Serving a school that rigorously prides itself on academic integrity, the Honor Council has worked hard to continue its leadership on that front over the year by leading faculty meetings and participating in conferences across the country.

“From the beginning of the year, there was a focus on academic integrity especially with the matriculation speeches and the conversations that followed,” Dean of Studies Evan Barth said. “I think within a year, we’ve had our ups and downs in terms of integrity and cases. I could only hope that the future will keep improving.”

Over the past year, there have been a total of 12 honor council cases, which involved 22 students from across grade levels. 18 of those students are currently put on disciplinary probation, a policy where the students must face the consequences depending on the gravity of their first time or repeated offenses and must petition to be taken off probation.

With three seniors graduating, the council would also like to welcome their newly elected Nicole Dalal to join the Sophomore group with Priyanka Mody and Frederic Enea. Honor council will then consist of seven females and one male next year. Dr. Mark Brada will be also be the newest edition to the Faculty Board.

“When I came in Freshmen year, it was basically a body that only listened to cases and now, we’ve come so far especially with all the help with Mr. Westgate, administration, and faculty. We met with people outside at Universities. We’re looking increasing the visibility not only at the Harker campus but also at the Middle school campus, and I’m sure we’re going to have a very bright future ahead of us,” Alex Han (12), graduating member of three years, said.

As a major goal in the future, rising Student Chair Olivia Zhu (12) will focus on examining honor at not only the high school but also the middle school level and perhaps even at college. In addition, Honor Council will be hosting its annual conference here at school over President’s break.

“We will continue to work to increase the Honor Council presence in the community – that it’s not just a secret little board that meets, that what we’re doing affects the whole student body whether that is hosting a speaker or hosting a conference,” rising Faculty Chair Anthony Silk said.

Because of a past incident where a group of 11 freshmen collaborated on an assignment in violation of the honor code, the council felt the need to teach students the importance of honor and show them what is expected at the high school level at a young age.

“We are a lot farther along than we were. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we’re a lot stronger now,” Faculty Chair Ramsay Westgate said. “We’re fortunate to have a group of students who are very committed and recognized as leaders for other students to go to for questions and for pushing things forward.”