On May 16, the Loomis Chaffee Student Council transitioned from its Class of 2023 officers to the leadership of the next school year’s rising seniors. Next year’s Student Council President will be Preston McNulty Socha ’24, the vice presidents will be Lauren Sonnenfeld ’24 and Zaylie Gore ’24, and the Secretary-Treasurer will be Angela Ye ’24. The election, and this month’s series of concluding meetings, was an opportunity to reflect on the accomplishments of this school year’s council.

The 2022-23 academic year saw an impressive series of task groups, events, and successful proposals. Some legislative highlights include revisions to the sexual misconduct section of the school’s student handbook, progress in brainstorming the expansion of STEM student-research opportunities, and improvements to the protocol for students returning from medical leave.

“Medical leave was something that I did not know anything about until this year … I appreciate that we took it in stride and were able to come up with a tangible solution to help guide students who are on medical leave to make their time reintegrating into the community easier,” Kirsten Lees ’23, outgoing Student Council President, said.

In terms of school events, the Student Council revived the United Councils of New England conference, an interscholastic gathering of student governments from different independent schools. The annual Benefit Concert saw impressive student performance and raised thousands of dollars for HARC Inc., a nonprofit in support of individuals with intellectual and other disabilities.

This school year also proved to be a time of growth for the Council into a more efficient, impactful, and equitable body. For the first time, the Council consistently drew from an anonymous survey open to all LC community members to express concerns and ideas for the council.

The year was not without challenges, however, as the Council struggled to craft proposals that balanced flexibility with logistics and feasibility. For example, an all-school discussion proposal and early-stage STEM research proposal failed to pass due to concerns about a lack of explicit logistics outlined for the administration.

Through the challenges and successes of the year, council members also achieved a greater understanding of their role in the organization and the purpose of the council as a whole.

“I think the purpose of student government is not to pass continuous new acts and legislation, but rather serve as a check or filibuster for the administration,” Nathan Ko ’23, outgoing representative, said.

With a group of Council veterans one year smarter, and a slate of newly elected officers and representatives, the council is heading into a bright future as the torch is passed to McNulty Socha, Sonnenfeld, Gore, and Ye.

“I think all of them are very committed, they are very organized, and I think they work well together,” Anthony Luo, outgoing Vice President, ’23 said. “They are very comfortable working with each other, so it shouldn’t be a drastic shift into their new positions.”

Departing seniors give the new coming officers their best wishes.

“Best of luck to them … leadership is not easy!” Ko said.