On Tuesday, February 24th, the student body elected John Sorrenti as the SBA president for the 2009-2010 academic year, pending certification by the student Senate.

Sorrenti, a 2L from Worchester, Massachusetts, is a graduate from Stanford University. During his campaign, he centered his campaign around a quote from the Grateful Dead that said, "You who choose to lead must follow." Upon learning that he had been elected, Sorrenti said, "I am humbled by the amount of interest and so honored to be chosen to represent the student body and can't wait to get started. Next year will be a lot of hard work, challenging, but something I really look forward to and for me it'll be an excellent time to build the true GW community."

He expressed gratitude to those candidates who chose to run, saying "I'm ecstatic, it was a very hard-fought campaign. I have to thank both Kenny and Dvid Mitchell for running competitive and important campaigns. Very hard-fought, lot of student participation and interest that I was thrilled to see. Both ran excellent campaign and solid ideas and the whole election cycle will only be good for SBA and student body as a whole because it brought up a lot of issues, a lot of things need to be improved."

When asked about his future first act as president, Sorrenti imparted, "Ideally I'd like to give it a little more thought before I say anything, but I would like to come through on engaging in student groups and have a meet and greet with student orgs executive boards...try and have a meeting of all them and allow us to get on the same page about some of their concerns." "The main thing is working on a solid communication structure, reassuring students that I am intent on setting senate schedules, being communicative, being transparent about the things the SBA is doing and letting people know that complaints, concerns, issues are recognized, acknowledged and getting worked on. "

Sorrenti said, "I would encourage students to contact me, get in touch with me, find my email and I fully intend to engage the student body since communication seems to be the buzzword - as long as the wireless is working!"

In addition, the student body also elected 2L Liz Westbrook as Executive Vice President. When told she had been elected, Westbrook said, "It is really exciting and a relief after spending two years devoted to the SBA and making that my main activity."

Westbrook said that she was excited to work with Sorrenti, and that her first task would be to "redelegate the executive positions and which positions fall to which people." She noted that currently, more responsibility falls to fewer people in the SBA, which leads to the "less people getting involved and more people are stressed to the max."

Kim Clark, a 2L, said "Liz Westbrook was definitely the most qualified candidate and deserved the Vice President position. There are few people that are as passionate about GW Law and getting involved as Liz Westbrook. And I am positive she will do an amazing job!"

1L Dan Gerkin said, "John and Liz seem like they have a fantastic attitude and the ability to get things done without taking themselves too seriously." A member of the 2009 Law Revue cast, he added, "Liz must have the best voice of any SBA Executive VP in GW Law history. I'm sure she'll be just as strong a voice for the student body, " with a drum noise to accent the apropos joke.

Along with the executive positions, several new faces will also be appearing in the student Senate. Other positions include Deep Singh as Day Division Senator and Sterling Marchand as Part-Time Senator. Eric Malis, David Mitchell, Navah Spero, and Jonathan Ruckman will serve as 3L Day Senators, and Ben Williams will be the 3L evening Senator. Theresa Bowman, Dan Janow, Jonathan Gaffney, and Randy Fiedler will be the 2L Day Senators.

Singh, a 1L, said, "It's a surprise and an honor to see that people across classes put their trust in me. As a new DDS, my first priority is making free floss available-don't underestimate the importance of good dental hygiene. Second, I will continue to address the issues folks have brought to me, like the wireless problem."

2L David Mitchell, who originally ran against Sorrenti for president, said, "I want to congratulate the winning candidate John Sorrenti and let all the candidates know that I appreciate the healthy productive race under which many issues were discussed and I'm looking forward to working with the pres elect and EVP...and to make GW Law the best law school it can be."

2L Navah Spero said, "I'm very excited, it feels really good, I'm happy campaigning is over." For her first goal, she said, "I would say that my biggest plan for legislation would be for the budget transparency for the SBA and more on the active getting stuff done practically, working on a better way to address the wireless problem." To the student body, she asked that they "keep lines of communication open and keep telling us what they really want. "

3L Brett Sheats, the current SBA President, had this to say to the incoming candidates: "I wish next year's SBA Administration the best of luck. The relationship that the Student Bar Association enjoys with the administration and faculty here at GW Law is one of the finest in the country. I truly hope that the foundation that we have laid this year will only serve to help John, Liz, and the rest of the SBA achieve whatever goals they set"