Graphic By Brian Yip ’24/The Choate News
My Pitman prefects, Ella Sklar ’22 and Shivani Sharma ’22, make an iconic pairing. With fresh and polar-opposite personalities, you might assume their contrasting vibes would make them clash, but they do a great job of cultivating a comfortable and open dorm environment. Shivani is known for following rules closely and having a caring and generous heart. Ella converses with us as a friend, bringing fun and autonomy to the Pitman girls. Prefects have a unique glimpse into the lives of their prefectees, making them the perfect ally for a vent session and the best mentor in the midst of an academic crisis.
Freshman prefects, in particular, are the glue of the Choate community. They keep students academically and emotionally intact: two central aspects of life at Choate that are hard to manage, especially when it’s their first time away from home. These student mentors are relatable, dedicated, and provide a support system for all new students, particularly, the School’s youngest.
All prefects have a significant impact on their prefectees, regardless of their age. Whether they know it or not, they serve as a role-model and mentor for every person in their dorm. Coming in as a freshman, there are so many new things to experience: new clubs to join, sports to try-out for, and, most importantly, people to meet. At the beginning of the year, before we met anyone else, we met our prefects. We were told that they were to be our confidants — people we could trust with everything and were there to support us. Two terms later, and they’ve helped me in more ways, both conciously and inadvertently, than I can list. That’s what makes freshman prefects so unique — they are the first mentors you encounter as part of your high school experience.
I can’t envision life at Choate without the prefect program. My prefects have encouraged and advised me to try new sports and helped me create a good academic, social, and extracurricular balance. They’re the ones that we can go to when we’re struggling to stay sane amidst a busy week, need advice on dorm friction, or need a smile and hug when we’re missing home.
Students who step up to this role are often trusting, caring, and approachable role models. Therefore, they can sometimes be treated like counselors and are required to be ready with a helping hand for one too many students’ emotional problems. Drama, bad grades, breakups, friends, sports, club elections: Choate’s student body experiences all of the conventional high-school difficulties. Everyone needs somebody to talk to at the end of the day (conveniently right when prefects come around for nightly check-ins). This forces prefects to carry emotional baggage and make tough decisions in the best interest of dorm life at Choate. I can imagine that it’s a challenging job and, because of this, I appreciate all that my prefects do for me and my dormmates.
Prefects are helpful and key to the dorm environment, especially in freshman dorms. Their kindness, generosity, and willingness to extend their help to their prefectees is greatly appreciated. Pitman has stellar prefects — the duo is iconic — and the pairs’ personalities balance each other to create a warm, supportive environment. To get a quantitative understanding of the impact of our freshman year prefects, I sent out a survey to my dorm asking one simple question: when you’re a senior, do you want to be a prefect? All five responses that I received were affirmative — Shivani and Ella have successfully inspired the Pitman girls to prefect in their senior year, continuing the legacy of student leadership and support.
