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Seniors Susie Bonwich and Kendall Shoemake – student body president and vice president, respectively – have been developing goals for themselves and for the student body this year. They have been working with Student Senate to understand how best to represent the student body and how to make a noticeable impact.

“Our overall goal is just to make people like being here,” Bonwich said, “and to see that Prin is such an amazing school and that they chose it for a reason and that was because of the community and the opportunities.”

This year’s student government wants to show the student body that they were elected to represent them. “We want to make it apparent that we are making decisions and we are doing things,” Shoemake said. “Helping students understand what student government really does.”

Junior Nick Boyd, the Dining Services representative, agreed. “My goal for this position is to represent student interests to the best of my ability,” he said. “It is important that we are heard and that our requests are taken seriously. It is my goal to help Principia maximize its potential for the benefit of everyone.”

Bonwich added, “We’re trying to make communication between student government and the student body more fluid. We want people to see that student government has a purpose, is fun and we hope by the end of this year we have a lot of people running for Senate, house president, and house board positions. We want student government to be an exciting thing that people want to get involved in.”

In the dining room, “there are many short-term and long-term changes that can be expected this year,” Boyd said, “including a new system of feedback in which students can comment on the quality of their dining experience. We are also expecting new carpet in the dining room in the near future, as well as an update to the salad bar.”

Both Bonwich and Shoemake are working on plans and events that are going to boost school spirit. Shoemake also mentioned that he wants to help increase house spirit and house pride. They mentioned events on the schedule near the end of the semester that they hope are going to turn into annual events, though they can’t release details yet.

Beyond that, they’re focused on changing school attitude. “We want to help create an environment and atmosphere on campus for people to enjoy being here and recognize the positive qualities and attributes of Principia,” Shoemake said. “By bringing those out, we hope people will stop thinking negatively.”

Sophomore Katie Swarts, the Admissions representative, discussed her area of coverage. “The expectation is that when there is a visiting weekend, there is nothing exciting going on. Some goals I have are to change visiting weekends so that there is a lot of activity going on.”

While student government wants to reverse many existing stereotypes about how student government operates, they are looking forward to serving.

When asked what she was most excited about for the coming year, Bonwich said, “Oh, everything! I’m just excited for being here, being in this position where we get to know all these students, putting on these events we have in our mind and getting people pumped for being here.”