Windsor High students Peter, Amy and Jonathan Jeffrey are in leadership and debate at their school. Peter and Jonathan are twins and are juniors; Amy is a senior. Press Democrat photo by Jeff Kan Lee

By KERRY BENEFIELD
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Forgive the Jeffrey siblings if they sometimes refer to themselves as “we.”
Amy, a senior, and identical twin brothers Peter and Jonathan, juniors, are associated student body officers at Windsor High School, as well as members of Interact Club, Advanced Placement Core and debate team. They all maintain grade point averages of more than 4.0 and all call their parents their heroes.
“They have this unique way of supporting one another. It’s almost as if they have the same goals in mind,” said Windsor High’s leadership teacher, Diana Rudesill.
“They motivate one another, help each other out. It’s kind of like family first but not in a creepy, Mafia kind of way.”
The Jeffreys have been active in student government throughout high school.
Amy has held a student body post since her sophomore year, and now serves as treasurer. In their freshman and sophomore years, Peter and Jonathan alternated as class president and vice president.
“Each of the classes has a specific responsibility, and really the goal is to plan a good dance,” said Peter. “We really didn’t feel like we were helping people. We were throwing a dance.”
They set their sights higher this year, running for student body posts. Peter now serves as president, Jonathan as vice president.
To boost campus spirit, they helped pen a new Jaguars fight song. Now they are at work trying to increase “support” for clubs and theater projects, for students who might not have obvious connections with school.
“If you ask the majority of people, they would say they really dislike school and that is sort of disturbing,” Peter said, “especially for someone like me who has sort of taken to school.”
The brothers have established a two-week “Core Olympics” program, during which the school’s academic core groups compete in lunchtime games.
As president of the campus Interact Club, Amy is working to broaden the club’s outreach and increase the number of hours spent serving the community.
“We are creating incentives for people to do community service,” she said. “Every time the club does 100 hours, I’m going to make a cake or something like that.
“Everyone has been really involved,” she said. “People have been so excited this year to get things done. We are hoping that incentives, trying to track our hours to see what we can get, might help.”
The trio also belong to the school’s debate team, and the brothers write for Jaguar Prints, the campus newspaper. They get to dabble in sports, news and academic topics, Jonathan said.
That cross-campus culture suits the twins well, he said.
Meantime, all three are working to boost Jaguar pride, or at least familiarize students with the words to their new fight song.
“At first we tried to go out there and sing it at lunch time,” Jonathan said. “It didn’t get the response we wanted it to, but it’s slowly being learned through osmosis.”
The Jeffreys’ enthusiasm for campus activities is contagious, Rudesill said.
“I would say their work ethic, their character and integrity are pretty rare,” Rudesill said. “These kids came to me this way. They were sort of a gift.”

Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs. pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com.

Amy, Peter and Jonathan Jeffrey, ages 17, 16 and 16
School: Windsor High School
Family: Mom Marla Jeffrey, dad David Jeffrey and dog Molly
Notable: Amy is student body treasurer, Peter is president and Jonathan is vice president. Amy is president of the Interact Club, Peter and Jonathan are members. All three belong to the school debate team and maintain grade point averages of more than 4.0.