses for next year.”
Shams has organized three career sessions so far: one for finance, one for law, and one for business.
“We [also] hope to do one on engineering,” Shams said.
In addition to these career sessions, the Fifth Form leaders also planned and executed a holiday fundraiser where they sold candy.
Sixth Form President Josh Williams’ goal may be simpler than the Fifth Form’s, but it is just as challenging.
“Broadly, we aim to connect not only students but also faculty. We are that bridge, facilitating that connection. We want students to feel comfortable coming to us with their problems. My main goal was brotherhood—having everyone talking,” Williams stated. “One of our other goals is a service project from each grade,” he continued, “and a gift from the seniors to the school.”
He then turned to what he had accomplished so far. “I planned homecoming. I don’t get to plan prom, unfortunately. Homecoming was very successful. We made $3000 and gave $1500 to charity.”
“The Sixth Form Student Council’s goal is to guide them through that and make sure they keep going.”
josh williams ’25
However, Williams’ priority is to guide the younger leaders.
“Everything comes through me. If one of the student councils needs something, they come to me. Guiding the younger council’s ideas for halftime events at basketball games is tough, and we get blocked quite a lot. The Sixth Form Student Council’s goal is to guide them through that and make sure they keep going.”
One of the issues that has faced the student council this year is feedback.
“So far it has been pretty good. People have been talking to me if they need something,” Li said.
The Fourth Formers have mainly been communicating in person.
“Mainly mouth-to-mouth feedback. I think that a big thing that we have done well is talk to everyone,” Kresge said. “It’s really the conversation that builds the connection.”
“I definitely need more feedback though. I’m excited that the student council has an email chain. We are going to be creating a form for the sophomores to gather feedback.”
ray kresge ’27
“I definitely need more feedback though,” Kresge added. “I’m excited that the student council has an email chain. We are going to be creating a form for the sophomores to gather feedback.”
Shams is already conducting these polls with the Fifth Form. “The Google forms have had good response rates. We have a good sample size as well. The most recent career session also had good attendance. In addition, people are engaged in the form competitions,” he explained. “I would like a few more responses though.”
Williams is having the most problems with the senior class. He uses a grade group chat as well as polls. “I don’t think that it is effective,” Williams said. “I 100% need more feedback. Whenever there is a poll of seniors, we can see responses, we would get only 20 responses out of 120. Half of these are jokes. I definitely need more feedback. The only guy really giving feedback is Mr. Kolade.”
Williams provided this example. “AIS wanted to do something. I sent a message to the grade group chat. One response and one joke are all that I got. How can I gauge that?” Williams asked.
“It’s hard to get people to do something. There always needs to be an incentive,” Williams said. “People take our work for granted. We meet almost every week individually and biweekly as a huge group. People do not see that. Lots of things get shot down. It’s hard because a bunch of ideas get shot down, so what we do is sometimes not as amazing.”
Williams is planning a few more activities. “We might play bingo. We also want everyone to go to upcoming games. We also might do something new. The reward for this might be a day of immunity for Senior Assassin,” Williams said.
“We really need to lean into the community at this time of the year. It’s winter. Strengthen our brotherhood. We are in the thick of it and everybody knows,” Kresge said. “By leaning in we can take off the pressure.”
