Andover’s residential clusters have been preparing to start the election process to select Cluster Co-Presidents. Candidate pairs will compete to lead the Abbot (ABB), Flagstaff (FLG), Pine Knoll (PKN), West Quad North (WQN), and West Quad South (WQS) clusters. Cluster Co-Presidents are tasked with organizing events, meetings, and social activities throughout the school year, and serve as a link between students and their respective Deans.
Jill Meyer, Pine Knoll Cluster Dean, noted that implementing student leadership positions ensures cluster-wide events and initiatives are executed in ways that feel relevant and relatable.
“[The Cluster Co-Presidents] are really the pulse of student life in the cluster. They’re sharing how students are feeling right now: either morale is really high, ‘We loved the munch last week,’ or ‘It’s been raining for five days, and the munch wasn’t super well attended.’ They’re really helpful in figuring out how students are doing, [and] what sort of things they would appreciate right now. Other elements are things like their participation in the conduct response process.… they’re really the conduit between the 200 or so kids in the cluster and the cluster,” said Meyer.
Serving as Cluster Co-Presidents requires pairs to formulate original initiatives to enhance student life. Pine Knoll Cluster Co-President candidate Genie Han ’27, running with Tomas Tejapaibul ’27, highlighted Pine Knoll’s appeal and some of the initiatives the pair is pursuing.
“The Knoll is such an underrated sort of cluster on campus. We’re right by the Sanctuary. We have so much nature surrounding us. And we’re also just far enough away from campus that it feels sort of like we’re living away from it, but close enough that it’s convenient. And I think truly it’s the people in Pine Knoll who have made my Pine Knoll experience what it is…We want to have further community bonding as a core theme. Then, we want to raise awareness about our surroundings, so not just our community, but society on a broader level, what our impacts are on campus to the world beyond Andover,” said Han.
Larkin Techentin ’27, running for Abbot Cluster Co-President with Wendi Wei ’27, pointed to gaps between grades that the pair hopes to address.
“Especially since Abbot is mostly smaller dorms in stacks, we find that there’s often a large disconnect between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen and all the dorms in general. So, going into this process, Wendi and I really want to emphasize community bonding. That might be through more tournament-based activities or even community bonding mixers and dorm mixers like slip-and-slides and cookouts, and overall, we just want Abbot to feel like a fun place and with approachable leaders,” said Techentin.
West Quad South Co-President candidates George Richardson ’27 and Shiloh Robinson ’27 reflected on the personal importance of their cluster. Richardson mentioned the gap often observed among boarding and day students, which he hopes to reduce.
“Being a day student, knowing that we have the largest day student representation out of all the clusters, it means a lot, because taking on a role such as Cluster [Co-President] means that we would have to represent both boarding life and day student life. For me personally, I would want that good integration of both the day student and boarder life. We’re really trying to take down that barrier of boarders between day students,” said Richardson.
Robinson also touched upon the importance of cluster spirit and energy at Andover, especially seen at Cluster Olympics.
“This year, I got to know my Cluster Co-Presidents, because I always see them at the munches, and they’re always super energetic. I’ve also been in West Squad South for three years, so I have a lot of spirit for West Quad South, and I really enjoy cheering people on at Cluster Olympics,” said Robinson.
Jonathan Oh ’27, running for Abbot Cluster Co-President with Mwaita Nyakujarah ’27, addressed the role’s time demands and his commitment to them.
“One thing that [Mwaita and I] are committed to [doing] is free up our Wednesday nights, evenings, free up our Thursdays, and work very hard on the weekends in order to free up that space. On Wednesdays, we have Cluster Council, lunch, and then maybe even some [Growth and Accountability Plan] meetings to do. We understand and are aware of which blocks in our schedule that we need to leave open and dedicate to being a Cluster Co-President,” said Oh.
Nyakujarah brought up making greater use of the Abbot Campus as a priority for her and Oh as Cluster Co-President.
“Abbot Campus is such an amazing part of Andover’s history, and it would be great for us as Abbot Cluster to explore that history through being present on the campus. So, some of the things we’re thinking of doing is hosting cluster events that would be open to the whole school in untraditional Abbot spaces. These untraditional Abbot spaces could be a movie night on Graves Field and picnics on Abbot Campus, just to really explore all that Abbot has to offer… having the opportunity to represent the community that we strive to build is a really important thing for us,” said Nyakujarah.
For Kit Leckerling, West Quad North Cluster Dean, the representation of a strong cluster co-president embodies leadership and acknowledges the importance of presence and connection in the cluster community.
“I think about the current Co-presidents from West Quad North. When they’re walking around, the other students in the cluster know them, they see them, and they know that they care about them. They could go up to them and talk to them about anything if they had a question or concern. In daily life, it goes a long way to know that there’s someone there for you in that way,” said Leckerling.
