By Taylor Zhou ‘23
As Window Four came to a close and the class of 2020 is about to graduate, including the eight monitors of 2019. The students and faculty voted for eight new monitors for next year.
Due to the special COVID-19 situation this year, the election process was slightly different. Instead of Meet the Monitors in the PFAC, two online sessions of questions took place in order to adapt to the time differences between St. Mark’s students around the globe. Hosted by the monitors of 2019, all the candidates were given questions to answer in order to help the rest of the community to gain a deeper understanding of who they are and thus facilitate decision-making. After a round of online voting was completed, the new monitors were announced. The co-Head monitor for next year Lily Wang Luo and Tommy Flathers. Also serving as Monitors with Tommy and Lily will be Brooke Farrell, Jake LaMalva, Kaley LeBlanc, Megan Miantkoso, Henry Sansone, and Richard Zhang.
Congratulations again to the new Monitor team!
These eight Monitors will work closely with Mr. Warren, Dr. Warren, Mr. Vachris, their faculty advisors as well as the rest of the community. They will be responsible for all-school events such as school meetings and Groton nights, keeping students’ spirit high, connecting the different parts of the community, and representing the interest of the student body of St. Mark’s to all faculty and administration. Although we are unsure of whether we will all be together in person next fall, the end of the year chapel and school meetings these new Monitors help run indicate that they will find creative ways to connect our community. We look forward to all the wonderful experiences that our new monitor team will bring to us next year!
Upper row: Brooke Farrell, Jake LaMalva, Kaley LeBlanc
Middle row: Lily Wang Luo, Tommy Flathers
Bottom row: Megan Miantkoso, Henry Sansone, Richard Zhang
We interviewed the head Monitors about their plans for the future.
Lily Wang Luo:
What does it mean to you to be a monitor?
To me, being a monitor is about being there for all our community, students, and teachers alike. It’s our job to be there for people and push for the change we want, to listen to the people, and make ourselves available to encourage a respectful, understanding, safe, and honest (RUSH) environment for all.
What will you do in the next school year?
Right now everything is incredibly unstable and we still have no clue what next year will look like. With that said, whether we go back in fall or winter or spring, we will do everything to gather our community on and off the screen and make more events that people will love to attend.
Tommy Flathers:
What does it mean to you to be a monitor?
Being a monitor is the largest responsibility that a student can have at St. Mark’s. As a monitor, we are tasked with setting examples for the rest of the community. People look up to you and you set the tone for the rest of the school
What will you do in the next school year?
I don’t want to give too much of what we have planned for next year but we do have things planned for both an in-person and virtual reunion next fall.