On March 20, student body elections were held for Saint Mary’s College students to elect the 2025-26 president and vice president. On March 21, the results were announced in an email to students, stating that juniors Ivory Munoz and Kayli Zelinske-Mader will be the new president and vice president of the Student Government Association (SGA).
Munoz, originally from Chicago, is a political science major with minors in justice studies and gender and women’s studies. She currently serves as the director of external affairs of SGA, vice president of Feminists United, and the Secretary of Belles Unite Borders.
Zelinske-Mader, from Minnesota, is majoring in gender and women’s studies with minors in justice studies and political science. She is a student ambassador for the Office of Admission, secretary of the Residence Hall Association (RHA), director of internal affairs for SGA and vice president of College Democrats of Saint Mary’s College.
Munoz said that when she was considering running for office, being involved in student activities around campus early on helped her in making that decision. She said she felt encouraged to put herself out there in clubs that she was interested in.
“As a freshman, I was very exposed to the student activities portion of Saint Mary's … my sister was a senior, and her best friend was the student body president at that time, so I've always had a little bit of a push to get involved,” Munoz said.
The duo mentioned how it became progressively clearer throughout the years that they wanted to run for office.
“I feel like every single year, Ivy and I have increasingly gotten more and more involved. I think it is what led us to officially run as student body president, vice president and we both have just very different experiences as students at Saint Mary’s,” Zelinske-Mader stated.
Munoz discussed how the election process presented them with a unique challenge because the two were in different states, one in Washington, D.C. for a year and another at Saint Mary’s. Since both had full schedules, it required delegation and splitting between in-person and virtual campaigning.
“I think it was hard, but I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anybody else. I think that we ran the best campaign that we possibly could, given our circumstances of being away from each other and me being in a completely different state,” Munoz said.
The campaign's platform focused on reinvigorating SGA’s role to the Saint Mary’s community and students, enhancing the experience of students at Saint Mary’s and building a stronger community. As Munoz stated, they want to facilitate a campus environment where “you don’t have to be involved in order for your voice or recommendations to be heard.”
Zelinske-Mader also hopes that through their term, students will get excited about the programming and developments being done by SGA. They want to ensure students can see the benefits of making their voices heard and look forward to doing so.
“We are the Student Government Association and we were voted in by the student body, so we want to make sure that the student body is excited to go to these programmings or getting excited to make their voices heard,” Zelinske-Mader said.
The “Ivy x Kay” campaign was established on the motto “leading you today, leaving a legacy tomorrow.” They say they want to assist throughout a student’s journey in calling Saint Mary’s their home.
“It’s hard to call some unfamiliar place your home. Saint Mary’s is home to Kayli and I … and we wouldn’t change that for the world, but it wasn’t always that way. Another big thing that Kayli and I also want to emphasize is that we want to ensure that the incoming freshmen are okay and feel that sense of community with home,” Munoz said.
Munoz and Zelinske-Mader expressed appreciation for all of the support given throughout the election process by the student body.
“I genuinely would not trade this sisterhood for the entire world. It’s your home away from home and it’s your family away from your family. We’ve just been so grateful and fortunate enough to experience that and that’s all we want to do, for other people to get to experience that as well,” Munoz said.
