February 16, 2009

Contact:   Bill Giduz

(l-r) Baker Shogry and Meikaela Zwieryznski will lead the SGA for the next year.

Davidson students won’t have any trouble finding their newly elected Student Government Association president in the college directory. Though first in their choice of candidates, she’s the final name in the book -- Meikaela M. Zwieryznski. Zwieryznski, a Belk Scholar from Pittsburgh, will serve with newly elected vice president, Baker E.L. Shogry, an economics major from Greensboro.

Zwieryznski takes her unusual names in stride. “Most people assume I’m an international student,” she said. “The funny thing is that my first name is Portuguese and my last is Polish, but I’m neither! My mother is 100 percent Irish, adopted into the U.S. by my grandparents who were Hungarian and Polish first generation immigrants.”

Both Zwieryznski and Shogry take on their student leadership posts with no particular agenda other than a desire to interest more students in SGA activities and represent student concerns to the Davidson administration. “I’m interested in lot of things, but I’m not in office to represent my particular concerns and issues,” said Zwieryznski. “SGA has done a good job of addressing issues students believe are important to the school, and I want to continue that. I also find that the people who serve SGA are passionate and dedicated, and make me want to be a part of it.”

Shogry said, “The SGA needs to use the student body to its benefit. Students are a huge asset because they have no shortage of ideas for improvement of the Davidson experience.”

Zwieryznski plans to spend some of the time before new officers are sworn in on February 25 creating a new SGA web site, blog and podcast page to facilitate communication between the organization and its constituency.

A double major in Spanish and political science, Zwieryznski was student body president in high school and has served SGA throughout her Davidson career. She appreciates how SGA has allowed her to work not only with peers, but with members of the faculty and administration. She was on the Educational Policy Committee for two years, and has participated in the Strategic Assessment process as a member of the curriculum study group. She also participated on an SGA committee that sponsored several open forums about academic policy. “Those experiences have helped me view Davidson not just from a four-year student point of view, but from a long-term institutional point of view,” she noted.

Shogry, the son of a 1981 Davidson graduate, is only in his second semester of SGA participation. He was a representative of SAE fraternity last year, and rejoined SGA this semester after spending the fall semester studying in Geneva, Switzerland. “I got the bug again while I was abroad,” he said. “I recognized how much I enjoy discussing issues and helping students work on campus issues.”

Shogry has also been active on campus as pledge class president and rush chair for the SAE fraternity, as co-founder of an aviation club, and competing in club-level sports.

Zwieryznski participated last summer in Davidson’s political science program in Washington, D.C., and interned at a law firm. She received a college grant recently to attend an intensive Spanish language program over winter break in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. She has been a member of the College Union Board and is active in the Emerging Professionals career development group.  She has taught ecology to elementary school students, and is a charter member of Davidson’s new Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She plans to explore a career in management consulting.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
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Posted By: Bill Giduz