The New Leaders

Elections for the New Student Council Leaders

Photo by Ethan Woodring / Maclay Andalusian

As the year quickly comes to a close, the Maclay student body is getting ready to jump straight into the new year with new leadership for Student Council. On April 16, 2026, rising 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders gathered in Webster Gym to hear speeches from various candidates running for leadership roles. 

During the elections, each candidate gave a speech explaining why they should hold the role they were seeking and what changes they hope to make. Along with this, the 2025-26 co-presidents, Molly McDonald and Suhani Gawde, also gave one last speech to pass the torch to the new members. 

Rising sophomore Thomas Ferraro won the role of treasurer, becoming the only underclassmen to have won a Student Council leadership position this year. As treasurer, he will oversee financial matters and budgeting. 

Running unopposed, junior Sophie Fasig earned the role of secretary for the new year. After serving as a member for years, Fasig was ecstatic to have officially earned a more hands-on leadership role in Student Council. As secretary, she will manage meeting records and other assigned organizational work that she is tasked with. 

“I just wanted to find ways to be more involved with the student body and show that I care about our school,” Fasig said. “Like Avery and Layla said, I wanted to implement more school spirit and get people excited to come to school.” 

For the role of vice-president, rising junior Everett Slocum won the race after a competitive campaign. In campaigning Slocum handed out stickers to everyone. Now Slocum, as vice-president, will act as an assistant to the presidents, stepping up to lead in their absence. 

Lastly, running together and planning to split the role, rising seniors Avery Campbell and Layla Hafez won the role of co-presidents. After serving many years together as members in student council, and sharing many other club memberships, these two are adding another shared leadership position to their list. As co-presidents, Campbell and Hafez will lead and run Student Council meetings and speak at Maclay’s monthly assemblies alongside Mrs. Bas. 

“[I wanted to be president] because I wanted to create more school spirit and make sure everyone felt included in school,” Campbell said. “We plan on working together, but when we figure out all our duties we want to split them up equally.”

“Me and Avery have been in student council since freshman year, and since our first meeting we knew that, when we were seniors, we wanted to expand our leadership and take on a role that could lead the student body and for us that meant becoming student body co-presidents,” Hafez said. 

Good job to everyone who ran in the election, and congratulations to everyone who won. Everyone cannot wait to see what these new leaders will accomplish next year and how they will better the Maclay Upper School community.