Stuart Clay Declares Run For SBP, Candidate Field Announcement Soon
With the official announcement coming soon, another Kingsian declares his intent to run for Student Body President. Joining Michael Martinez, the Tribune welcomes Stuart Clay (‘18) to this election cycle.
Clay’s vision for the upcoming year represents a deep care for this community and a hope to lead it into an era of unity and greater school spirit if elected.
“My best experiences at King’s have come from working for a cause that I care about, with and for people that I care about, and I’d be honored to get to do that for the Student Body,” Clay wrote via email.
As the current President of the House of C.S. Lewis, Clay has a high involvement in his House and counts his namesake as one of his heros. He served as Chamberlain for Lewis his sophomore year. Through these positions Clay believes that he learned both how “to deal with conflict and uphold my House’s mission and values” along with how “to direct a team of highly skilled, and uncommonly handsome, individuals towards a clear, unifying vision.”
Clay values community greatly and sees that echoed in the Lewis’ own writings.
“In ‘The Four Loves,’ [Lewis] talks about how friendship arises when two people discover a common interest and pursue it side by side,” Clay recollected. “It is about pursuing Christ’s lordship in all things together, and finding friendship in that.”
While Clay dedicated his student leadership thus far to his House, he equally wishes to commit to the student body as a whole. He hopes to carry the spirit of community often felt within Houses or student organizations to the entire community.
“I want to create a culture of unity and thankfulness in the Student Body that goes beyond the House system and pervades the school. I want students to be proud to be a Kingsian and feel like they belong here,” Clay noted of his vision.
A lacking amount of school pride among the students, as well as overall unity, is a problem Clay hopes to tackle if elected.
“One way to address this problem is to celebrate those things that our friends are doing that represent the entire school, like athletics and student orgs,” Clay added.
Creating more opportunities for the school to come together as one is another mission for Clay. He wishes to build a Cabinet of student leaders who share his goal of school wide unity.
“[I want to] really get behind King's ‘Spirit Days’ and come up with creative ways to make showing up to a soccer game or a basketball game a great experience,” Clay stated.
Although Clay backs Martinez support for the “Make TKC Warm Again” slogan, he differentiates himself, saying that he “eat[s] more chicken nuggets than any other candidate, hands down.”
While a snowstorm may be bearing down on the city, things are heating up with the Student Body election. Check in regularly for more Tribune updates on candidates, events and stories regarding this campaign season.