Sophomores elected Staff Writer and Layout Assistant Sasha Aghnatios ’25, Ellie Borris ’25, Gideon Evans ’25 and Victor Suh ’25 to serve as Junior Prefects for the 2023-2024 school year, Prefect Council announced in an email on April 25.

Aghnatios, Borris, Evans and Suh were chosen from a pool of 15 candidates. Each candidate spoke before their classmates on April 18, where they gave an introduction speech, in addition to answering a prepared and unprepared question. Boris was elected after the first round of elections, and Aghnatios, Evans and Suh were elected after two runoff elections. .

Borris said serving on Prefect Council has been enjoyable, which made running to continue being a Prefect stressful.

“I’ve grown really fond of the other members, so going into the election I really wanted to succeed and I felt that a lot was at stake, but I always enjoy the speech writing process and as soon as I actually start speaking, I think it can be pretty fun talking to your whole class,”Borris said.

Evans said the length of the election process caused by the number of runoffs added additional pressure.

“I was really excited to run this year and I enjoyed giving a speech in front of my peers,” Evans said . “Even though I was nervous about the results, the support from my friends made the election process much less nerve-racking. When the first set of results came in, I was in the middle of a baseball game and found out that there would be a runoff. But my nerves during the runoffs were nothing compared to my excitement after winning.”

Suh said that he hopes being a Junior Prefect will allow him more control over how Prefect Council is run in the coming school year.

“I dedicated a lot large part of my experience on Prefect Council this year [to] learning the ropes because even though I had Student Council experience at the middle school, the responsibilities are very different,” Suh said . “Getting familiar with the nitty-gritty processes of it all is probably what is going to help me the most next year, because my goal [next year] is to be able to spend the time that I spent this year learning the basics [on] thinking or planning stuff that I want to do, as opposed to just following along with the norms.”

Borris said his experience on Prefect Council has taught him how to navigate student government and build strong relationships with the administration.

“I feel confident that I can carry out initiatives and plan fun, engaging events that the student body will enjoy,” Boris said “I also feel super fortunate to have learned from the seniors this year because they are all incredible. I hope to make [the school] a place that people enjoy coming to every morning and I hope to provide events and small gestures for people to look forward to every week.”

Evans said he hopes to represent the perspective of different student groups on Prefect Council and create experiences that the community will enjoy.

“Experiences from my involvement with many different groups at [the school] ranging from film to baseball have shown me different student perspectives”, Evans said. “I feel that special moments in our community are built around bonding experiences not only in an academic setting but during times when both small groups and grade levels come together. These special moments in our community are what I want to build on as a Junior Prefect.”

Like Evans, Suh said that he hopes to use his position on Prefect Council to create experiences that will leave a positive impact on students.

“My philosophy with being a Prefect is if I’m able to create something people will remember, I know that I did my job, and that is enough for me,” Suh said . “I think something that creates some version of [a] significant positive impact on anybody’s mind at Harvard Westlake that would be enough for me.”