After a long year, the four senior student government clerks each culminated their clerking experience in recent weeks. The group of seniors, Andrew Mercantini ’23 (Agenda Co-Clerk), Shelby Noel ’23 (Diversity Co-Clerk), Shay O’Connor ’23 (Recording Clerk), and Daniel Sorokin ’23 (Meeting for Worship for Business Clerk) have been through ups and downs together as a group, and each shared a unique take on what the experience means to them.
The six student government clerks pose for a photo in the spring of 2022. Photo by Elina Shah ’24.
Andrew Mercantini:
Clerking this year was not new to Mercantini, who was first selected to be Agenda Clerk for his junior year. As the only returning clerk, Mercantini was able to compare two different leadership groups and see lots of change carried out through student government work. Regarding how he feels about leaving the position, he noted, “I’m sad. This has been a three year process for me; from deciding I wanted to run sophomore year and then getting it for junior and senior year; it’s been fun getting to see two very unique groups being able to work together.”
Mercantini has grown to love the relationships with students and faculty that he has built through clerking, and shares that “it’s been really fun to learn about these people and get to work with them.”
Mercantini also appreciated getting the chance to work with this new group of clerks: “It’s a totally different setting this year than last year. I was the young kid coming in, I was the only junior and the only guy, and this year it’s a way more diversified group, and we work really really well together.”
Some of his favorite memories include spending time with the clerk group of his junior year and running the club fair his senior year. But Mercantini addressed the times where the job wasn’t so easy: “Clerking is hard. I think it’s a job where you’re expected to get everything done, but that’s just not possible all the time.”
Overall, Mercantini is sad to leave a position that means so much to him behind, and will miss “being able to put [his] music on in the beginning of the Thursday meeting and getting ready to make change.”
Shelby Noel:
Noel began her clerking experience this year as a Diversity Clerk. Noel shared that she has gotten a lot out of the experience: “It’s been a really informative experience. I learned a lot, and I hope that I taught a lot, too.”
Noel will especially miss the group that she’s been clerking with and said that they have had an incredible year clerking together. She commented, “These are the sweetest people ever. Sometimes I’ll have difficulties trying to figure something out, and the other clerks or my co-clerk are always so supportive and come with such new and creative ideas.”
When asked how she feels about leaving the position, Noel said, “It’s sort of bittersweet because I am sad about having to leave the position, but I’m also excited for the new clerks to come in, and hopefully they will bring something new to the table.”
Noel has had such a great time clerking this year because “fighting for something is really cool, and I feel like that it is a big part of what we do.”
Shay O’Connor:
O’Connor has had a “super rewarding experience” stepping into the role of Recording Clerk this year. O’Connor spoke on the overall impact clerking has had: “It’s been a really great experience because I’ve been able to work with other clerks, faculty advisors, and the student body as a whole to grow personally as a clerk and help the student body as a whole.”
O’Connor additionally echoed the sentiments of the other clerks regarding the compatibility of this particular group of clerks: “I think we’re a really strong group of clerks; we’ve been able to do a lot this year and work collaboratively together, and I think we’ve been able to get a lot done.”
O’Connor noted that the ability to work with students directly to implement change resonates with him most, though he greatly valued many duties of clerking.
Because O’Connor has had such a great experience, he is sad to leave the position, but he is ready to move on to new opportunities. He shared, “I think it’s similar to graduating; it’s a little disappointing that this particular activity at MFS that I’ve put a lot of time into is coming to an end. But I think that we’ve had a really great year, we’ve managed to do a lot of things and we’re going to be able to finish out the year strong.”
Throughout this year O’Connor has been especially proud to see the work of the clerks benefitting the MFS community: “Whether it’s the work we’ve done with the dress code or with tampons, it’s been great to see our change carried out.”
Daniel Sorokin:
Daniel Sorokin ’23 took on the role of Meeting for Worship for Business Clerk this year, but has declined an interview.
