Shine Your Light: The heart behind the new SGA president and vice president

By Bella Agnello

Donnie Gardiner and Hugo Cerrato became friends on Day 1 of their 1,000 days at Cedarville University. They met at the international students orientation last year, Gardiner being from the Turks and Caicos Islands and Cerrato from Honduras. Since becoming friends, they found encouragement as they watched each other grow in living out their faith, not knowing that they would cast a vision together for student life during the 2025-2026 school year.

Together, they formed the “Shine Your Light” campaign, based on Matthew 5:14-16. On February 28, a little over one month after starting their campaign, Gardiner and Cerrato won the SGA election by 31 votes.

Gardiner, now a sophomore Management major, served as freshman class president last year. Since then, he has led a Bible study on campus and at home, and co-founded a nonprofit organization for young leaders called Turks & Caicos Islands Society of Young Leaders. Though he did not run for sophomore class president, holding a leadership position again on campus was not out of the question.

This year, Gardiner began thinking about the message of Matthew 5:14-16, where Jesus calls Christians the “light of the world.” It was then that he felt the nudge to run for the Student Government Association (SGA) president and share this message with the rest of campus.

“Jesus is reminding us of our identity,” Gardiner said. “I saw this as a guide to use SGA as a platform to give students opportunities to shine their light in the world, in their community and in their dorms.”

In January, Gardiner approached Cerrato, a sophomore Economics and International Studies major, with his vision and asked him to run with him as vice president.

“I liked his vision for campus,” Cerrato. “I felt challenged by it. That made me look into my life and ask, ‘How am I shining my light and how can I motivate others to do this?’”

Working together on the “Shine Your Light” campaign, Gardiner and Cerrato learned how to shine their lights brighter than before. They knew that running for SGA president and vice president as sophomores would prove challenging, only being students at Cedarville for less than two years. Through it they learned to trust in God as he opened up new opportunities to practice the message they promoted.

“I don’t want to get on stage and say, ‘Hey, shine your light, deal with the sin in your life, hold yourself accountable,’ and I wasn’t doing that,” Gardiner said. “It would be false and people would see through that. But because of our campaign and because of our sincerity, people were drawn to that and we were able to talk about shining your light.”

While campaigning, Gardiner and Cerrato set up a table in the SSC to meet people and share their vision. Though they already had a heart for their fellow students, getting to listen to their stories and encourage them was “very rewarding.”

“Yeah, we wanted to win this election and have this vision for campus, but even while we’re campaigning we wanted this to be a time where we were sharing our light and a seed could be planted for someone who is questioning their faith or doesn’t know Jesus at all but is following us and is seeing this campaign,” Gardiner said.

Gardiner is excited to be back in student government and serve the students around him.

“When I was on freshman class council, it was so much fun to have rep meetings where you just grab coffee with someone and ask them their story,” Gardiner said. “ Now with SGA, I have a better platform to let people share their stories in any way they can.”

Cerrato is excited to learn how he can give back to the community through a student government position.

“You don’t find places like Cedarville very often – I’ve been blessed,” Cerrato said. “I look back at how much I’ve learned not just from classes, not just from professors or books, but learning from people – learning how they love in such a genuine way. Giving back and being able to serve and encourage them is a good opportunity. I’ve been blessed and I want to bless them, too.”

Now, Gardiner and Cerrato are working on plans for next year to encourage students to shine their light on campus and off campus. But even before they step into their roles, they are already using their influence to encourage students to shine their light.

“We have 1000 days at Cedarville, and even on breaks you can be fired up to shine your light,” Gardiner said. “Look for opportunities to share the gospel, look for opportunities to encourage someone, look for opportunities to serve.”

Bella Agnello is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys thrifting, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.

Photo by Caterina Shemavonian and SGA

*Read Gardiner’s testimony on Cedars here!