It is the first day of the new school year, and students flood into the Stockdale Community Center at lunch. You hear a booming voice fill the room and you look up to see a student saying hello to all the new freshmen into the space. At first you wonder what kind of student goes out their way to welcome freshmen, but you later find out that that student was a day student prefect.
The position of a prefect embodies leadership, responsibility, and service. It requires a leader who can be a guiding force, as well as someone who upholds the school’s values and represents the voices and needs of fellow day students.
Jialu and Kevin Wang (‘24), as head prefects, will be giving the Webb Canyon Chronicle an inside look into the daily life of a day student prefect.
The rumors surrounding the DSPs at Webb have always remained consistent, that of it being the easiest leadership position.
“Many students assume that we hardly do anything in comparison to other leadership groups,” Jialu said. “But I feel like that’s because we do a lot of work behind the scenes that they don’t really see.”
In reality, the DSPs work hard to keep social spaces like the Stockdale Center and Fawcett Library functional. During every evening lab or lunch period, a DSP will be stationed either in the library or Stockdale center, monitoring student life, helping students with questions, or helping their shift advisor with tasks around the community space.
While both Kevin and Jialu said their favorite part of being a prefect was planning events, they do admit that even planning socials can be difficult. Often working through complications and last-minute changes in plans, the DSPs make sure that students in attendance of their planned events have a great time regardless of the roadblocks the prefects encountered.
“There are a lot of things that could go wrong when setting up for events, for example with the fall social the weather was very unpredictable, so it was challenging, but it all worked out in the end.” Jialu said.
Last but certainly not least, day student prefects work to bridge the gap between the boarding and day student communities. As demonstrated through the Fall Social, their collaboration with the dorm prefects encourages a united space for students. The DSPs encourages upcoming upperclassmen to join the team this year to maintain and make an impact in the Webb community. And they promise that students will find that their responsibility also comes with an important reward, fun!
