The Class of 2023 elected Assistant Features Editor Harry Tarses ’23, Aiko Offner ’23, Rowan Jen ’23 and Jessica Thompson ’23 to represent their class as Senior Prefects. The candidates gave speeches and answered both a prepared and an unprepared question before their classmates voted April 12.

Offner and Tarses will continue their roles as Prefects, and Jen and Thompson will join them for his first year on the council. After the first round of voting, Dean of Students Jordan Church announced the election of the first three candidates along with a run-off between Thompson and Carter Staggs ’23, which Thompson won.

Offner said she enjoyed the time she has spent on Prefect Council and wants to her peers enjoy their last year on campus.

“I hope to focus on senior traditions, leniency and compassion within the classroom for our last year here,” Offner said. “I really want it to be a special year, especially second semester for our experience here to have been worth it.”

Offner said she looks forward to working with new peers on the council as well as those she has worked with before.

“I am so excited to work with the new council,” Offner said, “[Both] new and old I think it is an amazing group and I am so honored to serve with all these people who I love and look up to so much.”

Along with Simon Lee ’23 and Yoshimi Kimura ’23 chosen as Head Prefects for next year, there will be the customary six seniors on Prefect Council. Both Thompson and Jen will join Prefect Council for the first time.

Thompson said she ran in hopes of improving her leadership skills and taking on a new role on campus.

“I have taken leadership positions in the past, and I thought if I wanted real change to happen, that I would have to do it myself, among other leaders who think similarly [to me],” Thompson said.

Thompson said she hopes to bring certain programs from the Middle School in hopes of helping her peers, as she said she has struggled with stress following remote learning.

“I’d like to bring [Rest and Relaxation] weekends to the Upper School, retreat [and] a [standardized] form for students with extracurricular activities to move assignments conflicting with their [extracurriculars],” Thompson said.

Tarses said having lost the election for Head Prefect he initially felt unmotivated to run for Senior Prefect, but he said he realized he wanted to continue to be a part of Prefect Council even if that meant not being Head Prefect.

“It was a little hard for me to reckon with the idea that I wouldn’t be the leader of leaders but then I thought about it and I was like, that’s not what that’s about,” Tarses said. “You run because you want to better the school community, and I think my love for the school and my inclination to help them prove it overpowered any amount of embarrassment or shame I might have had and losing the head prefect election.”