By Zoe Ekeh
The Student Government Association (SGA) has had elections for new students to take on positions for the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year. On March 21st a new SGA President, Vice President and Chaplain were elected. All these positions play important roles in SGA. They help make decisions that impact the student body throughout the academic year.
Cedarville juniors Felipe Mayta, Jill Alexander, and Trey Storr are all happy to be a part of SGA and fulfill their roles in the positions they were elected in. The Big Love Campaign is what got Mayte elected as the new President and Alexander as the Vice President. Trey Storr took a shot at running for the SGA Chaplain position and got elected.
SGA President and Vice President
Loving and serving people well is how Mayta wants to fulfill his role as the new SGA President. With the campaign he worked with Jill being called Big Love he wants to serve the Cedarville Student body with Biblical love.
Mayta referenced 1 John 4:19, “We loved because he first loved us, to describe how he wants to serve with love.
“God himself is love, “Mayta said. “It’s a part of Cedarville’s core values too, love or God love for other people.”
“When you feel most impacted is when people show genuine and Godly love to us, and we can do that every single day to love people well,” Mayta said.
Loving people well is what Mayte believes is a need students have and a blessing that can be given to students. He wants to reflect what Jesus did in the Bible with his position as president, give through love.
Alexander feels that the love Mayta and her receive from the student body at Cedarville and from the lord inspires them to be generous to the student body they will serve.
Mayta and Alexander are both economic majors. Mayta met Alexander at an economic club dinner.
“Jill is so accomplished, I always see a machine,” Mayta said. “She has the strongest work ethic, and she loves people so well.”
Alexander met Mayta at an admissions student panel.
“I was just blown away by his energy and his compassion and genuine love for Cedarville as a whole,” Alexander said. “Not in a canned way, but just in an authentic way.”
Mayta and Alexander worked with each other as officers in the economic club prior to running for SGA.
Walking around Cedar Lake during a study break Mayte sparked up a conversation with Jill about running for SGA president and vice president. They were discussing a plan about maybe running a 5k in the summer when Mayta mentioned running for SGA.
An ongoing joke about physically running and running a campaign has been an inside joke for Mayta and Alexander ever since they had that conversation. So every time they mention the campaign to each other they joke about physically running.
“Jill, I know you don’t run but would you want to run for SGA with me?” Alexander laughingly said.
Engaging with other student orgs is how Mayta and Alexander show their intention to show love to the student body. They want student orgs on campus to have a good handle on being inclusive towards the student body.
Building a vision and communicating effectively were the two goals for the Big Love campaign. Having a team that collectively worked well together was what worked.
One person that was a part of the Big Love campaign team was Hannah Flowers, the graphic designer for the team.
“She’s out of this world, and she brought our vision to life in colors,” Mayta said.
Mayta grew as a campaign organizer between the two election rounds for his SGA position. After the primary election he became better at organizing his campaign and communicating with his team. Improvising was something else that Mayta had to figure out during his campaign run.
Alexander thought that Mayta’s leadership throughout the campaign was attestable.
“Felipe lives out what says, and I think people can see that,” Alexander said. “There’s not a sense of hypocrisy there, Felipe’s calling all of us to love, but he’s also loving.”
As the new SGA president and vice president, Mayta and Alexander want to work hard to serve the student body to the best of their ability!
SGA Chaplin
Serving as a Junior class chaplain inspired Trey Storrs to run for the SGA Chaplain position. This was partly due to being discipled by Aaron Cook, the Director of Discipleship, once a week. Storrs will now as an SGA Chaplain be able to meet with Cook once a week and have professors mentor him on sermons.
Storrs had a very long campaign process, lasting for about a month.
Storrs prayed about deciding to become an SGA Chaplain. He worried that it could affect what he wanted to do in his future, which is working on the missions field. Cook advised Storrs to not worry about that, though.
“If my chapels get live streamed, then is there a chance that that might affect me getting into a country, when I do missions someday,” Storrs said.
As a biblical studies major Storrs does and will apply what he learns in class to his chaplain position.
“It’s wonderful getting to take what I learn in class and getting to apply to real life ministry right away,” Storrs said.
Discipleship, highlighting ministry, and preaching a series on the name of God are what Storrs wants to do with Cedarville’s student body. He wants the Lord to use humility to allow him to be encouraged by the student body.
Zoe Ekeh is a Senior Journalism Major and a On-Campus News writer for Cedars. She enjoys listening to music, conversating with others, and baking.
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