Two New Head Monitors
Who are they, and how did that happen?

Does April feel like election season to you?  Fresh from the Junior Leadership Weekend, full of energy and spirit for their class and the School, Class II students find the courage to rise to the challenge of running for offices.  On Thursday, April 9, six girls and six boys — self-nominated — made three-minute speeches to a full house.  Each made his or her case to all students from Class IV through Class I and the faculty, that he or she should be the one of the two head monitors for the 2009–2010 year.

Leadership weekend activities and discussions make clear the idea that leadership is both formal and informal.  Faculty help each rising senior understand his and her responsibility to define the tone and the sense of community for the whole School next year.  They all know that they will introduce and orient new students to a particular day-to-day Milton, the Milton they shape.  Being a member of Class I is a title in and of itself and carries both influence and responsibility. Their sense of responsibility is merited.

This year the head monitor speeches were uniformly powerful.  André Heard, associate dean, notes that “students are aware of how the tone of the speech reflects on them, and on their future interaction with the people in the room.  They’ll need relationships with students and faculty to get the job done, next year.  Their speeches are their first crack at setting up those relationships.”

Every student votes for all the candidates who have come forward for the head monitor positions.  Their votes are influenced not only by the words and personalities they witnessed, but also by advice from current head monitors, Sam Rosen and Sarah Diamond.  Sam and Sarah spoke at an earlier assembly, de-mystifying the head monitor’s role, naming the attributes that were important to do the job well.
Voters rate the girls, from one through six; and the boys, from one through six. 

The top three girls and boys then addressed the School with a second speech on Monday, April 13.  Final votes followed those speeches.  On Tuesday, April 14, students learned that Nick Jacob and Assel Tuleubayeva were their new head monitors.  Nick is from Milton and Assel is from Kazakhastan and lives in Robbins House.  Right after the election the reality “hadn’t sunk in yet,” they both agreed.  However, Nick commented that he was “impressed with the ideas presented by the candidates. There were so many strong voices, [choosing who to vote for] was a tough decision for everyone.”  Assel agreed.  “The final six candidates were really strong.  Their speeches were great.  I knew then, that if I didn’t win, I would be happy with whoever won, because the candidates were so good.”  “At the same time,” Nick retorted, “I’m glad to have the opportunity to follow through on what I hope to do.”

Well, what did they say?
Read Nick’s and Assel’s first speeches to the School community?

 

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