You see them around campus, but who are our student leaders? Friday With gives readers a glimpse into the personalities of the men and women behind the suits and ties.

This week the Northern Star sat down with Student Association President Erik Calmeyer.

Q: So Erik, where are you from?

A: I’m from Johnsburg, IL. Its a small village about 15 minutes south of Wisconsin, about 40 minutes from Lake Michigan.

Q: You do so much around campus now, but how was your high school experience?

A: My high school experience was pretty good, I played soccer for three years for my team, but my senior year I actually coached for a traveling team. I worked throughout high school, but I always had fun and made sure I found time to get good grades and hang out with my friends. I really enjoyed my high school experience.

Q: When did you get involved with SA?

A: I first got involved with Student Association in Fall 2007 when I ran to be a senator. My first few days on campusz I was going around checking out different greek organizations and learned about Student Association senate. That was something that had always interested me, so I decided to get involved with that and ended up running and being elected to serve my freshman year. And that’s actually what started it all.

Q: How big of an accomplishment is being SA President, personally?

A: It is definitely a great accomplishment and I’m very honored to have the experience to serve the students as the Student Association President. You have to be willing to reach out to people who are in positions you want to be in. My thing is why try to reinvent the wheel that has already been created when you can just add to it and make it better. If you learn from other peoples mistakes and build on it and you’ll be able to go a little bit farther.

Q: So who are you cheering for this NFL season?

A: Definitely a Bears fan. I go with my local teams. Something that people don’t know about me is I don’t follow sports too closely. I am one of those people who hates sitting on the sideline. I need to be out there playing, I just cant sit down and watch someone else play.

Q: What’s next this semester for SA?

A: We have senate elections next week, which is really exiting news. There are a lot of people running who are really interested in senate, so I think it should be a big year for Student Association.

Q: Any last shout-outs?

A: As far as people who have inspired me, I would have to say Brent Keller. He was kind of like my mentor [as] SA president from 08-09. I definitely have to give a shout out to Robert Sorsby. He has always been a great friend, and has always been there for me.