A new leadership position was created this year – Head Proctorship. Its purpose is to create a link between proctors/student leaders and the office of student life, resulting in a stronger understanding of the school culture and its needs.
New to 2018-19, the three positions were held by Sherley Arias-Pimentel ‘19, Alex Luo ‘19 and Jacalyn Pugliese ‘19 – all three of them either dorm or day student proctors. They were elected by all the student leaders. The positions will be available to sixth form students only.
The three Head Proctors meet with Jake Dellorco, Dean of Students, on a weekly basis to discuss important happenings around campus and to brainstorm events that will bring the student body closer together as a community.
“We’ve realized that the students are the ones who understand the culture on campus better than the adults,” said Mr. Dellorco. “So these positions were created to allow us to have conversations with students who could better let us into the culture of the school.”
“Another function is to help guide student proctors a little bit,” he added. “For instance, if a proctor was concerned about a student, they could approach one of the Head Proctors.”
In their first year, the three Head Proctors kicked off a student ornament contest during the Christmas season. Proctor groups competed with each other to create a homemade ornament that was hung on the Christmas tree in the Student Center. It proved to be a success as an event that brought proctors and their student groups together.
“One of the things we focused on is trying to figure out what does our role mean to the community,” said Alex. “It was important to be open-minded in the first year, as it was experimental.”
“It was jumping into a role and figuring out what we were going to take on,” said Sherley.
Meanwhile, Jacalyn believes that “with a little bit of work, it’s going to be a really great position for students to have.
“This role should be something that the rising seniors who are elected to it are passionate about. And now they will have a better understanding of what they are really taking on,” she added.
As far as future plans, Mr. Dellorco hopes that the role of Head Proctorship will expand.
“We’ve been working on creating a ‘climate survey’ that would go to the student body to really help us get a sense of some of the things we need to work on as a community,” he said, adding that Head Proctors might “potentially serve on the Disciplinary Committee more often, since they are students who have been elected because they are trusted by the students.”
“I think we’ve built up the Head Proctor role for next year, which will help facilitate next year’s Head Proctors working with the other proctors to promote the better use of proctor groups,” said Alex.
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