STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Rogers leads new slate of SGA officers

The upcoming 2017 school year is filled with ideas thanks to the newly elected Student Government Association officers at East Carolina University. 

This spring, La’Quon Rogers and Ryan Smith were elected student body president and vice president at ECU. 

Rogers and Smith’s campaign goal was to “Empower ECU Forward.” They ran on seven main points – to provide club and organization development, impact East Carolina’s research and development agenda, promote campus unity, improve campus and grid safety, advance campus parking, increase SGA awareness and enrich the SGA representative role. 

Student body president La’Quon Rogers

“Running was a real experience. Should any of us want to further our service to the public, I think this campaign has helped us do that,” Rogers said. 

Rogers has had many years of SGA experience starting in middle school, where he was president of his class, followed by senior class president in high school, president of SGA at Pitt Community College and SGA president for the state community college system. 

Vice president Smith said running for the SGA office was a great experience. 

“My journey running for VP was awesome. There were many ups and downs but looking back on everything, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Smith said. 

Smith’s personal goals for the upcoming year are to find a comfortable balance between SGA, schoolwork and friends. He wants to learn more about how to become a more effective leader and accomplish everything he and Rogers have set out to do for the upcoming year. 

“Through the three-to-four-month process of organizing and running the campaign I grew immensely as a person, and I can’t even to begin to put into words the personal growth that started within myself with just running a campaign for SGA,” Smith said. 

Along with Rogers and Smith, other SGA officers are Secretary Jessie Jefferys, Treasurer Haley Creef, Speaker of the Assembly Troy Nance and Attorney General Jonathan Abrams. 

“I felt like getting involved was a way for me to have a great outlet at ECU and SGA was one of the ones that stood out,” Jefferys said. 

Creef was involved in student government in high school and wants to make SGA at ECU more inclusive of the entire student body. Abrams was an at-large assembly member last year for ECU’s SGA. 

“The biggest thing about SGA is just representing all of the student organizations on campus and representing all of the students,” Nance said. “It’s not necessarily focused on one aspect, but mainly making sure everyone has a voice on this campus.” 

The officers are eager to make a difference in the upcoming school year. 

“We’re not making any promises, we’re making commitments. Because promises can be broken but commitments have to be fulfilled,” Rogers said. 

Left to right: Troy Nance, Jessie Jefferys, La’Quon Rogers, Haley Creef, Jonathan Abrams