As the graduating class prepares to pack up and ship out, eight juniors have stepped up to take an active role in leading their herd.

The herd executives for next year will be Carly Kurt (Martina), Lili Switzer (Bohaty), Kate Pedrotti (Lucas), Peter Dessert (Tylicki), Ben Frey (Millie), Megan Ruf (Reardon), Arasto Sadeghi (Perrini), and Patrick Meara (Rost).

“I feel like this is a good opportunity for me to grow in leadership and just keep the energy high in my herd,” junior Carly Kurt said.

As Martina’s herd exec, Kurt has already started thinking about the impact she can have on the school next year.

“It’s rough that Martina’s faith families are all divided throughout the school,” Kurt said. “It’d be great if we could get all the herd’s classrooms together.”

Other execs expressed their desire to improve their herd’s chances for the Ursuline Cup.

“I’m sick and tired of seeing Millie at the bottom of the leaderboard,” Ben Frey said. “Next year, we’ll be on top.”

Despite all the hard work herd execs and faith family captains put in, next year’s

leaders will have more help than usual.

In addition to the usual herd positions, underclassmen next year will have the opportunity to run for deputy captain of their faith family. 

“It was an idea from the inception of the herd system,” herd coordinator Jessica Switzer said. “Some years we voted for it but as the school year gets going, it gets so busy that I don’t think it really came to fruition.”

Switzer mentioned that the position will help alleviate some of the stress on faith family captains and allow underclassmen to get more involved.

“I would like to see them on their own committee and then have them come to herd council meetings at least once a month,” Switzer said.

While the deputy positions won’t be voted on until the start of next year, the student body will vote on faith family captains on April 17.

“You see a lot of upperclassmen running everything,” Megan Ruf said. “Especially at the beginning of the year, I would love to just get underclassmen comfortable with getting involved.”

No matter what the position, serving in the herd system lets students take an active role in the community. 

“They should have a voice,” Switzer said. “That’s what matters, so that’s what we’re going to try and incorporate.”