Katie Hayden – Student Body President

Senior Katie Hayden is one of the familiar faces on this team. Last year, Hayden served as the executive vice president, running alongside former SGA president Dorian Brown. The McConnell Scholar will now operate as the president.

With experience under her belt, Hayden looks to combine her goals with her vice presidents’ goals.

“We are in a unique situation where two different slates seat the president and vice president of SGA,” she said. But being from different sides, Hayden believes, is a good opportunity to combine ideas and build together. “When you run in a SGA election you kind of realize that most candidates have similar ideas, just different ways of achieving them,” she said.��

Improving communication with the student body is a vision of Hayden’s. She plans to implement a sign up where students can receive text updates on current SGA news.

“How can we best get everybody in the know? How can we help students understand who SGA is? When you look at it, the big picture, your student government does make a lot of decisions that can drastically affect the student body,” she said.  

After graduating, Hayden plans to attend dental school at UofL with aspirations of becoming an orthodontist.

Angel Okorie – Executive Vice President

Senior Angel Okorie, is a newcomer to the leadership slate. Majoring in health and human performance, she is also part of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority on campus.

As the 2023–2024 term kicks off, Okorie’s main goal is to make diversity, equity and inclusion a priority for the Student Government Association. She aims to build close partnerships with the equity center and other departments on campus.

Okorie, who also is a Porter Scholar and an Honors Scholar, praises the people she has met while being at UofL.

“I’m pretty involved on campus and feel like I have found a good amount of people that I can fall back on,” she said.

As the school year kicks off, she is excited to advocate for other students and to make a difference while serving her time for SGA.

Alex Reynolds – Student Body Services Vice President

Senior Alex Reynolds is a political science major from Northern Kentucky. Reynolds is now in his second term in the vice president position.

One of Reynold’s main goals is continuing to improve on student services. Carrying from last year, are his plans to improve the Cardinal Cruiser transportation services.

“We’re making some real headway this summer,” he said. “I want to make it more like an Uber, Lyft-type service.” Reynolds has reached an agreement with the university to create an app for the service and he hopes it will be deployed by spring 2024.

Reynolds, who is an advocate for free speech, says it’s important for students to get involved with SGA.��

 “Not only does SGA provide these amazing opportunities for leadership and amazing connections, it also helps actually make a difference,” he said. “The university administration has done a really good job of including students within SGA and working with us to craft university policy and services.”

“Once I toured and met all the people, I knew this was the right fit,” he said. “They thought of me as more than just another number, they actually cared about the success and opportunities that I get here.”

Sawyer Depp – Student Body Academic Vice President

Senior Sawyer Depp is a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and is also a part of the McConnell Scholar program. He is majoring in political science and history.

Depp, who is a northern Kentucky native, chose to come to UofL because it felt like home to him.

“I met with several people and from my conversations, I felt like this was an environment where I thought I could learn and grow into the best person I could be,” he said.

Depp believes getting students involved in SGA is important for the small things as well as the big changes.

“Being able to see change on a university level or even at an individual level — just seeing change at all — is really what I think the biggest draw to SGA is,” he said.

Upon graduation, he has aspirations to attend law school with plans to one day perhaps become a judge.

It was an especially tough blow for the Class of 2020 who didn’t get to celebrate the end of their final year as Cardinals with a traditional Commencement ceremony or even get a chance to bid farewell to their favorite campus spots.

A new space near the center of Belknap Campus now stands in their honor; the fulfillment of a promise made by the university to the Class of 2020. It’s an oasis from the regular hustle and bustle, where all students can reflect and relax and where the Class of 2020 can return to celebrate their place in UofL’s history.

The university dedicated the 2020 Pavilion on Tuesday, Oct. 11. The space was designed “in honor of the Class of 2020 whose dynamic blend of passion, innovation and resiliency sustained them on their academic journey and through their final days as students, which were irrevocably altered by the COVID-19 pandemic and its historic impact on our world.”

Plans for a commemorative space were announced in May 2020 to mark sacrifices made by students after the pandemic forced the university to deliver all classes virtually during part of spring 2020 and to offer commencement as a virtual rather than in-person experience that year.

Jasper Noble ’20 served as 2019-20 Student Government Association president and well remembers the jarring effect the pandemic had on his senior year.

“The Class of 2020 got hit in a very strange way with [the pandemic]. It came out of nowhere and completely changed how we were going to school and how were living our lives. We were the first graduating class to deal with this new problem,” he said.

