Nor DeHoog ’24 and Ryan Lam ’24 were elected as the Andover Student Body Co-Presidents for the 2023-2024 school year last Friday. The two previously served together as Upper Class Representatives for the Class of 2024.
DeHoog commented on the joy she felt after hearing the news. In particular, DeHoog expressed her excitement to lead weekly Student Council meetings and to uphold the responsibilities of current Student Body Co-Presidents—Nigel Savage ’23 and Sui Yu ’23.
“We were together when we heard the news, Nigel and Sui gave us a call to deliver the news. Immediately for me [there was an] overwhelming sense of joy. I was ecstatic, over the moon, [it was the] best news that I could have wished for. Given my three years as Class Rep, when we have student council meetings, usually the Co-Presidents sit at the head of the table. I’m excited to see the room from a different perspective and I’m excited to just kind of feel what it’s like to be in Nigel and Sui’s shoes,” said DeHoog.
Sharing DeHoog’s sentiment, Lam expressed his eagerness to serve the Andover community, while also acknowledging the difficulties to come.
“There are definitely going to be a lot of challenges, with all of our ideas. Fortunately, we are a pair that is resilient and keeps pounding away and we will keep trying to work as hard as we can with every member of the faculty member, every member of the student body,” said Lam.
Savage described his excitement to help the new co-presidential pair transition into their role. In addition, Savage commended the pair on their work throughout the election process.
“I thought that clearly the school resonated with their ideas and I think they have really thought it out. I know they’ve talked a lot with administrators and faculty, trying to make sure their items had support and had good feedback. All eight pairs were really good people and really strong candidates and the student body chose who they wanted,” said Savage.
Savage continued, commenting how he hopes the pair can continue the current efforts to organize a day-on for Earth Day. Instead of holding academic classes, the student body would participate in sustainability and climate programming on Earth Day.
“The biggest thing that I hope that they do [was] one of our big goals this year, trying to do Earth Day-on, and have an academic day off but programming for sustainability and climate. We got really close to being able to do it but it kind of got taken away when we were really close to getting it done. So that’s one thing that we’re hoping that they’re able to complete that we weren’t able to finish,” said Savage.
During the election process, the pair emphasized the idea of a “Community Committee,” a space where clubs, affinity groups, and other organizations can come together to discuss how to further improve community life on campus, alongside networking with administration.
“I’m excited because I think it’ll expand our ability to connect with different people in the student body, but I think it’s a way for different groups to partner together. At the end of the day, that’s what makes a strong community, people who are not only able to work hard together, but also play hard together,” said DeHoog.
Lam reflected on his journey leading up to the co-presidential elections. During his tenure, Lam hopes that he will be able to inspire younger students to keep striving for their goals, no matter big or small.
“I feel like I’ve grown so much, not only in my time at Andover, but even throughout this whole election process. I think I’m most excited about inspiring our peers, most importantly people [that are] younger than us, like running the Class Rep elections. I want to tell them that when I was a Freshman running, I froze during my Class Rep speech, but here I am. I’ve grown so much through putting myself through that, and that’s really something,” said Lam.
