Fostering Form Bonding

For Third Form representatives Alexis Conway ’27 and Ezra Williams ’27, friendship enhances the opportunity to serve on Student Council.

BY JACQUELINE PRIMO LEMMON

As they meet up midway through the school year to talk about their roles as the Form of 2027’s new Student Council representatives, Alexis Conway ’27 and Ezra Williams ’27 stop to chat with other students near the ping-pong table and arcade games in the lower level of the Friedman Community Center. They gesture and nod as they listen, both to each other and to their formmates. In the tangible ease that marks their interactions, there is evidence of the close friendship that prompted both to apply to be Third Form Representatives, with the hope that they’d be elected together.

“I love talking to people. I love making new friends, meeting new [people], that was a main thing for me,” Williams says of his interest in becoming a form representative. He and Conway both describe being welcomed warmly by upperformers when they first arrived at SPS; now, as members of the Student Council, they have the opportunity to extend that same warmth to their formmates and the next group of new students.

Unlike upper form officers who are elected in the fall, Third Form representatives are named at the start of Winter Term, after they’ve had a chance to acclimate to life at the School and gotten to know one another. Conway describes the role she and Williams share as being “the bridge to our form in Student Council,” participating in biweekly meetings with the deans to talk about the wants and needs of each form, particularly those pertaining to student life. As new officers their focus is on helping their form develop the close connections they see among the older students. The pair also represent the Third Form at School events, which recently included helping with set-up and clean-up at the Winter Formal.

“You want to be able to have trust and faith in someone that will advocate for you … especially for representing your form.”

— Alexis Conway ’27

In addition to her role in Student Council, Conway is a member of the SPS Ballet Company (SPSBC) and says the SPSBC and the School community as a whole factored into her decision to apply to SPS. “I wanted to go to a school where I could do both ballet and academics in the same place,” she explains. She is also involved with SNL, the student group that plans weekend nightlife activities, and says her favorite class so far has been Physics First with Science Teacher Erin Ruane. “Physics is definitely hard, but [Mrs. Ruane] is a great teacher. She makes it so much easier, and I understand it so much more,” Conway says.

Williams attended a junior boarding school for sixth through ninth grades and knew he wanted to attend a boarding high school as well. Seeing the grounds on a tour of the School made a big impression on him, as did the SPS athletics program. “I play lacrosse — I’m a goalie — and talked to the coach, talked to some of the players, talked to their goalie last year … If I got in, I knew I was going to come here,” says Williams, who reclassified as a Third Former. He’s also a member of the affinity group Onyx, for students who identify as Black, African American or of African heritage, and a budding videographer whose sports highlight reels are popular on the SPS athletics Instagram channel. His favorite class so far, he says, has been Hum3 — the Third Form Humanities class that introduces new SPS students to the interdisciplinary program bringing together English, history, religion and philosophy. “I’ve always enjoyed writing,” he says. And while the interdisciplinary nature of Humanities may be challenging, “there’s also so much support and so many people who just want to see you succeed.”

Among the first initiatives Conway and Williams have undertaken to foster form bonding are planning a form “feed” — an SPS-favorite event in which an entire form gathers at Friedman for pizza, chicken fingers or another meal of their choosing — and creating Form of 2027 branded clothing. Following a form-wide vote for a sweatshirt, Williams, who is also interested in graphic design, has started making mock-ups.

Fun aside, the duo say they want to make sure every student in their form has a voice and emphasize the importance of good communication in their roles — communication with each other, their peers and other Student Council members, as well as the deans and School administration. As Conway says, “You want to be able to have trust and faith in someone that will advocate for you … especially for representing your form.”

And having representatives who are good friends always helps.