As the school year draws to a close, the seniors move on, leaving behind memories, laughs and hardships for the juniors to pick up as they move up and fill their roles.
The Executive Student Council board is responsible for spearheading the plans behind large events like Homecoming, executing successful assemblies and organizing pep rallies every Friday. Its job is to help create a more enjoyable experience for every student and serve as an intermediary between the student body and administration.
Next year, the newly elected Student Council President, junior Matthew Hofmann, plans on creating an “unforgettable school year.”
Hofmann’s interactions with his classmates progressed into a strong sense of brotherhood.
“St. Mark’s has been a home away from home,” Hofmann said. “I truly love this place, hanging out with my buddies and talking with teachers.”
Gaining experience in leading during his three years of serving, Hofmann successfully planned over 20 events and played a huge role in organizing McDonald’s Week. But for his senior year, he wanted to do something different. Something that would impact more than just 100 people.
“I was considering what I wanted to do for high school and how I could get involved in the community that had given me so much in Middle School,” Hofmann said. “One of the only ways we could get involved at that time was running for student government. So I was like, ‘why not?’ I’ll just run for Executive President.”
Although Hofmann has proven his ability to lead an entire class effectively, it takes the combined effort of all three executive board members and history instructor and Student Council Sponsor Michele Santosuosso to create a successful year for the entire school.
Along with Hofmann, junior Andrew Jin and sophomore Adam Dalrymple will fill the Student Council Vice President and Executive Secretary roles respectively.
Like Hofmann, incoming Vice President Andrew Jin has also served as the Vice President for the junior class for all three years in the Upper School. His time in the position has helped him learn numerous skills, such as coordinating events and broadcasting information to all grade members.
“As Vice President, I’m usually tasked with executing events after the ideas have been finalized,” Jin said. “I did that for an assembly a while back that was ‘guess the song,’ and I was in charge of all the logistics. I’ve also gotten insight into how to schedule these things with people.”
However, the most rewarding part of Jin’s role is the shared excitement he experiences when around others in football games, assemblies and pep rallies. He hopes to continue creating experiences like these next year and further unite the Upper School community.
“I’m excited about making a year that hopefully combines the best parts of previous years, like the cool assemblies from the rock band assembly to Kahoots,” Jin said. “Now I’m in a position to get those done, and I think that’s cool.”
The third member of next year’s Executive Board, sophomore Adam Dalrymple, is also very experienced in student leadership. He served as the Class of 2026’s President during his first year. Next year, he hopes to use the leadership skills he gained that year to create a meaningful experience for every Upper School student.
“I think I learned better communication skills during my freshman year,” Dalrymple said. “In terms of planning events, it taught me to start early and to be intricate with each detail so things don’t go wrong.”
Although the board members hold a lot of responsibility for planning events, they don’t make decisions on their own.
“Everything we do is for everyone at school,” Hofmann said. “That being said, it’s even more important to get new ideas and new perspectives from everybody on how to create relatable and unique events.”
While all three executive board members have their own goals for the year, they ultimately have to come together and create some unifying themes for the whole year. This goal, set by Hofmann, provides the executive board with a common goal to work towards.
“Our goal would be to foster that feeling of ‘home’ here to everyone,” Hofmann said. “The opportunities are endless at the school and you can really capitalize on all those when you feel welcome here, so I think building up Upper School unity is one main focus of mine. Getting everyone involved and engaged is the one-of-a-kind community that we will build.”
