UPDATED, March 23, 10:47 a.m: On March 23, it was announced that Norah Luzadder, Emerson Buck, Catherine Shean, Will Labowitz, and Alina Hirschle won their respective roles as next year’s Student Council board.

New Trier High School’s Student Council (StuCo), Girls’ Club, and Tri-Ship are holding elections for leadership positions to be filled in the 2026-2027 school year. Current sophomores and juniors began voting on March 17 and will be able to until March 19 via Canvas link. Results are released on the 23th.

There are five positions on the StuCo board that are elected by the student body:

President: Lyla Drapatsky, Norah Luzadder

Vice President: Emerson Buck, Alexa Kunreuther

Secretary: Phoebe Campbell, Catherine Shean

Treasurer: Avni Arora, Will Labowitz

School Culture Commissioner: Alina Hirschle, Emma Shanley

The award-winning StuCo helps to advocate for improvements throughout the school, plan school dances, organize fundraisers, approve new clubs and their budgets, and more. The five officials who make up the board conduct StuCo meetings and are the face of the club. 

Read more below to learn more about the presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Presidential Candidates

Lyla Drapatsky (‘27)

What do you think your best quality is?

“My best quality as a leader, I would say, is how relatable I can be—my ability to connect with an individual at any level, whether that be work-focused or personally. I think that’s definitely a really important quality to just be able to talk to any person and make them feel important, and it’s something I love to do.”

Why did you choose to run for president?

”So I decided to run for president of New Trier Student Council because it’s a club that I’m really passionate about and I realize that I would be really happy to be a leader of the club and kind of a face that’s associated with the club, since I feel like I kind of already am. I just feel so connected with everyone and I feel that I can positively lead the whole group to continue to have beneficial forces on the school as a whole. But the real reason is because I love the group in the club so much, and yeah, there’s not much else to it. I also feel that I can really do the position well: leading the whole group; getting everyone’s attention; making everyone feel seen, heard, loved, et cetera; listening to everyone’s ideas.”

What goals do you have if elected?

“My goals for Student Council are to maintain the really positive atmosphere and community that we have within the club. I would do that by making sure that Student Council members feel more close than they do right now. I would have us do activities where our members are integrated more so they can become familiar with each other. That would make the work we do more beneficial. On top of that, I would make sure we stay in close connection with all of our government positions within the school, such as the PTA, our principal, our superintendents, et cetera, which we already do a great job of. I would make sure to personally go to board meetings, go to other important committee meetings that I feel would be beneficial for the whole group to know about. I think most importantly overall is to make sure that we’re constantly hearing feedback from the whole student body, which is why I love [being] ACB chais so much, and what I do is that I already get all this feedback from the school and than I take that to the principal I take that to the rest of Student Council to see what we ourselves can actually do and then to see what’s out of our control.”

What traits are important to you in leaders?

”I think a very important trait for a leader to have is quality of character. To have a great quality of character, make sure they’re a good person that has the right intentions in whatever they’re doing. They’re not led by different motives, that they really just care about the group and the outcomes that the group has.”

Norah Luzadder (‘27)

What do you think your best quality is?

“I would say my best quality is that I’m empathetic. I really strive hard to understand where everyone is coming from. I have family members and friends from all across the political [and] religious spectrums. I’ve interacted with so many wonderful people with so many great ideas, just sort of through all the things I do in Student Council and outside of it. So I think that’s really helped me develop an understanding for other people’s perspectives, even when they might not match my own.” 

Why did you choose to run for president?

“I’ve received so much great feedback from my peers on what Student Council can do to better the student body, and I’ve also just seen such great examples set by the past presidents. I really just think I can expand upon that work even more. And I feel that I have a lot to contribute to Student Council and the New Trier community, so I would love to hold that role in order to make an impact to the best of my ability if elected.”

What goals do you have if elected? 

“One of my goals would be to make Student Council’s work more transparent. I know a lot of people don’t even know who the president is or who the leaders are, or what we’re doing, and I think too, they don’t realize that we really have the student body’s best interests at heart. We’re not just a self-serving organization, we want feedback. We want student ideas. I think people have great ideas, but they don’t know where to share them, or they don’t know that Student Council really can help bring those ideas to life. So I really think taking more student feedback and making sort of those channels of influence open to the student body at large is really important.”

