As Lake Forest Academy begins a new school year, new student leaders are stepping up to help the community. Among these individuals, there are 12 Prefects, 20 proctors, three student ambassadors, the All-School president and many club leaders.
Krish Bahadur ‘26 was elected last year as the all school president for 2025-26. As a previous member of the student council for the Junior class, Bahadur first decided to run for all school president when he was told by classmates that he would be a good fit. Bahadur described his role as “a lot of organizational work to make sure everybody is on the same page as there is senior, junior, sophomore and freshman student council that have to work together.”
One of Bahadur’s goals for the upcoming school year is “Making sure students come to the events, regardless of whether it is a sports game or a school dance.” He believes there has been a significant decline in school spirit over the past couple of years and plans to change that. He also plans to lower the cost of laundry services and eventually achieve free washing and drying for boarding students, which further testifies his commitment to the student body.
This year’s Head Prefect Clare Gartz ‘26 said, “I bring organizational skills and can help facilitate good group communication to ensure everybody is doing their part,” when asked about her role at LFA.While the other prefects’ roles tend to be more specific, Gartz’s responsibilities are broader and more managerial, including “organizing morning meetings every week, sending the Around Campus information and overseeing and helping with projects that other prefects run.” This includes aiding with house cup, dorm cup and annual events like Healthy Choices Day.
Similar to Bahadur, Gartz wishes to “increase overall LFA school spirit,” a goal she accomplished with the recent Field Day event, in which all grades competed with one another in fun field-based challenges, marking the first house cup challenge of the year.
Riley Mormon ‘26 serves as a proctor and leader for Field Dorm. She is one of LFA’s five proctors who are chosen upperclassmen that create and run dorm cup challenges and help underclassmen with adjusting to dorm life and LFA. The four dorms are a large source of campus pride for boarders, and serve as their home while they attend LFA, a perspective that Mormon and the other field proctors share. When asked why she chose to apply to become a proctor, Mormon said, “My freshman year proctor became my best friend and my mentor, so I wanted to be able to do that for other people. I think proctors have the ability to help students in and out of the dorms, and it becomes a sisterhood.”
On the more technical side of being a proctor, Mormon’s job in Field is “making sure everyone stays safe and clean, but also planning fun events like dorm bonding activities and dorm cup to make it an enjoyable environment to live in. We just had residential dinner, so proctors helped set that up.” Proctors like Riley ensure dorm life runs smoothly, and help foster the close-knit dorm community that is core to LFA.
Leadership can also extend outside the campus community, specifically looking toward future LFA admits. Maya Greenwood ‘26 is one of the four Head Ambassadors this year, who are in charge of the student ambassador program at LFA: hosting open houses, organizing the peer mentor program, coordinating events like new family and student days and training fresh student ambassadors so they can give their own tours and host perspective students as shadows confidently.
As one of the largest clubs on campus, Caxy Keys has a key role in promoting the image of LFA and sharing their experiences with interested families. When asked about her personal connection to the LFA student ambassador program Greenwood said, “When I transferred to LFA my sophomore year, the student ambassadors led my tour and my shadow day was inspiring for me – compelling me to come to LFA.”
The Head Ambassadors share their student perspective and thoughts with prospective students and families. Greenwood added, “Being able to hear what LFA was like from students was really helpful to me when deciding to come to LFA and envisioning what my life would be like when I transferred.”
All student leaders have unique responsibilities that come together and have a huge impact on the campus community and quality of the year as a whole. Being a student leader is an honor, a huge responsibility and a commitment to peers.
It can be difficult to manage leadership at times, especially with most senior student leaders balancing planning engaging activities with their school work and college applications. However, student leaders at LFA still manage to make LFA a memorable and productive place to be in, and their daily hard work can be seen in every facet of LFA’s culture.
