This week, The Suffolk Journal caught up with the newly elected SGA treasurer, Brendan Eddy. In addition to his new duties as treasurer, Eddy is also an orientation leader, track captain, Resident Assistant and Ram Supporter. To fully understand the man behind the Suffolk students’ money, let’s first take a closer look at him on a personal level.

Eddy’s commitment to community goes back to his first tour of the campus. When asked why he came to Suffolk, Eddy said, “When I was touring the campus, I could tell there was something different about the community here. I recognized it was structured similarly to my high school. I recognized that, like, here I could take advantage of a lot of the opportunities I would have passed up in high school. Becoming an orientation leader was a big part of it, too, but that didn’t come until later; that’s not necessarily why I chose Suffolk.” 

Eddy became an orientation leader over the summer, leading groups for their summer orientation and likely served as the orientation leader for many current readers. In Eddy’s sophomore year, he got involved with the Student Government Association and became a Ram Supporter the same year. It was also in his sophomore year that Eddy began to take an interest in the role of treasurer.

“I remember when I first joined SGA, I thought it would be cool to be one of the four people up at the front of the meetings, and in my sophomore year, the track captain got elected to be treasurer, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is something people in my community are actually doing,’’ said Eddy. “Last year I saw Frank do it, and he’s another orientation leader peer of mine, so that reinforced my belief that if people in my community could fill this role successfully, I could too and it definitely pushed me towards the role.” 

In addition to his newfound duties within the treasury and his established role as an orientation leader, Eddy also serves as an RA for Smith Hall. Though it may not be a role for everyone, he says, it’s a role he enjoys.

“That’s kind of where my focus has been for the last semester,” said Eddy. “I do very much enjoy the job, especially being in a freshman dorm for the same reason I liked being an orientation leader so much. I like being able to be someone’s first introduction to the school because I know I can be a friendly face.”

Though a friendly face is a good thing to have in your first year of college, it presents some problems. 

“At the same time, though, that does put pressure on you, but I feel like I’m kind of accustomed to that pressure because of the nature of competition in sports. At the end of the day, I like being a resource for people,” said Eddy.

As the interview wrapped up, Eddy explained what kind of legacy he wanted to leave behind when he graduated. The most important thing to him was ensuring the impact he left was positive. 

“I want to be remembered as someone who left a positive impact, regardless of what that impact looks like. That’s why I got so involved, so that I could have the widest outreach possible. I’ve heard that I have had that impact, but I want to take it to the next level,” said Eddy.

At the end, Eddy offered some advice to his first-year self. 

“What helped me was realizing everyone else is just as scared to go out and meet new people, or just as scared of the new environment. Thinking about that when I try to approach new people to talk to them for the first time really helped me ground myself enough to be honest about it. Nobody is better or worse at it than anyone else,” Eddy said.