The pandemic, while a struggle, did also provide a chance for UofL to truly show it is a Community of Care and to demonstrate its resiliency.

“I think there were a lot of lessons we learned,” Noble said. “How to be flexible, how to be a little more empathetic to those around us. In my experience, people were very patient and very caring right there at the end of the semester. It was a time when we were all very far apart, but we all came together. I think it’s great that there’s a place we can come back to and celebrate the time we had at UofL and, I bet for a lot of people, get that closure that they’re looking for and maybe never got.”  

The original idea to honor the Class of 2020 began with a renaming of the grassy area bordered by the Belknap Academic Building, Lutz Hall, Shumaker Research Building and Schneider Hall to the “2020 Quad,” but with thanks to University Planning, Design and Construction (UPDC), planners began to think bigger.

“We talked about creating a structure with seating so students could use the space to socialize and be on campus – exactly what students in 2020 could not do at the time,” UPDC assistant director Mike Materna said. “We all believed in the vision of making sure students felt heard and supported after a time when that voice was not able to be present.”

Along the way primary donor Messer Construction Co., and supporters Whittenberg Construction Co. and ID+A Inc., along with the Office of the President, provided funding to make the pavilion come to life. With K. Norman Berry and Associates as the architect and Miranda Construction as the contractor, construction began in earnest during the summer of 2022 and was completed at the start of the fall semester.

Embracing the idea of a comfortable gathering space was critical in the design process, Carrie Whitmore, project manager with UPDC, said. “So we specifically picked furniture that would encourage people to stick around – like lounge chairs and communal tables.” Along with the furniture, the pavilion also includes a living wall “so the legacy can live on,” Whitmore added.

The backside of the living wall features a Cardinal logo that can be used as a spot to take a UofL-inspired photo, designed in part to give the Class of 2020 an opportunity to take a picture that could replace the traditional shot they would have taken as they walked across the stage at graduation. And of course, there is a plaque with the dedication to the Class of 2020. Since its completion, students and other members of the campus community can be found lounging in the chairs, studying or grabbing a quick bite.

Noble, who is currently in his second year of law school at Georgetown University, was able to return to UofL last year when his sister was a freshman. He visited as construction was beginning on the recently completed Belknap Village South residence hall and his sister has been keeping him up to date with all the latest campus improvements. As an alum, Noble is proud to see where UofL is going and is honored that through the pavilion, the Class of 2020 is able to  share what makes UofL so special with the classes that followed them.  

“I think one of the points of being a part of a community like UofL is that you put all this work in, you donate so much of your time to the community because you’re grateful that other people have come before you and done that,” he said. “I’m very excited there’s another place for people to relax and really soak in being in this place.”

While that monetary accomplishment is astonishing in itself, it just scratches the surface of the organization’s lasting impact.

Emma Gabbard, a senior nursing student from Fishers, Indiana, has been involved in dance marathons like raiseRED since she was a freshman in high school. Like many involved in dance marathons, Gabbard was hooked in no time. She joined the committee her sophomore year and realized as a junior that she had found her path.

“I was super connected to the families that we were supporting through fundraising and heard the way they talked about their nurses and saw the bonds that the kids formed with their nurses,” Gabbard said. “That’s when I chose to do nursing.”

By the time she was a senior, Gabbard was the president of the Fishers High School Dance Marathon, but she knew she couldn’t leave such a big part of her life behind when she went off for college.

“When looking for colleges, I was super nerdy and looked for dance marathons before I even applied,” Gabbard said. “All six schools that I applied to had dance marathon programs.”

UofL stood out for Gabbard in part because of the nursing program and beautiful campus. Jordan Meddings, her campus tour guide, ultimately helped to sway her decision. At the time, he was applying to raiseRED’s executive board and could answer all of her dance marathon questions.

RaiseRED students’ campus experiences and lives are enriched by the memories they make and relationships they form. They get to see the direct impact the money they raise has on the community. That money funds patient needs, research at the UofL School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Hematology and Oncology and the new beneficiary, Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, which supports a clinical social worker, nurse and child life specialist.

Gabbard got a closer look at this impact over the summer, when she got a job at Norton through the Student Nurse Apprenticeship Program. The dream she had as a junior in high school was reaffirmed. Without a doubt, she wants to be a pediatric nurse.

“[At a meeting] we had to say what raiseRED meant to us in one word,” she said. “For me, that was ‘motivational.’ No matter what I do [to fundraise], it never feels like a job. Whether it’s a meeting or [breaking down] the volleyball courts for raiseRED money, it’s always something I get to do, not something I have to do.”

