The dream of many an under-former at the Kent School is to be one of the select members of his or her class to be tapped onto the Senior Council. The notions of power, status and weekly pizza and cookies that accompany the job are enough to make the craving under-former wonder if there is some formula for tapping ceremony success. To be sure, there is no single quality that defines a Senior Council member, but there are certainly factors within your control that can affect your tapping chances.

Be involved in the community.

Whatever you love to do, find a way to pursue it at Kent, and if it doesn’t already exist, find a faculty advisor and create a club with your friends. To become a leader of the Kent School community, you must already be an active and involved member of said community. We’re also talking clubs, Blue Key events, sports games, working at the admissions office, library or tech center in the student jobs program, choirs and music ensembles. Be open to trying new things and pursuing your passions. If nothing else, GET OUT THERE.

Junior year class representative.

Becoming a class representative for your form in any year shows your capacity and willingness to lead, but never is it more influential towards your tapping odds than in junior year. Junior year class representatives nearly always become Senior Council members, provided that they don’t mess up in any colossal fashion. So influential is the position of class representative in the junior year that even people who run for class representative, and perhaps make it past some primary stage of class representative elections, have a higher chance of being tapped than their peers who decided that a brief speech in front of their form was not for them.

Be known and vice versa.

All of the above are just ways to be better known in the Kent community. In the end, the Senior Council is elected by all people, students, faculty and staff and the deans. People won’t vote for someone whom they don’t know or think negatively of. During meals, when at the student center or during and between classes, get to know your peers and your teachers. Have conversations, make personal jokes, and create experiences that set you apart. Don’t become bogged down in your group of friends, but meet people of all forms and dorms. Just make sure that you maintain a positive reputation among your peers; popularity is different from infamy.

Be Yourself

But don’t lose yourself in your quest for power. Be the best you that you can be, and whatever happens happens.