Photo by Ross Mortensen/The Choate News
This fall began the inaugural year of the Head Prefects’ speeches, which were presented during Matriculation on Monday, September 3. Head Prefects Owen Collins ’19 and Abi Rivas ’19 addressed new students with words of wisdom and comfort after the incoming students signed their names in their respective form’s Matriculation book.
Rivas explained that Head Prefects are “another resource for all prefects and students.” She added, “I really just want to focus on being a support system for whoever needs me and help in whichever way I can. I want prefects to feel like they also have someone to talk to and have an outlet of support as much as they are supporting their prefectees.” In addition to overseeing their own prefectees, the other prefects, and the student body as a whole, the head prefects help facilitate discussions between students and staff. Collins explained, “We act as liaisons between the current prefects and the faculty whenever an issue may arise and help communicate it effectively.”
In his Matriculation speech, Collins emphasized the process of adjusting to a new place. Collins said, “I guess a big component of what I was trying to get through to them was to just put themselves out there. I wanted them to know that they shouldn’t be afraid to try new things and that it’s encouraged here, just as it should be encouraged everywhere else.” Collins sought to accurately convey the positive atmosphere of Choate and how participating in a multitude of activities can enhance one’s overall experience.
Collins addressed ten key points, which Niraj Desai ’19 said had many striking similarities to Moses’ Ten Commandments. Desai explained that through his speech, Collins gave new students “some ins and outs of what the culture here at Choate is like. A lot of them [the points] circled back to the main point of putting yourself out there and maybe sometimes making yourself uncomfortable and finding out what you love and what you don’t like.” Collins encouraged the hundreds of incoming students to step outside of their comfort zones and to experience all the splendors that Choate has to offer.
Rivas gave the closing remarks and conveyed a message that would ease tensions. “I wanted everyone to leave with a sense of relief and comfort. I wanted to let them know that fear and anxiety about the new year is totally normal but that I hope they find a home at Choate just like I have.” She gave the new students the consoling words that she would’ve liked to hear her freshman year, saying, “My freshman year, I was so scared about starting the new year that my memory of Matriculation completely blacked out. Because of that, I think it would have been really healthy to hear that those feelings are normal and I was not the only person feeling this way. I would have liked to hear that eventually everything will work itself out, because it’s true, eventually everything falls into place, and before you know it, you start calling Choate home.”
Collins, coming in as a new sophomore, had a similar nerve-wracking experience to Rivas at Matriculation. Collins recalls, “I remember that night, actually, sitting next to a couple of people that I didn’t really know, and I just remember feeling very nervous and uncomfortable. I definitely hadn’t found my sort of niche at Choate yet, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this place.” By reminiscing on those past feelings of being in a new place, Collins made sure to include in his Matriculation speech that most of the new students in the St. John chapel pews have the same thoughts running through their minds. Collins continued, “I tried to relate to the fact that the people here are probably uncomfortable, probably nervous, and there’s this uncertainty in the air. I definitely tried to draw on that and let them know that Choate is a very comforting place that wants everyone to succeed.”
This tradition of Head Prefect speeches at Matriculation is just beginning, and both Collins and Rivas believe that the tradition is vital and quite helpful to matriculating students: giving the new students a lay of the Choate land.
