Weekends are an indelible part of the St. Andrew’s experience. While trips to Wilmington, Philadelphia, D.C., and beyond are steeped in art, history, culture, or just plain fun, Saturday nights on campus are what showcase that St. Andrew’s “special sauce.” Those are the evenings the whole school gathers to engage in traditions like prom, homecoming, Haunted Trail, Casino Night, Maui Waui, the Frosty Run, and more. And when it comes to building community, nothing beats the first few weekends of the year—that’s where VI Form Council comes in.

Form council, a program innovated by Director of Student Life Kristin Honsel P’24, establishes a core leadership group of six students per class. Those students are tasked with leading weekend programming designed to bring Saints together; each class has certain weekends they are responsible for. This year, the VI Form Council tackled the first five weekends.

VI Form Council member Claire Hulsey ’26 remembers how much those early weekends meant to her as a freshman. “The school has been shaped by the classes who came before me, and I was on the receiving end of all of those wonderful experiences,” she says. “As seniors, we’re here to enjoy the experience, but more so, we’re creating it for other people. What’s at stake is the [new student] experience, so I consider this an opportunity to give back”

Hulsey says senior council is a matter of culture preservation, not revolution. “If we do everything right, no one’s going to notice and that’s great because it means we’re protecting the culture, not changing it,” she says.

Thus far, VI Form Council executed the Frosty Run, in which Saints descend upon various Wendy’s to bond over a Frosty, and the accompanying dance; Homecoming; a Front Lawn movie night; a gaming night, and more. For these events, council members talk logistics, pitch ideas, choose vendors, budget, promote, perform set up and clean up, and rally the whole school. “VI Form Council is massively different than other form councils because seniors set the tone,” Honsel says. “In partnership with the co-presidents, this is a whole-school leadership position.”

Honsel is impressed with this year’s council, who weathered early storms together. Literally. When rain forced the council to cancel a planned foam party not once, but twice, they had to pivot and come up with something creative on the fly, made markedly more difficult when all six members found themselves in different places one Saturday afternoon trying to come up with a new plan for that evening.

“A few of them were at a cross-country meet, so others were able to say, ‘I got this,'’’ Honsel says. “They refuse to give up. Each brings a different strength to the table that complements the whole.”

In addition to Hulsey, VI Form Council is made up of Class of 2026 Saints Bradley Cook, Bixby Hanrahan, Eden Appiah, Natasha Hearder, and Phin Brown.

“We are the face of weekend fun, but it’s more than that,” says Brown. “Our main purpose is to make sure that every student feels that sense of community.”

Brown says the council's different personas are what make it work. “Not everyone is extroverted and bubbly, and we need that introverted presence,” he says. “We also need that person who is going to keep us in check if we have crazy ideas. The only thing you genuinely need is passion for our community. I hope when underformers sees how passionate we are, and the effort and positivity we put into it, they think, ‘Oh, okay. This is just what we do here’ and then they mirror that.”

“I could not do my job without form council, nor would I want to,” adds Honsel. “If it wasn't for them, we would have to rebuild the energy, culture, and tone every year from scratch.”

Next up for the crew? The beloved Haunted Trail. "We have so many ideas," Hulsey says, laughing. "We'll see what actually gets approved."