What traits are important to you in leaders?

“I think there are many traits that are necessary for good leadership, but I think the biggest one that comes to mind is flexibility. I think being able to change course quickly and not getting too tied up in what could have been. I think with 4000 people at New Trier problems are constantly arising, so it’s important to be able to pivot, and also sometimes to realize that maybe other people’s ideas were more effective than yours—it really just helps pool everyone’s communal intelligence and contributions to create the best outcomes possible.”

Vice Presidential Candidates

Emerson Buck (‘27)

What do you think your best quality is?

“My best quality is probably being a good listener. I just find myself, a lot of times, being the mediator during struggles, whether it’s at home with my family—I have two brothers, so they’re kind of conflicting a lot and I usually help out. I’m also on the basketball team and I was a captain this year, so I’ve seen a lot of different perspectives and point of views that I have to work through, so I think my best quality is being able to listen to everybody’s points of view, figure out how to make them work together and collaborate best and form the best result from what everybody thinks.”

Why did you choose to run for vice president?

“I would have been happy with anything on the officer team, but I thought that vice president would be a good way to express all my desires and skills. I would say that I’m pretty organized and I like being a leader, so I think vice president is a good mix of that, and I get to work closely with the president and all of the other officers. I really like collaborative work and talking to teachers and stuff. So I just chose vice president because I thought it would be a good opportunity to kind of blend everything I like and just take a bigger role in Student Council.”

What goals do you have if elected?

”Something that we struggle with at New Trier is separation between grades. Obviously the freshmen are separated, which is harder to work through, but I know juniors and seniors and sophomores feel some separation with dances and different stuff like that, and especially in our club too, it’s kind of just everybody sticks with their group. So I really try to bring everybody together and make it [a] more inclusive, not only in our club, but in every club at New Trier as a whole. So that would be my main priority. Then, just figuring out ways that our group can do better for the school and community at wide, because we do things like NUSH and fundraising for a bunch of stuff, and I just would want to see how we can expand those opportunities and bring in more ideas, and even work with other clubs to see how we could support them and what fundraisers we could do together to make school and community a better place.”

What traits are important to you in leaders?

“I definitely think communication, because you have to be able to communicate with everybody you’re working with: not just adults, but peers and lowerclassmen and everything like that. Just to make sure everybody’s on the same page, everybody knows that they’re working towards the same goal—if you can’t communicate, then you won’t be able to get a lot of things done because nobody will be on the same page and everybody will be doing their own things.”

Alexa Kunreuther (‘27)

What do you think your best quality is?

“My best quality is my passion because I’m always truly dedicated to everything that I do (especially in student council). If there is a deadline I have to meet for a poster, I try to send it in a week before. If our Nush Committee needs another person to help manage everything, I’m on it. Basically, I try to stay involved in every area of student council while also managing the things I’ve already committed to.”

Why did you choose to run for vice president?

“I chose to run for VP because I want to create and enhance that same environment that the past officers have created for me in STUCO. The past two years in student council have been so magical, and part of that is due to the group of student leaders who run STUCO. The officers play such a strong role in everyday STUCO life, and their impact does really affect every person around them. I want to create that same positive energy in student council, and even create more connections with other members!”

What goals do you have if elected?

“If I were to be elected as vice president, I would want to focus on getting more student input into student council. For example, I know we manage and facilitate ACB meetings almost every week, but I still think we need more voices across the school. I want to reach anyone who feels like their voice isn’t being heard because that’s what student council’s about: representing the entire student body through our decisions and actions.”

What traits are important to you in leaders?

“I think inclusivity and passion are the two most important traits that leaders can have. If you want to be a leader in some area of your life, you need to show your dedication to the area and show why you are fit to be a leader. If you aren’t passionate for the role and just want the title, then maybe you shouldn’t take the role because there are others who are fit for the role and want to dedicate a large amount of time to being the best leader possible for that position. For inclusivity, I think it’s very important because as a team, you need to collaborate on a daily basis. As a leader, you need to facilitate normal group interactions that way there is a strong connection between members, and that they can efficiently get work done (with or without you supervising).”