Press Clippings & Releases

Press Clipping: Mercyhurst University - MSG members attend the ASGA conference in D.C.

10/27/2022
MSG members attend the ASGA conference in D.C.

October 26, 2022
By Samantha Weber

On Oct. 6-8, a few Mercyhurst Student Government (MSG) members attended the American Student Government Association conference in Washington, D.C. The students who attended were Gina Sarama, Vydalia Weather-ly, Tessa Korchak and Samantha Weber along with MSG Advisor Steph Przepiora.

The group drove down to D.C. early Thursday morning and had the kickoff to the conference that night. The next morning began early with breakfast and jumped quickly into the different presentations. Most sessions offered an advisor presentation that Przepiora attended while the students attended different speakers too and gain as much out of the conference as possible. Some of the lectures included being an ethical student government, how to have difficult conversations and address the uncomfortable, how to become a super-government, what can your student government actually accomplish and some of the most common mistakes that student governments make.

After kickoff the first night, all schools in attendance were split up based on the type of school they are from; Mercyhurst attended the private college and universities session. This is where students talked about how their own student governments are operated and they also had the opportunity to ask for advice from schools if they were struggling with a certain situation.

"Overall, I learned that Mercyhurst's student government is run very well and it is easy to understand how it runs," said Korchak, MSG public relations coordinator. "I learned a lot about how other student governments operate. Honestly, some of them were really confusing as they had a House of Representatives and a Senate and also part-time members." Sarama and Weatherly are both Senators for the Class of 2025 and Cultural & Diversity Club, respectively.

While the group learned a lot from the conference as it was the reason they were able to go to D.C., they also had the opportunity to explore the nation's capitol. On Friday afternoon after their conference meetings, the group toured the Capitol Building. It was a few people's first time being in Washington, D.C., so it was fun just exploring a new city. The students even ventured to Chinatown to get ice cream one night.

"I really enjoyed the experience I gained and what I learned about being a part of a student government," Weatherly said. "This is my first year on MSG, so I am trying to learn everything about it that I can."

Overall, the students had a great time and learned a lot about how to run a student government. When they returned, they were asked to share some of the main key points that they learned from the conference. Be sure to check the next issue to see how MACSAC's NACA conference went!