Presidential Address

Hello, Cistercian Student Body.

Most of you already know me, but my name is Nonso Unini, and I will be your Student Body President for the 2022-2023 school year. Student Council has a lot of exciting plans for this semester: a new Homecoming raffle, a Thanksgiving color run, and a Family Feud competition in the near future. Outside of the normal StuCo events throughout the school year, my primary goal as President is to expand our school’s culture. What that means is sustaining the energized atmosphere that flows through the school during football season and Homecoming while carrying it throughout the entire school year. As many of you “veteran” students know, the social energy that buzzes in the fall air tends to dwindle as the school year creeps on into final exams and second semester. My goal as President is to provide some new, innovative events that will be enjoyable for all of the Upper School and keep the social energy running high. By providing a broader variety of events for students to partake in, this creates the opportunity for Cistercian to not only form new traditions but to also re-define its Upper School experience.

I want Cistercian events to accommodate not only the underclassmen by providing mixers and afterparties, but I want them to also include the upperclassmen who sometimes feel they have outgrown school events. StuCo is working very hard to plan new events that will provide genuine fun for the Student Body and will use our resources to give the students what they deserve. The only way to start this change—to begin expanding our school culture—is to make a unified, student-led effort.

This starts with the seniors setting the precedent for the Upper School—this means showing up to the Homecoming setups, afterparties, and tournaments. The more involved we are in the setup and planning process, the more control we will have in shaping the event the way we want it to be. The juniors are in a different position. You all have time on your side as well as the newfound leadership positions to bring your ideas to fruition. I urge you juniors to come up with ideas on how to improve the Upper School and approach your StuCo reps, thus beginning to take the steps to make your idea a reality. As a junior, you are now in the position to be a leader in the Upper School. Use your position to your advantage and leave a mark on the school.

To the sophomores and freshman, you all play a critical role in the future of the Upper School, and it begins right now. You all have the ultimate advantage of foresight—you will get to see the success, failures, and ideas of those juniors and seniors who come before you. My message for you is to get involved and get creative. By planting the seeds of your idea in these earlier years, you are in a position to really develop and build your concept over the years so that when you are a junior or senior, you can confidently form your ideas into a new event or tradition for the Upper School to enjoy.

I am so excited to serve everyone this year as President, and I truly look forward to working together to bring about lasting change to this school. I believe that with your support, we can make this the best year of high school for all of us. Lastly, if you ever have any ideas or suggestions that you think StuCo could implement to improve the experience at Cistercian, feel free to reach out to me directly, and we can discuss your plans. I look forward to welcoming all of you into the process of creating a great school year, and I cannot wait to get to work on all the things we have planned.

Your President,
Nonso Unini