DeKalb | Beginning at the age of 5, Student Association President Giuseppe LaGioia grew up focused on hockey; now, he dreams of becoming a lawyer.

LaGioia ran for SA president in spring 2016 against physics major Alex Forgue. LaGioia won the position, receiving 617 of 843 votes.

“After coming to college, I decided it was time to hang the skates up and focus on my education,” LaGioia said.

As president, LaGioia is in charge of directing all programs in the SA. His duties include appointing justices in the judicial branch, determining SA’s budget and item-vetoing bills of the senate and its committees, according to SA’s constitution.

Outside of his position in SA, LaGioia said some of his passions include his family, food and the outdoors. If he could travel anywhere, it would be Italy to see his family’s hometown.

LaGioia said he would choose Actor Dylan O’Brien to play him in a movie about his life, which would include his role as being president of SA.

A major goal LaGioia said he hopes to accomplish as president is to get students involved on campus. He also plans on getting to know more students personally this semester.

“I feel excited to start as president for this new, upcoming semester,” LaGioia said. “I’ve been looking forward to it all summer.”

Even though LaGioia started as business major, he now majors in finance and would like to attend law school.

“I have leadership experience all over the place,” LaGioia said. “I was the vice president of Lambda Sigma Honor Society, worked all over in career services, and I was also a senator in Student Association.”

LaGioia feels his leadership experience will give him a chance to communicate better with students and has prepared him as president.

Freshman engineering major Claudia Cruz said it’s cool LaGioia likes to share his personal interests, and she’s glad she’s starting school with LaGioia representing her.

“It’s important to be able to connect school related and interest related with our president,” Cruz said. “I’m excited to see more achievements made by Giuseppe.”

In addition to starting initiatives to get more students involved this semester, LaGioia also aims to help more students find an organization they feel they belong to.

“I want everyone to know I am here to help them out with getting involved on campus and to represent NIU,” LaGioaia said. “By the end of this fall semester, I hope students feel like NIU is a place of giving.”