Luke Phillip ‘24, President of the Student Government Association, is wrapping up his time at Germantown Academy. Philip served as the central figurehead of the GA student community this year, running Morning Meetings, coordinating between SGA faculty and administration and handling various other work behind the scenes.
Philip started his student government career in Middle School. His brother gave him the idea to run for Middle School President in 8th grade.
“I was nervous back then, but my parents convinced me to go for it,” Philip said. “I liked that experience and never looked back.” In high school, he ran for Secretary, Vice President and President.
One of the things Philip is most proud of from his time as SGA President is getting the sandwich bar up and running.
“This has been a goal for a few years now. We have wanted to get it back to where it was, but there were complications”, Philip said. “The SGA had to compromise with NexDine, the company that runs the cafeteria, and both sides ended up being happy because the sandwich bar was one of the best sellers on Fridays. I was happy we got that done due to back and forth for a couple of years.”
Philip is also proud of the infrastructure work that he and the SGA did this year. They checked in on maintenance that was done last year to make sure the renovations are still good and do not need changes. They made a plan to get more water stations for next year, and supplies have already been ordered.
“Everyone in that room has the skills to lead a group on their own,” Philip said. “A lot of times at SGA people care about initiatives, but at the end of the day we try to learn how to lead in the future.” One of Philip’s goals this year was to have everyone in the student government try to be friendly to others and less official because things operate better that way.
Philip tries to always be a friendly face to other students. “People turn to you when they need help. You have to put in the effort to meet a lot of people and talk to everyone.”
Ms. Maggie May, faculty advisor to SGA, said, “What I appreciate about Luke is that he has a calm and laid back demeanor. It makes him approachable to the other kids at SGA.”
Philip organized SGA into committees to allow for action to happen and that has been working really well from Ms. May’s perspective. “Luke has been good at delegating work as President of SGA, which can be hard to do for students and adults in leadership positions,” Ms. May said.
“Sometimes, as a leader, you might want to do everything yourself to make sure it gets done, but Luke has been able to delegate to Larry or Andreas or the committees and find some balance.”
One of Philip’s aspirations for future leaders is to bridge the gap between SGA and the rest of the student body. Luke talked about how the best job a student government can do is to make it so you don’t think of it as a student government but rather as a club of friends and classmates working together.
“You don’t want to make it seem like it’s some higher up club when it’s really just kids trying to help other kids,” Philip said.