Mpilo Norris ’18 and Julian Yau ’18 enter Student Council with years of experience collaborating with each other.
The student body elected Mpilo Norris ’18 and Julian Yau ’18 last week as Student Body President and Vice President, respectively, to head the 2017-18 Student Council. Their terms will begin this spring and run through next year’s winter term.
Following their school meeting speeches on Wednesday, all candidates participated in the Q&A session taking place in Hill House Dining Hall. The forum was also broadcasted live on the Student Council Facebook page.
Dean of Students Mr. James Stanley officially announced the results of the election in an all-school email sent out on Monday, February 13.
All rising fourth, fifth, and sixth form students were eligible to vote. Although the voting was supposed to take place during lunch and dinner hours on Thursday, February 9, due to inclement weather, the voting process was extended to Friday. According to the data collected by the Student Council, 67% of the 161 rising fourth formers, 69% of the 211 rising fifth formers, and 77% of the 213 rising sixth formers voted in this year’s Student Body President and Vice President election.
Norris reflected back to the time when he first heard of the news. “I was really, really excited. Once I took the time to think about the position, it made me a little overwhelmed, but also excited for the challenge ahead,” he said.
During his speech, Norris proclaimed that he was running for Student Body President “because I see the potential that our school has, and I have a vision for how student council can be utilized — more than it ever has been — to better realize that potential.”
Norris also explained that communication and engagement will be heavily emphasized by Student Council under his administration. “On communication,” Norris said, “the fact that some among us still cannot identify our School President or other representatives is frankly embarrassing, and attest to the greater issue of ineffective communication. Over the years, Student Council has become notorious for being clandestine.” He added, “We as a school have become complacent with not knowing what Student Council is doing.”
He continued, “On engagement, this school year alone we as a campus have experienced a lot, including issues with school-town relations, political tension among students, as well as a curriculum and schedule overhaul that is leaving many students concerned about their academic trajectory. And yet we have seen almost no Council participation in these conversations when it should have been leading them.” Norris elaborated that he will utilize the current Student Council Facebook page, its website, and its bulletin board to ensure smooth and timely communication between the Council and its constituents.
Norris concluded his speech, saying, “After all, this is your school and your home, full of many talented, motivated individuals, and my goal is to invest in that.”
Norris, who has been on the Council since his freshman year, comes to the position with experience. During this time on the Student Council, Norris headed the Public Relations (PR) subcommittee to increase the transparency of the Council and helped to orchestrate conversations between students and faculty about fixing a broken Sophomore Seminar program.
Echoing Norris’s goals, Yau believes that the “problem Choate has been dealing with lately” is a lack of proper communication. Yau then brought up some of his proposals for Student Council, including giving students the option of making the content of their Judicial Committee hearing public and representing multiple perspectives when political issues arise. As Yau put it, “whether in the form of debates, forums, public discussions, people deserve to be heard.”
Regarding how he and Norris will work as a team, Yau said, “We were roommates last year, and we’ve always lived in the same dorm, so we’ve gotten to know each other through the years. Mpilo and I have a way of doing things and being productive that really works.”
Current Student Body Vice President Namsai Sethpornpong ’17 — who has worked with Norris in the 2016-17 Council, and both Norris and Yau in the 2015-2016 Council — expressed her excitement for the Norris-Yau administration. She said, “When Mpilo and Julian were both in Council, I remember both of them working very well together. They were the ones who spearheaded the PR initiative, and I recall both of them being two of the most serious and enthusiastic members on the Council. The reason that made me and Ceci work really well together, I think, is the fact that we’ve been good friends for a while. I wanted to be VP under Ceci — I knew that she would be fantastic. I knew that we were going to have a really great dynamic — in the same way that Mpilo and Julian were roommates last year by choice. It made everything a lot easier.”
Wednesday, one week after Norris and Yau were selected, form elections were also held. Results were released yesterday: 6th Form President: Noah Hermes de Boor; 6th Form Representatives: Reade Ben, Richard Lopez, and Katherine Burgstagler; 5th Form President: Tippa Chan; 5th Form Representatives: Tommy Wachtell and Arjun Katechia; 4th Form President: Vikram Sharma; 4th Form Representatives: Caroline Rispoli and William Robertson.