Every year, hundreds of students from across campus are motivated by a common goal – to improve the lives of strangers tackling the unimaginable. RaiseRED isn’t just about a fun-filled, 18-hour dance marathon. Last year made that very clear.

“In non-COVID years, we’d have an event every month,” Gabbard said. “Last year we couldn’t do that, so we started doing bedtime stories on Zoom. They kind of turned into a bi-weekly talent show and we were able to form more of an intimate connection with the kids.”

Instead of thinking about the next treatment or doctor’s appointment, kids had a chance to just be kids. For the students, it was incredibly fulfilling. The pandemic did not stop them from building relationships with the kids and their families, and although it was more challenging, it certainly did not stop them from fundraising.   

“At reveal last year, we raised half a million dollars during a pandemic,” Gabbard said. “It struck me that a group of people, no matter the size, no matter the circumstance, can come together for bigger causes to put aside our differences and change part of how we want to see the world.”

Last year’s total, although it didn’t break the organization’s record of $690,921.70, left many speechless. During a pandemic, 1,000 college students navigated unprecedented uncertainties – and changed the entire model of the signature event – to raise $507,203.37 for the kids.��

The money raised by this growing group of students is symbolic of a true community of care. It is symbolic of a year of passionate and determined hard work. And most importantly, it is symbolic of hope. Hope for a future, for better treatments or more time, and for a cure.

“My goal in my career is to make sure that all patients and families feel heard, seen and valued,” Gabbard said.��“This is what I want to do for the rest of my life – make differences in people’s lives … My mission is to get kids a tomorrow.” 

A year later, VG began casually uploading videos to YouTube. His new hobby started with reviews of movies – he watched what he liked, filmed his reaction and posted the clips for the world to see. The new youtuber was getting a modest number of views, built a small fanbase and shifted the “” channel’s focus to cover another interest – video games.��

His YouTube page is more than just a hobby, however. It has also helped him build his English-speaking skills and improved his confidence.

VG is the only English-speaking person in his household and has noticed an improvement in his second language through creating content and interacting with his growing audience.

“I have to take care of everybody,” said VG. “I’ve got to be in charge of bills and other things.��YouTube gives me an opportunity to communicate with other people and spread positive vibes.” 

VG uploaded a video titled “,” in October of 2018. The next day, he woke up to 4,000 views. The day after – 40,000. Suddenly, it skyrocketed. That video has now been viewed more than 4 million times and, as his most-watched video, it’s what VG credits as the catalyst to his channel’s success.

“I didn’t expect it to blow up,” said VG. “I was just playing games and having fun with my fans. [When the video blew up] I was so happy. I just do it for fun, but that was a crazy opportunity.”

Suddenly, VG’s hobby became something he could monetize. Over a short period of time, the YouTube creator has amassed 583,000 subscribers on his main channel “HelloItsVG”, and has set up a second “vlog” channel with 18,000 subscribers under the name “” for the content that doesn’t fit the niche of his main channel.

Though the hobby-turned-job can be quite time consuming, it hasn’t hindered the second-year public health student from studying or building friendships on UofL’s campus.

Learning those time-management skills should come in handy for VG to achieve his longer-term goals – expanding his audience, garnering more attention for the gaming industry in general and going to medical school.��

Through the pandemic, as people around the world searched for something to occupy time at home, the esports community has grown even faster. In 2020, more than 14 million college students played video games – whether casually, socially or competitively – averaging about 8.2 hours spent gaming each week. At UofL, nearly 200 students have found a home in the up-and-coming Louisville Esports Club.

“Some people watch movies, some people go to the gym and some people play games as their outlet and I think that’s true for many of our students,” said Louisville Esports staff advisor Matt Banker.

Though the club has been in existence for several years, it wasn’t until the current club president Braden Hensley’s freshman year that it really took off.��

As part of an assignment for an English class in the spring of 2018, Hensley had to write about something he enjoyed. Growing up playing video games with two older brothers, esports seemed like the simplest choice.

“Collegiate esports was kind of becoming a thing,” Hensley said. “I did a bunch of research on it and realized that this was going to be the real deal. I reached out [to the club at the time] and they said they were going to be closing down the club because of a lack of interest.”

However, Hensley saw the way esports was growing and knew that the club had potential. He knew how much he and his peers enjoyed playing video games, so how could there be a lack of interest?

