Student Body Elects the Members of the Eleventh SGA Executive Board

Image Courtesy of @catholicsga via Instagram

By Anthony Curioso and Thomas Saacks

The votes are in! After three intense weeks of campaigning, the student body voted on April 8 for the 2025-26 Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Board. Michael Kish ‘26 and Catherine Weatherwax ‘27 were elected as president and vice president, Will Schroeder ‘26 as treasurer, and Franny Noory ‘26 as secretary. The 2025-2026 school year will mark the eleventh year of SGA in its current format.

Brooke Stromberg ‘26 was also elected on April 8 as Program Board president for the 2025-26 school year.  This year is not the first time that the SGA executive and Program Board presidential elections have coincided. The most recent instance of these elections occurring concurrently was in April 2022, when students voted for the individuals who would hold these positions for the 2022-23 academic year.

President-elect Kish addressed supporters after his victory announcement, thanking them for their support and emphasizing a bipartisan path forward under his leadership. “I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunity and honor to serve the student body,” he said.

In an interview, Kish said, “[Forge is] dedicated to working tirelessly for you, the students, and will give our all because we truly care about this school and believe it was created for greatness.”

The 2025 SGA executive election featured two tickets. The winning ticket, Forge Catholic U, swept all executive offices. They competed against Soar Catholic U, which nominated Allison Ewing ‘26  for president, Bennett Bert ‘26 for vice president, James Mazza ‘28 for treasurer, and Julie Burke ‘26 for secretary.

Voters present at the announcement of the results emphasized their concerns about student representation and the need to reduce partisanship in the SGA. Forge supporter Max Morris ‘26 spoke about the importance of ensuring that “everybody on campus has a voice,” and he expressed hope that under Forge leadership, there won’t be “this kind of division that we have in the Senate and in Student Government right now.”

Soar supporter Emma Shannon ‘26 echoed the importance of the SGA’s role in student advocacy.

“The SGA is intended to work for the students, and if we don’t advocate for ourselves, no change will happen,” Shannon said.

Kish hopes the Forge administration will serve as a bipartisan advocate for all students.

“I really have a lot of respect for everyone who was out there, and I can’t wait to work with them next year,” Kish commented.

This election also originally included a third ticket, featuring Jack Hermes ‘27 for president, Austin Janssen ‘27 for vice president, and Gianluca Albanese ‘27 for treasurer. They ran alongside a write-in campaign for Larkin Fitzsimmons ‘27 as secretary.

During a debate hosted by The Tower among the three established tickets in the Maloney Auditorium on April 2, and in a subsequent video posted to their Instagram accounts on April 7, Hermes and Janssen announced that their entire ticket would withdraw from the election in the interest of what was best for the student body, and instead endorsed the Forge Catholic U ticket. Hermes and Janssen’s initial announcement at the April 2 debate elicited a substantial reaction from the Forge and Soar candidates, as well as from the debate watchers, many of whom exited the auditorium upon hearing the news.

This election marked the first time in two years that an SGA executive board election featured more than one official ticket.

The results were announced at 10 p.m. on election day, when many students gathered in the second-floor lobby of the Pryzbyla Center. The outgoing student body president, Jeff Lance ‘25, announced the results and expressed gratitude to everyone who participated in the election, whether by campaigning or voting. The outgoing SGA executive board will soon post on the SGA Instagram account once a date has been set for the swearing-in of president-elect Kish and the rest of his ticket.