SEATS OF POWER

Four women head the freshman class leadership team.

As long as the Saint Vincent College Student Government Association board has existed, the executive leadership positions presented to students have tended to be dominated by men. For the first time in Saint Vincent history, women made up every executive leadership position of the freshman class. These young women, freshmen Molly Hudson, Madisen Geesaman, Olivia Trotter, and Bailey Nicely, are ready to lead their class through the following semesters, each of them with goals to better SVC and its community in mind.

MADISEN GEESAMAN ★ Vice President

MOLLY HUDSON ★ President

An education major and member of the women’s soccer team, Molly Hudson was the Vice President of her junior and senior class at Norwin High School, which is the main reason she wanted to continue to be on student government when she started college at SVC. “I like to be a part of organizing events for our class,” Hudson explained. “I participated in SGA here to get involved and help contribute to the positive changes around Saint Vincent.”

Sidelined by an injury, Hudson missed the entirety of the soccer season but was happy to have SGA as another group to be a part of. “I like the routine of meetings on Sunday nights,” she noted.

“It’s exciting to see the new changes, even from week to week, and hear about progress from certain projects that are being worked on,” Hudson added. “Every week there is something new and exciting going on here.”

During her term on SGA, Hudson hopes to increase student involvement and growth of clubs on campus, helping everyone find and participate in an activity they enjoy.

As for the role of women in leadership, Hudson is excited and proud of her fellow officers: “We can strive together to improve the whole campus and recognize that we are working on something bigger than ourselves.”

“I decided to be a part of SGA in college because I wanted to make a difference here,” explained Madisen Geesaman, a political science major and soccer player from Shillington. Similar to her counterparts on SGA, Geesaman served on student government in high school and decided to continue in that role moving into college.

Geesaman enjoys working with the other women on the SGA board and thinks they help each other out. “Together, we are an optimistic group of women who all have different majors. This is good because we all see different students and parts of campus.”

The leadership qualities, Geesaman noted, that’ve been instilled in each of the representatives has been very helpful. “The four of us show great leadership skills that [extend to] other clubs and activities on campus. Having four women make decisions for the freshman class is what we need,” she said.

There are a couple specific areas she would like to improve in her time on SGA, including improving walkways around campus and making The Shack more accessible to students.

OLIVIA TROTTER ★ Secretary

A native of Altoona, Olivia Trotter got involved in SGA for a very personal reason: “I wanted my voice to be heard and to be a good representative for the freshman student body,” Trotter explained.

Trotter, a biology major, is proud of how she and the other women in leadership positions work together. “I feel [that we] work so well together due to the empowerment of us all being women and because we’re constantly building each other up,” she said. “We communicate our thoughts to each other constantly and talk about what could be improved on and how we can make Saint Vincent College a better place for everybody.”

Trotter said it’s very encouraging to see so many females step up in SGA and discussed how empowering it is for so many freshman women to work together in what’s typically been a maledominated field. “I am beyond lucky to be a part of and collaborate with these intelligent women,” she remarked.

“I was welcomed with open arms,” she added, “and I just want to improve upon that for the class below me so they have an even better experience.”

BAILEY NICELY ★ Treasurer

An engineering major from Beaver Falls, Bailey Nicely’s high school student government experience led her to become interested in taking on that challenge in college. “All four years of high school I was the class treasurer, and I thought it was a good way to meet people, so I thought SGA would be a good way to do that here at Saint Vincent,” she explained.

Nicely, a lacrosse player, has been involved in sports in one way or another since she was three years old, so she’s always felt at home in a team environment. Now, she’s using that experience to grow as a member of SGA. “Working on the student government is like playing on a sports team, and it’s nice to have that balance with other people,” Nicely explained.

Through her teamwork with the other members of SGA, Nicely hopes to bring more activities back to campus that haven’t been possible over the last couple of years due to the Pandemic, explaining that “It [will] be nice to bring back some of those things.”

She’s optimistic about SGA’s potential since the new women in leadership roles work so well together. “We are all organized and put together, so I think it has been working out well for us since we have been on SGA.” ♦