{"id":26918,"date":"2023-08-16T09:27:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T13:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=26918"},"modified":"2023-08-16T10:23:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T14:23:31","slug":"sga-president-is-students-biggest-cheerleader-on-and-off-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/sga-president-is-students-biggest-cheerleader-on-and-off-the-field\/","title":{"rendered":"SGA president is students\u2019 biggest cheerleader, on and off the field"},"content":{"rendered":"

The campaign slogan \u201cLet Me Be Your Biggest Cheerleader\u201d was\u00a0\u201cmeant to be taken literally, but also figuratively,\u201d said Meredith Ervin \u201924, a philosophy<\/a> major on the pre-health track<\/a> and a member of Furman\u2019s cheerleading<\/a> squad.<\/p>\n

This fall, while she\u2019s supporting the Paladins on the field, she will also be encouraging and advocating for all of her fellow students as the newly elected president of the Student Government Association (SGA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to feel supported not just for their accomplishments but for who they are as a person,\u201d Ervin said. \u201cI want them to know that a goal is not what validates you. You are seen and heard and valued and admired and appreciated and wonderful for who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The most amazing community\u2019<\/h3>\n

The senior knows the power of community firsthand, as it helped her overcome some of her own anxieties as a first-year student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a huge introvert,\u201d she said. \u201cI struggle a little bit with social anxiety. I\u2019m very nervous with public speaking. I never would have thought that I would get into student government in such a socially open role.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while the campus had returned to in-person instruction in Fall 2020 after the COVID-19 shutdown, Ervin was spending her first semester learning remotely from her home in San Antonio, Texas, on the advice of her father, an officer and physician at Lackland Air Force Base. The student saw involvement in SGA as a way to make up for the face-to-face connections she was missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really trying to get involved and meet as many people as I could,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I built up the courage to run. I said, \u2018This is college. This is my time to put myself out there and be a little bit more brave.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Her bravery paid off when her classmates elected her class treasurer, and she has won elections to SGA every year since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found the most amazing community, and I\u2019m so happy that I made that decision and didn\u2019t chicken out like I wanted to multiple times,\u201d said Ervin. \u201cEach year, the love for SGA and the love for the Furman student body just kept growing and growing, and it\u2019s been the most amazing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safety nets vs. trampolines<\/h3>\n

The president\u2019s priorities include strengthening community bonds \u2013 bridging the gap between athletes and non-athletes, ensuring that international students<\/a> feel welcomed and bringing together the leaders of the more than 160 student organizations<\/a>. She plans on leveraging Furman\u2019s commitment to inclusive excellence<\/a> and positive campus culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot stress enough how supportive the student body is here,\u201d she said. \u201cFriends I have at other universities and people I know who have transferred here always comment on how kind and uplifting it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

To those friends, Ervin describes the Furman community as \u201ca safety net \u2013 it\u2019s not quite a trampoline, where you\u2019re bouncing up and down. It\u2019s going to be supporting you and pushing you back up, but it\u2019s not doing all the work for you. The student body and the administration do a good job in pushing you to be better, but they\u2019re always there, and they always catch you. So you should never feel afraid to put yourself out there and try, because you can just get back up and try again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ervin, who plans to attend medical school after graduation, is looking forward to getting closer to her peers and other campus organizations in her final year at Furman, even if it means further stretching her comfort zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to challenging myself,\u201d she said. \u201cI owe so much to SGA for helping me be comfortable with being uncomfortable. It\u2019s helped so much with confidence and pushing myself to be better. I also learned that it\u2019s OK to make mistakes, because you only come out stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meredith Ervin \u201924 plans to use her role as leader of the Student Government Association to bring diverse groups together in a positive, uplifting campus culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":26920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,36,59,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","category-philosophy","category-pre-health","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}