Wednesday, March 19th, the students of Choate Rosemary Hall gathered in the Paul Mellon Arts Center. School meeting was in session, and along with the usual a capella performance, sports announcements, and singing of the school song, there was a very important item on the agenda. Student Council elections had just been completed, and Katie DeFusco stood at the front of the stage to be sworn in as Student Council President. David Lam stood beside her, as the newly elected Vice President. In addition to the class of 2009, every form had voted to send representatives to the Student Council. The rising seniors had elected Miles Cozart as class president, and Christian Kelso, Nikki Collins, and David Lim as class reps. Kreagan Kennedy was elected fourth form president, and Nikita Iyer and Leah Rosen are the new fourth form reps. Third formers elected Will Laverack as class president, and Katherine Morales and Shu Saha as class reps. Fifth former Adam Stasiw was elected the official day student representative.
Katie DeFusco had never served on the Student Council until this year. She described winning as “incredibly surprising.” She said that she didn’t even know she had won until David Lam ran into her biology classroom to tell her. Being president is “amazing.” The job requires that she meet with the representatives from each form to hear what went on at the last class committee meeting. DeFusco then expresses these requests to Mr. Velez and Ms. Linthorst-Homan, the faculty advisers to the student council. Katie is responsible for running meetings and coordinating the meeting agendas. If there is ever an issue that requires the involvement of Mr. Ford or Mr. Shanahan, she is the person who talks to them and ensures that the needs of the students are expressed clearly.
Student Council has several items on the long-term agenda for this year. Student Council wants to see the Pep Team improve, says DeFusco. Some people feel that Choate is lacking in school spirit, and DeFusco hopes to improve it by involving more students. She also hopes to change the Pep Team’s name to something more exciting. There will be a strong emphasis on community service this year, starting with the Wishes from Abroad program, a project in which Choate Students will stamp their handprints on a banner that will be sent to the Beijing Olympic Stadium. A recent e-mail about the project said that the hope is to bring students from around the world closer together by having them participate in this project. DeFusco said there were no problems with the school that she’d specifically like to fix, but she wants to bring the entire school closer together. When class rep Nikita Iyer ’10 was asked what she wanted to improve, she immediately answered, “the sauna that is the DSL.” Every day student complains about the temperature in the locker rooms, and Iyer said she would like to see something done about that. She said she hopes to get extended curfew for upperclassmen, and also wants to see more charity projects. Both DeFusco and Iyer said that they are open to any suggestions that people have.
The Student Council president and vice president, DeFusco and Lam, are both day students, so more thought may be given to day-student issues. For example, there was talk of getting day-students involved in the Hydrocup. Although no specific possibilities have been agreed on, efforts are being made to make this fun conservation challenge an experience the whole school can enjoy.