His “simple choice” for a freshman English assignment morphed into a multi-year endeavor as he dove head first into the club and became its president. That summer, the Mechanical Engineering major reworked the club’s constitution and entered the fall semester with the goal of creating an inclusive gaming space for students at the university.��

Open to students with a variety of abilities, levels of experience and interest, the club quickly grew as its leaders focused on building community.

“In the last three years we’ve had a new wave of interest from students,” said Banker. “We’ve used that time as an incubation period to learn and develop our priorities. We have two prongs to this, the competitive side and the casual gaming side for those who want to get together for fun on a Friday night.”

Although the in-person game nights have ceased over the last year, students have been able to stay connected through the club. Meetings and competitions were hosted virtually and the club has amassed roughly 600 members on its , a group chatting app popular among the gaming community.��

“It’s nice to be able to have a place to go to chat and ask if anyone wants to play [a particular game],” said Hensley. “It’s nice for those of us who can’t get to campus but want to interact.”

While the club attracts gamers at any level, about 50 members are involved in year-round competition against club teams from other institutions. With competition ranging from dual meetings to highly visible tournament play, the Cardinals have found quite a bit of success.

In the fall of 2020, esports clubs from 15 ACC institutions worked to form a student-run Atlantic Coast Esports (ACE) league, which coordinated game play around the ACC football schedule.

“If [our football team] was playing Clemson on a Saturday, for example, we’d play their esports team on a Friday night,” said Banker.

The Cards can also boast last fall’s inaugural Esports Governor’s Cup win over the University of Kentucky.

“We played five games – League of Legends, Rocket League, Valorant, Madden and Minecraft – and won three,” said Hensley. “That was a big win for us and it bridges the gap between gamers and other college students because they understand the rivalry.”

The club also bridged that gap by hosting a collaborative Madden NFL 2021 event with Learfield, which has invested in esports nationally. The tournament brought UofL fans, alumni, students, faculty and staff together to apply their football fandom to competitive gaming.

“Lamar Jackson, who is on the cover of the game, was cool enough to tweet about the tournament,” said Banker. “Ironically, the championship game teams were the Green Bay Packers with [UofL alums] Jaire Alexander and the Baltimore Ravens with Lamar Jackson.”

Whether a student is interested in playing Madden NFL, Rocket League, or a classic like Mario Cart, the Louisville Esports Club has a home for them.

“It’s a community that anyone can be a part of,” said Hensley. “I encourage anyone that wants to get involved to get involved.”

The Louisville Esports Club is hosting the  on Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30 for those who would like to participate or watch.

Photos from this year’s event are .��

Grab a tissue and check out video highlights from the event, which clearly depict why we dance (#FTK): 

That is intentional. According to John Smith, assistant director of the Department of Intramural and Recreational Sports, while many universities are trimming their intramurals programs to include just traditional sports like basketball and volleyball, UofL offers 34 different leagues, tournaments and special events comprised of 26 different sports.��

“We take a lot of pride in our offerings, like sand volleyball, putt putt golf and a swim meet. Not many other intramural departments offer a track meet to their students. We are only aware of one other department in the nation that has a day similar to our Canoe Regatta. Our calendar of intramural activities is much more diverse than most other universities,” Smith said.��“We have started offering online activities like NCAA Bowl Pick ‘Em and NCAA March Madness bracket contests.”

The Department of Intramural and Recreational Sports has a long and colorful history on campus. The first homecoming event of the intramural program was a mile and a half inter-fraternity cross-country race, named by Ellis Mendelsohn after he became the head of intramural sports in 1953. Participants literally ran for birds — first, second and third place finishers won a live turkey, a goose and a chicken, respectively. The last place finisher received a goose egg.��In 1970, a women’s race, the Hen Waggle, was added.��

This race, now called the Turkey Trot, is the oldest, consecutively run road race in the state.

Although there are no longer livestock prizes for intramurals winners, the department continues to provide a fun outlet for students. According to its website, its goal is “to improve the quality of life and sense of belonging for all members of the University of Louisville community” through community via sports and fitness activities.

Few have such a deep perspective as Smith, who has been at UofL for 32-plus years. He breaks the department down into two parts: Intramural Sports and group fitness/club sports/recreation.��

“Most people know our department as the Intramural Department but within our profession, the word Intramurals refers specifically to the structured leagues, tournaments and special events like Flag Football, Soccer, Racquetball etc.,” he said.

