Middle, upper school Student Council members share goals, excitement for next year
Photo credit: Maia Alvarez
Rising seventh and eighth graders elected Autumn Walker (’27) to be the middle school president for the 2022-2023 school year. They also elected Hana Cho (’27) and Sherry Zhang (’27) as class representatives.
May 30, 2022
Inclusion, connection and engagement describe some of the goals the new middle and upper school Student Council members have for the 2022-2023 school year.
At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, sixth and seventh grade students gathered in the dining hall to hear speeches from five rising eighth graders running for class representative or middle school president. Following speeches, students voted on the candidates in an online poll, where they elected three representatives. The person who received the most votes was elected middle school president. Class representatives for sixth and seventh grade will be elected in the fall so new students can participate in that vote.
Students elected Autumn Walker (’27) to be the middle school president for the upcoming school year. Sherry Zhang (’27) and Hana Cho (’27) were elected as class representatives and will work alongside Walker. Zhang said she is looking forward to increasing students’ engagement through planning events, meetings and activities specific to them.
“Originally, I was going run for rep last year, but then I thought that I just came to Archer, and I wouldn’t know many people, so I was a bit scared. But then, all my friends encouraged me to do it this year. And then I thought of it and was like, ‘Why don’t I give it a try?” Zhang said. “I’m excited for planning the events and the meetings… Planning things for the students will help my creativity grow.”
Walker participated in Student Council this past year, and she said that her experience being on Zoom as an incoming sixth grade student last year impacted her mission for inclusion for new students specifically.
“Being in Student Council, especially being president, makes it a lot easier to reach out to new people… to meet them to understand what they’re like, what are their goals for Archer,” Walker said. “Making sure that sixth graders or new incoming students aren’t scared to talk to older students or people they haven’t met before [is important]… definitely the inclusion aspect is going to be a really big goal of mine.”
Freshmen, sophomores and juniors went to their various class meeting locations to hear speeches from their class representative candidates Friday, May 20, at 10:30 a.m. They also voted in an online poll for three candidates to represent their grade next year.
Since there was tie for third place twice in a row, next year’s ninth grade class will have four class representatives instead of the typical three. They will be current eighth graders Finley Vincent, Sara Salehi, Caroline Collis and Dakota Tooley. The tenth grade representatives next year will be Julianna Hatton, Parker Keston and Francie Wallack. Next year will be Wallack’s third year on Student Council, and she said she is excited to have a full Student Council experience that is fully in person and to use events and programs to connect students across grades.
“I’ve been this year working a little bit with Nyah [Fernandez] about the Archer Family Program, and we think we’re going to bring that back next year so that each one person from each grade will form an Archer family,” Wallack said. “They can have peers and friends and other grades, and I’m excited to implement that next year.”
Additionally, current sophomores Amelia Hines, Laila Charles and Anaiya Asomugha were elected to be the eleventh grade representatives, and current juniors Paulina DePaulo, Eliza Tiles and Lucy Lassman will be the representatives for next year’s senior class. The new Student Council will work with Student Body President Rose Chuck (’23) and the rest of the Executive Board.
Asomugha said she has not had any prior experience with Student Council, but she has been a counselor at summer camps and participated on club boards, and she is excited to try another leadership position. One of her ideas for next year is to create more grade-wide field trips to give students the opportunity to connect outside of a school environment.
“It’s honestly really cool that I have the opportunity to represent the grade because for years I’ve heard about class reps, and even in middle school at my old school, I’ve heard about people being class rep, [and I] didn’t really know what it was,” Asomugha said. “This is so cool that I actually get to step into this position that I’ve been dreaming about for a while.”
