Brookfield resident receives senior leadership position at Wooster School

Wooster School Senior Leadership Positions Announced

Senior leadership positions were announced during a special assembly. The surprise gathering has been a Wooster tradition since its founding years. Summoned by the Chapel bells, students in grades Pre-K through 12 filled the Forever Young Gymnasium with excitement and anticipation as the junior class gathered in front of the crowd for the announcement of their senior year job assignments.
As a part of Wooster’s Self-help philosophy, students are given complete responsibility for the physical environment of the school. Each day at Wooster, students participate in a “jobs” period. Every senior is assigned a job area, where they are in charge of managing the younger students as they all work together to clean the campus and maintain order in their building or area.

Hannah Reed ‘06, Dean of Upper School, spoke briefly, explaining the tradition of this ceremony, pointing out to the younger students that Self-help has been a part of Wooster since its inception. “Self-help means cleaning up the school and keeping it clean. Through this process, however, even more is accomplished. A by-product of self-help is its moral lesson. Self-help is a way of showing our caring for others through our actions. Self-help can also be a morale and community builder. Students working together to achieve a task, even a simple one, can bring them together in a way that other school activities cannot. Furthermore, self-help is a link to Wooster’s past.”
After Ms. Reed concluded her speech, Head of School Matt Byrnes announced the class of 2017’s leadership positions. He then shared some remarks with the students, “Work is personal. We need it to survive and to thrive. It is very much a part of what makes us human. What we do and how we do our work are not only windows into who we are, but they also help shape the person that we become. How you choose to do your work - the manual labor, the personal interactions, the boredom, the fun, the creativity - help shape who you are. You can look at what we do through jobs as simple, menial, even meaningless. Or, you can take your work personally. And when you take it personally, you are leading. Each day is an opportunity to learn something more about yourself.”

Though each rising senior is given an important leadership position within the community and Wooster’s Self-help system, the prefects take on the most responsibilities as leaders on campus.

The prefects for 2016-2017 will be:

Senior Prefect – Jacob Engelbrecht ’17 from Danbury, CT
Social Impact Prefect - Marie Klepacz ’17 from Danbury, CT
Student Ambassador Prefect – Tess Cicala ’17 from Bethel, CT
Environmental Ambassador Prefect – Trixie Betz ’17 from North Salem, NY
James Marshall Chapel Prefect – Bently Jos ’17 from Danbury, CT
Student Activities Prefect – Brianna Clarke-Ellis ’17 from Danbury, CT
East Campus Prefect – Kern Byrnes ’17 from Ridgefield, CT
Central Campus Prefect – Venus Okwuka ’17 from Brookfield, CT
West Campus Prefect – Josie Morales-Thomason ’17 from Redding, CT

To learn more, about Wooster School here or contact Wooster School Admissions at (203) 830-3916.

Photo Caption: Back row: (from left to right) Head of School Matt Byrnes, Venus Okwuka ’17, Kern Byrnes ’17, Bently Jos ’17, Marie Klepacz ’17, Trixie Betz ’17; Front row: (from left to right), Brianna Clarke-Ellis ’17,