The Intramural Sports program included 8,140 students participating in the past year.��

The department also includes group fitness, club sports and recreation where facilities like the Student Recreation Center and HSC Fitness Center are made available for people to use on their own schedules. About 15,000 people participate in these opportunities. The SRC and HSC Fitness Center combined average around 550,000 hours of use from those participants, according to Smith.��

To meet demand, the department is one of the largest student employers on campus, something Smith takes quite a bit of pride in. Staffing levels depend on the time of year, but typically there are between 110 to 120 students employed at any time. Their roles range from checking people in to providing instruction on equipment use.��

There are also students who serve as event assistants during intramural games. EAs get teams signed in, keep score and time, and assist the supervisor on duty in any way needed. Those supervisors are also students who have typically come up through being an EA or who have been involved with the program in another way. They have the responsibility to administer the intramural activities throughout the year, Smith explains.

“Plus, we have sports officials in every sport. We provide that as well as ongoing instruction/training for anyone interested in becoming an official. Becoming involved as an official can open the doors to a considerable amount of opportunities around the city as other agencies come to us regularly for help in that area,” he said.��

Another critical component of the department is the Intramural Council, which is made up of a representative from every team/organization in the program and acts as an advisory group or focus group. The council meets every month and makes recommendations about adding sports, or taking some sports off the calendar that aren’t popular. The list of events is continually being modified.

“We’re happy to provide so many different opportunities for our students,” Smith said. “We hope that anyone that participates in our program, whether on an intramural team or in any other program area, develops a sense of belonging between themselves and the University of Louisville. Being involved with something you enjoy is maybe the best way to cultivate that sense of belonging. We know many lifetime friendships come from being on intramural teams together.”

More information about the department and its programs is .��

“I like it better now than I did as a freshman … It makes the SAC more welcoming. Most people just came here to eat. Now they can come for events, food, the campus bookstore, whatever,” said UofL student Daphne Woolridge.

.��

Below are some additional highlights of the new and improved SAC.��

New Cards Freshman Orientation is a required two-day program, including an on-campus overnight stay, in order to enroll in Fall 2018 classes. Highlights include campus services presentations from financial aid, safety, academic units and more; course registration; a business fair; a session on UofL traditions; and entertainment. .��

Toree Parrish, assistant director of admissions, has been overseeing the orientation program for five years and, as a double UofL alum, went through the program herself. She said the admissions team — including a student staff of 28, an office team of three professionals, two student workers and a graduate intern — works on orientation year-round and is already planning sessions for next year’s incoming class.��

That doesn’t mean she’s overlooking this year’s program, however.��

“I love working with students in transition. There is so much opportunity for them. They get a fresh start no matter where they’re coming from or what they’re looking for. College is where they can decide what they want to be for the rest of their lives,” Parrish said.��

Orientation helps plant those seeds for them, she adds, introducing them to the appropriate resources, services and people, so students will be ready when classes start in August.��

“Orientation is the time when we take all the muck in the water and balls in the air and find a place for them so when they get here in the fall, they can hit the ground running and focus on being a student,” Parrish said. “We’re giving them the tools they need to be a successful student as soon as they get here.” 

This year, the orientation team is focused on creating a sense of belonging for incoming freshmen.��

“We want every student to understand that this is a place for everyone; you don’t have to change who you are to be successful here,” Parrish said. “Our fabric is made up of every type of identity and we have a place for you whoever you are.” 

To reiterate that theme, the orientation team is encouraging participants to write in a caption that shares their feelings or identities as part of a #WeAreUofL photo project.��

“It will show that our freshman class is diverse, not just with race or gender or identities, but also with feelings and what they’re looking for out of their experience,” Parrish said. “For example, we will get captions like, ‘I am excited’ or ‘I am nervous,’ along with ‘I am Latina,’ and it will help this class know that the ‘we’ part in ‘we are UofL’ is all encompassing.” 

The course was made available for the fraternity brothers as part of Pi Kappa Alpha’s overall mission: “developing men of integrity, intellect and high moral character and to fostering a truly lifelong fraternal experience.” Membership development chair, Alex McGrath, and chapter president, Alex Barnum, said it is important to provide their members valuable life skills such as CPR.

“We wanted to give the men life development skills that people should but don’t have,” McGrath said.

 “How better off can you be than to have 20 to 30 people in a room at any given time who have that (CPR training) capability?” Barnum added.

The CPR is just the tip of the iceberg of endeavors pursued by the fraternity. The Kappa Zeta Chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, commonly known as Pike, joined UofL in 1995. Since then, Pike’s members have regularly volunteered at Cochran Elementary, even creating the Cardinal Club, which provides in-school tutoring and mentorship.

Pike has also raised philanthropic awareness through events such as Spin for Steven and the Fireman Challenge.