By Mikayla Smith

High Point University’s Student Government Association Elections concluded this past month.

Voting opened March 21 at 12:00 a.m. where students had the chance to vote for Student Body President, Treasurer and Secretary.

Lizzy Eisenhardt, a presidential candidate in the 2022-2023 election, explained how positive running for president has been.

“I decided to run for Student Body President and I am super excited I chose to run to make sure there was positive change implemented on this university and student voices are heard,” said Eisenhardt. “This process has been so much fun so far. I’ve got to meet so many new students and already create positive change. All the conversations have been great.”

Eisenhardt’s team had a table in the Slane Student Center passing out buttons, t-shirts and cards as well as answering any question students might have.

Jake Pardi, a candidate running for Student Body Treasurer for his second term, was asked what would make him want to return to the position.

“I decided to run for my second term as Executive Treasurer because over this past year I learned a lot from these experiences helping students, meeting as many people as I can on this campus and making an impact,” said Pardi. “I’ve seen this impact through clubs and organizations between their budget’s bills and overall purchase requests and our financial stability as a Student Government Association.”

If elected, Pardi will be serving his second term as he goes into his senior year.

Alena Rivers, a candidate running for Student Body Secretary, explains that this election has made her into a student leader overnight and she’s grateful for it.

“I’m running for Secretary on the same team with Lizzy Eisenhardt,” said Rivers. “She’s running for president and this is such an amazing process and I’m so excited to be part of it. I’ve learned so much about myself and about how to work with other people and honestly, I have been so thankful because we have such a good team there and I couldn’t ask for better people to work with. I will say that the HPU elections are very intense, but it builds character right and I’m just so excited. We’ve been working day in and day out trying to do a lot to, you know, get to where we need to be. I’ve been really focused on a quote…. it’s basically saying you don’t have to work hard for things that aren’t worth it. We’re just excited to see the outcome of this election. We’re really trying to reach all the voices because your voice needs to be heard and it just a perspective for us. We’re just so excited to do this.”

With over 5,000 students, HPU had a lot of votes that needed to be casted.

In conclusion, Eisenhart, Pardi and Rivers all won their elections and will be the new Executive Council for the 2022-2023 academic year.

---

Mikayla Smith is a senior at High Point University majoring in Journalism. For contact inquiries, please email msmith10@highpoint.edu.