Gould, Kennedy’s, and Lee Elected as Prep Reps

By Lucy Jung, Catherine Wu, and Alaysha Zhang

On Tuesday, October 25th, the class of 2026 elected preps Andrew Gould, Kyle Kennedy, and Lauren Lee as their prep class representatives, colloquially known as prep reps, by a majority vote. 

Senior and Student Council (StuCo) Elections Committee cohead Tucker Gibbs explained the prep rep elections process. “Aspiring candidates start with the signature collecting process. Every prep rep candidate collected 111 signatures. That's half the class,” Gibbs said. “This year we had many more candidates. Usually it’s more like six to ten. This year we had 22.”

This year, the Elections Committee implemented a modification to the process. “We didn't allow any sort of independent social media,” Gibbs said. “We sent out some Instagram posts on behalf of the candidates. Other students could repost those, but nothing else. We intended to take away the stress of making content and the online campaigning that Elections Committee can’t really control.” These modifications will be kept for future Prep Rep election processes as well. 

Gould discussed his campaigning experience. “Unlike many of my peers I came from a school without any student body government, so there were aspects of this election that were quite new to me,” Gould said. “Overall, I felt that the adjustment was quite straightforward. Though I feel more opportunities for the candidates to present themselves might have been beneficial, the election Committee did an excellent job.”

Elected Prep Rep Lauren Lee added “I actually suffered a concussion in the early days of the campaigning process and delivered my speech two days out of the Health Center. Despite such complications, my friends that I made along the way made every sacrifice worth it.” 

Other candidates shared why they ran for prep rep. “I decided to just try it for the experience of meeting new people and having fun. Obviously, getting [elected] prep rep would've been great, but the experience was worthwhile,” prep Andy Song said.

Prep Anna Byun agreed. “It definitely gave me the opportunity to meet more people. For some, when I asked for signatures, it was my first time meeting them. So it was nice to have that opportunity to meet other preps,” Byun said. 

“I heard a lot of people say they wouldn't run until next year because prep rep didn't matter. This just didn't make sense to me, because I knew so many preps with great ideas,” prep rep candidate Muralini Mohan said. 

Prep Victoria Vanderslice agreed. “Although a lot of people said ‘prep rep doesn’t really matter,’ I felt like it was a great idea to get involved starting prep year. We’re all here at a new school and I already had ideas from my old school that I wanted to implement this year,” Vanderslice said.

“I decided to run for prep rep because ever since I stepped onto campus, I just noticed little things that I thought could be changed or improved,” prep Joseph Vicente said. “I served on the student council at my previous school, and I knew that if I ran for prep rep, I would have the power and voice to make the change I want to see. This could include free food on Tuesdays and Fridays, trash cans in elm, etc. I also thought that running for prep rep would be a good way to meet new people on campus, which turned out to be true.” 

Prep Forrest Zhang shared, “It's because I love volunteering. I've found that I lovedcontributing to the community and it just brings me that joy. I thought that serving as prep rep could give me an opportunity to do that to a higher level.” 

The elected prep reps discussed major areas of focus for the coming year. “Prep engagement was the focal point of my campaign for Prep Rep and I believe it to be a vision shared by my fellow reps,” Gould shared. “I prioritize transparency and listening to the voices of my grade,” Lee adds. 

“We will open a submission for preps to put forward their own designs for class merchandise,” Gould continued. “Along with these big events we are also planning to be active Stuco members, using polling data to find what the big prep concerns are, and organize smaller scale mixers and events, especially for the stretch between winter and March break.”

“We have upcoming plans for a prep game of tag, probably something like Manhunt or Zombie tag. We’ll also have s’mores going on on the side. I don't want to jump the gun on dates but we are hoping to make it happen in the next couple weeks, likely taking place on a Sunday,” Gould said. “Events like that are a big part of our overall plans to bring the grade together and ease the adjustment period. We also have plans for a movie night hopefully sometime before winter break.”

Lee adds that there is“A possible initiative that we could work on: a class homepage, but that all depends on what the student body wants.” 

Gould concluded by addressing the class of 2026. “We are here to work with you, not against you. We know we are just preps, and we haven't even had our first finals, but we are also part of this community and we want to help it grow and develop,” Gould said. “What I'm trying to say is, come talk to us, work with us, because at the end of the day we want the same thing.”