STURBRIDGE - Sturbridge resident Amanda Galonek made her mark politically during high school. She was the president of her class for all four years; was elected as the Massachusetts Association of Student Council’s president (she was the first female president since 1992) and represented them at the 72nd National Association of Student Councils Conference; was elected as the Central Massachusetts Student Council junior vice president and the Regional Student Advisory Council representative.
In addition, she danced and played softball, basketball and was captain of the girls’ varsity soccer team; and participated in numerous community service initiatives and more.
But now the 19-year-old has moved on to the nation’s capital – specifically, four blocks from the White House.
Galonek now attends George Washington University, named by the 2009 Princeton Review: The Best 368 Colleges as second in the nation for “Most Politically Active Students.” Previously, the Princeton Review named the school among the nation’s best schools at fostering social responsibility and public service. It is the perfect place for Galonek to cultivate her political aspirations.
“I still wanted to be involved in student government,” Galonek said.
So the freshman applied for a non-voting position on the Student Association Senate in the first few weeks of school. Since freshmen don’t know each other yet, senate members interview applicants and appoint members. During the interview, she was able to discuss initiatives she is interested in.
“I was able to tell them what I stood for,” she said.
Galonek was appointed, and took advantage of her new seat by learning as much as she could from her fellow senate members and her classmates.
“I really got a feel for the concerns of the class,” she said.
Galonek said she enjoyed her time on the senate this year so much, she decided to run this spring for an elected position within the Columbian College of Arts and Science, of which she is a part. But she wasn’t the only one running – 18 students ran for six available seats.
She campaigned on campus and went door to door talking to students, including visiting 10 fraternity and sorority houses.
“Each house has 50 to 100 students in it,” she said. “They really helped my campaign.”
She said it was important for her to speak to as many people as she could, because the senate seats are school-wide, not class by class. Her strategy worked. She won her seat by a landslide – she beat the second place candidate by 123 votes. Only 60 votes separated the second and third place candidates.
Galonek said she is looking forward to fulfilling her role next year and is vying for a chair seat on the Rules Committee. That seat would put her third in line for the presidency. She said next year, the vice president and president will be seniors, so she is hoping to obtain the presidency when she is a junior. She is confident she can get the seat, even as a sophomore, because out of the 30-40 elected members, only four are incumbents. She is one of them.
“It’s a big commitment,” she said. “It’s a lot of work. It can be exhausting.”
As if the election to the Student Association Senate wasn’t exciting enough, Galonek recently received some more good news: She has been invited to work as an intern in Senator Scott Brown’s Washington, D.C. office. Galonek said she comes from a family of lifelong Republicans.
“So it’s very exciting,” she said.
She said she was grateful to State Rep. Todd Smola (R-Palmer) for writing her a letter of recommendation for the position. She said she will perform tasks such as answer phones and process mail in the office. Galonek is working the internship as a volunteer, but said she can apply to receive school credit for her time there when she is a junior.
Galonek is currently studying political science, but said she’d most like to study political communications. She said she enjoyed working with the school’s local access channel while in high school and would ultimately like to be a part of a political news show after college.
“I want to be on camera, talking politics,” she said.
Currently, Galonek is also a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and plays for the school’s club soccer team.