Pizza. Dodgeball. Ice cream socials. A “Frozen” movie night.
These things were guaranteed — guaranteed! — to help incoming freshman girls feel at home this year on campus and on Anderson. McClain Brooks, who lives on Anderson, was fairly sure of that. What she didn’t expect was this: One night, when McClain announced that she had grapes to share, girls poured from their rooms, and an impromptu bull session began as they nibbled away.
“Grapes work so well,” she says. “I don’t know why. There’s just something about them.”
McClain is one of 10 juniors selected as prefects, a new campus leadership role that embeds these upperclassmen on the two freshmen dorms — Anderson for girls, Hummel for boys. Their job: help students transition to Episcopal life, build bonds among the freshman class, and hone their leadership skills.
Monitors already live on freshman dorms, but their duties demand they watch over everyone in the dorm and take on campuswide matters. Plus, they are seniors, which can be intimidating. “When I was a freshman, it was like, ‘Oh, scary seniors,’ ” says prefect Lucy Peacock.
“We needed another layer of student leadership to focus specifically on freshmen,” says Lucy Whittle Goldstein ’97, dean of residential life and herself a former resident of Anderson. “We knew we could count on the junior class to take this seriously. They are testing their leadership abilities and are genuinely interested in this kind of real-world leadership.”
Prefects are a select group. Since the position was introduced for the fall in 2018, more than 50 students have applied for the job each year. A committee of faculty and administrators led by Goldstein and freshman deans Frances deSaussure Murray ’06 and Chris Davies aim to assemble a diverse group that includes students with different interests but also different personalities — athletes and artists, introverts and extroverts. “You might want someone who is the mayor of Episcopal, who’s going to shake hands and be very friendly and open,” Davies says. “But we also want somebody who’s a little quieter, a hard worker, someone a more reserved freshman might walk up to and say, ‘How do you get all your homework done?’ ”
Goldstein and the deans also want prefects who will approach the work with confidence and creativity. Support for freshmen must be organic, they say, not manufactured by adults. “We want students who will approach us and say, ‘This is what we want to do,’ ” Murray says. “And then they follow through and do it.”
This year, before freshmen arrived, prefects had already organized activities for the first six weeks, including the ice cream social and the dodgeball night. “I hadn’t reminded them of anything,” Murray says.
Prefects also set up activities for smaller groups in each dorm. On the night after freshmen arrived, Sophie Novitsky took some of the girls on Anderson outside for yoga and meditation. “They seemed to really like it,” she says. “They were really awkward talking to each other, so it gave them a second to relax.”
Before school opened, Hummel prefects successfully lobbied for the return of a pingpong table that had been removed from the dorm common room. Pingpong had been a fun icebreaker for them as freshmen. “It’s a really simple thing you can pick up and do with a random person, whether you’ve talked to them or not,” prefect Thomas Gibert says. A tournament with neighboring McGuire dorm also proved a helpful mixer with upperclassmen. “That went on for two hours, with people coming and going throughout,” he adds. “It was really fun.”
The prefects stress that they do a lot of their work informally, outside structured activities. Because the dining hall can be particularly intimidating — Where do I sit? Who should I sit with? — Sofi Igyan makes a point to join a freshman at meals. A sophomore did that for Sofi when she was new to the School, helping her feel more comfortable. “Freshmen shouldn’t feel like they should only be sitting with each other,” she says.
On dorm, prefects check in frequently with freshmen, helping them sort through course selection, homework, roommate issues, and homesickness. Over time, prefects aim to become friends and confidants, says Christopher Kim. “Some students are afraid of opening up and talking about the issues they’re going through because they don’t want to acknowledge them and don’t want others to know,” he says. “We have to be willing to show our vulnerability and tell them, ‘Look, we’ve all been through the same thing. What you’re feeling is completely normal.’ ”
The prefect position is designed in part to help juniors prepare to serve in other leadership roles the following year or take on other leadership roles typically held by seniors. Sophie Novitsky says that it’s helpful to focus on leadership and serving others during the academically rigorous junior year, when the college admissions process heats up. “A lot of times, you sink into junior year, huddle up in your room doing homework, and make yourself the first priority,” she says. “But this position is a big deal and a really big responsibility.”
Among the lessons prefects say they’ve learned: You can’t fix everything. Debby Lee has found that she doesn’t have a readymade solution for all the problems girls bring to her. “Sometimes being with them and sitting with them in the dilemma is the best thing that I can do,” she says.
Prefects also say they are growing into their job of enforcing school rules and discipline. They work with staff and faculty on dorm to ensure that freshmen understand and follow the rules regarding study hall, dorm chores, bedtimes, and the like. Clay Sailor says he struggled initially to enforce “lights out” when students, living away from parents often for the first time, think of dorm life as a big sleepover. “It’s hard to explain to them that this isn’t summer camp, that they need to get their sleep so they can go to class,” he says. “But I’ve learned how to articulate the reasons behind the rules.”
For some prefects, enforcing the rules brings them full circle to their freshman year. Lucy Peacock says the faculty on her dorm chuckle when they see her sending a freshman to her room for the night. “I’ll say, ‘Go to your room; it’s 10:30.’ Then they’ll laugh and say, ‘You never went to your room at 10:30.’ ”
How to Build a Strong First-Year Class
Little things are important.
Sofi Igyan says that when she sees freshmen around campus, she makes a point to say hello —- and to call them by name. “Sometimes as a freshman, you feel like you're going through School and nobody knows you,” she says. “You feel as if nobody really cares.”
No freshman is left behind.
Each of the prefects is assigned students to get to know and watch over. “Even if they're having a hard time making friends, there’s always going to be someone who’s checking in on them and can be a friend to hang out with,” says Lawson Laverty.
Experience matters.
Justin Yi says he’s been working with one student who’s struggled with time management and getting his homework done. “We talked through what it’s like to develop good study habits,” he says. “He adopted a lot of what I do, and now he’s working to find his own style.”
Adults don’t have all the answers.
Prefects say they work in tandem with the faculty and staff on dorm duty. Says Sophie Novitsky: “We have a good relationship, so we can talk to them and respectfully say, ‘Hey, I think this is what's best for the student.’ ”
Nerf guns help build bonds ...
Thomas Gibert was on duty in the dorm one night when another prefect and his roommate crept onto his floor with Nerf guns. A battle ensued that soon involved nearly everyone. “It was just goofing around, but it brought everyone together,” he says.
… video games don’t.
Prefects say they’re glad EHS no longer allows freshmen to bring video-game consoles to School. “That has made a really big difference,” says Lucy Peacock. When she was a freshman, girls would often hang out outside during evening free time, while boys huddled over “Fortnite.” This year’s freshman class, however, is much more connected across gender, she says.
*Editor’s update: With Virginia closing schools due to the coronavirus update, Episcopal students shifted to distance learning, with the junior prefects and other student leaders stepping up to help maintain the School’s strong sense of community even while the community is scattered across the country and globe.
The junior girls on Anderson have organized virtual dorm events — movie nights and lunches, for instance — and are swapping recommendations with the first-year girls for how to spend their time in quarantine. The boys on Hummel, meanwhile, helped organize the effort to collect selfie photos to use for the annual dorm photo and are participating in the leadership selection process. Also, five of the 10 junior prefects were recently inducted into the Cum Laude Society for their academic scholarship and leadership.
View the recently inducted prefects by clicking this link.