NBA legend Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team. Physicist Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was 4 and didn’t read until he was 7. Elon University’s newest Student Body President Avery Steadman ran for class historian in high school but was defeated.
“I was extremely devastated that I didn’t get it,” Steadman said. “I never thought I would get the courage to do it again. It’s really putting yourself out there to have different opinions.”
Her fortune changed when she stepped foot onto campus in 2012 to begin her freshman year.
On a whim two weeks into her first year at Elon, Steadman decided to run for a position on SGA. With the help of friends and roommates, she knocked on random Danieley apartment doors to collect the 200 signatures needed to run for freshman class treasurer.
“I have grown to love SGA and found that the organization has an ability to reach all students and change Elon for the better,” she said. “I am so excited to see what this year has in store for me, the Senate and Elon.”
Steadman changed her student government streak and won the September 2012 election.
“Her decision to run freshman year was spontaneous, and it’s pretty amazing to see how far it has taken her,” said close friend and junior Jenna Hall. “Avery’s passion for SGA is inspiring and it is clear that she found her niche at Elon.”
The 21-year-old junior advanced with a polished look, confident smile and firm handshake from freshman class treasurer to sophomore class treasurer before being elected executive treasurer in 2014, the first female in that position in 22 years since Megan Maxfield in 1994.
As executive treasurer, Steadman oversaw a budget of more than $650,000 and took the initiative to refund the budget hearing process.
One of the more tedious tasks Steadman performed was making the executive treasurer’s manual more organized and clearly laid out.
“I think there will be a lot more transparency between student government and the student body,” she said. “I made the process for reimbursements a lot easier. It’s now one sheet.”
When it came time for the most recent elections, Steadman considered running for executive treasurer again — the thought of president didn’t really cross her mind until discussing it with a friend.
“A friend asked me what I would regret more: running for executive treasurer again or not running for president,” she said. “I then had my answer. I knew I would always wonder and had to give it a shot.”
Officially inaugurated as student body president March 12, Steadman is currently wrapping up her duties as treasurer and will hold her first meeting as president Thursday, April 2.
Through her work with SGA, Steadman has made an impression on her peers.
“I have known Avery from the first week of classes her first year here at Elon,” said former executive president Joe Incorvia. “Avery is very competent and hardworking and I have seen her really grow during her time on SGA. She is interested in helping others and really makes an effort to do her best to make sure students achieve what they hope to.”
Life outside SGA
The avid Harry Potter fan, who keeps a special 8-disc set of the films in her apartment, ready to watch for when she magically has free time, grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York, and spent her summers sailing in the waters of Lake Erie.
Her true passion, though, wasn’t on the waters but in ice skating rinks.
She had only been walking on her own for a little more than a year when her parents laced her up in skates and into the world of figure skating.
“Ice skating was my life for 16 years,” Steadman said. “I had dreams of becoming a professional skater, but once I turned 12, I realized that wasn’t going to happen.”
When her dreams of becoming a figure skater were dispelled, she saw herself as was a teacher. But after doing an internship her senior year of high school shadowing teachers and working with children, Steadman realized it was not the career for her and went back to the drawing board.
She said she unknowingly fell into accounting and finance after entering Elon. She’s never looked back.
Looking into the future
Thinking ahead to the future, Steadman hopes to lead the SGA senate and the student body in a way that fosters cooperation, communication and passion.
“With the senate I hope that, as a leader, I can listen to them and they can listen to me,” she said. “I try to make people feel excited for what they’re doing instead of making it feel like a chore.”
While her remaining time at Elon is solidified with her position as SGA executive president and involvement with Campus Recreation and Alpha Xi Delta, Steadman is open to what lies after the maroon robes in May 2016.
“I think I would have never, ever planned for this, so while I’m going to work hard to get whatever internship and job I think will fit for me, my guess is what I think is going to fit is going to change so I’m just going to go forward and see what happens,” she said.