{"id":40802294586,"date":"2026-04-30T11:42:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/?p=40802294586"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:40:58","slug":"sheehan-earns-national-sga-president-of-the-year-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/sheehan-earns-national-sga-president-of-the-year-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheehan Earns National SGA President of the Year Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brendan Sheehan, president of the Student Government Association (SGA) and senior political science student, was recently named Student Body President of the Year at the 45th annual Conference on Student Government Associations<\/a> (COSGA), hosted by Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been a tremendous honor to serve the students of Monmouth University as SGA president, and to receive this recognition is proof that our efforts over the course of this year go far and above what is expected of student government,\u201d Sheehan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Sheehan\u2019s individual honor, Monmouth University\u2019s SGA received the Rising to the Challenge award for its response to the 2025 federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis award belongs to all of the members of the SGA \u2026 [and] the campus community as a whole,\u201d Sheehan said. \u201cOur responses were a multi-faceted approach with support from campus offices and other student leaders \u2026 I\u2019ve seen first-hand how this university comes together to support one another in challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheehan, along with fellow Monmouth students Alexis Hudyma, Hannah Fierro, Aysu Sahbaz, Sheyla Caly, Nico Vartolone, and Thambbir Khan, presented at the conference, highlighting their efforts during the shutdown and their advocacy for UWill\u2014a free, 24\/7 virtual mental health counseling service to all New Jersey college and university students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SGA collected more than 500 pounds of food donations, expanded the hours of The Nest<\/a>, the University\u2019s food pantry, and secured financial contributions, including a grant from the state, to support the initiative. Additionally, SGA passed a resolution calling on Gov. Mikie Sherrill and the state legislature to extend funding for UWill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope this year is proof to future student leaders that you can and should take on the kinds of David and Goliath fights you know you may not win because you have an obligation to your fellow students \u2026 I also hope this year shows that Monmouth University isn\u2019t just the statewide leader in student governance, but is a nationally recognized group showing others how to lead with courage, courtesy, and conviction,\u201d Sheehan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COSGA unites student leaders worldwide to share ideas<\/a>, strengthen leadership, and advance the quality of student governance. It is the largest student-run SGA conference globally. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monmouth
Monmouth University SGA members at the Conference on Student Government Associations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brendan Sheehan, president of the Student Government Association (SGA) and senior political science student, was recently named Student Body President of the Year at the 45th annual Conference on Student Government Associations (COSGA), hosted by Texas A&M University. \u201cIt has been a tremendous honor to serve the students of Monmouth University as SGA president, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2249,"featured_media":40802294592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417,414,444],"tags":[6905,432,3378,6683],"person":[6912,6911,2931,6918,6908,6915,6921],"audience":[14,17,11,8,29,1961,128,47],"school":[59,26],"program":[],"class_list":["post-40802294586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-publications-research","category-campus-life","category-monmouth-now","tag-cosga","tag-newsletter","tag-school-of-humanities-social-sciences","tag-sga","person-alexis-hudyma","person-aysu-sahbaz","person-brendan-sheehan","person-hannah-fierro","person-nico-vartolone","person-sheyla-caly","person-thambbir-khan","audience-alumni","audience-community-member","audience-current-student","audience-faculty","audience-media","audience-parent","audience-prospective-undergraduate-student","audience-undergraduate-student","school-political-science-sociology","school-school-of-humanities-and-social-sciences"],"squareimage":{"id":40802294595,"rendered":"\"Headshot","original":{"url":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/Brendan-Sheehan_square.jpg","width":660,"height":660}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802294586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802294586"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802294586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802294624,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802294586\/revisions\/40802294624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40802294592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802294586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802294586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802294586"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=40802294586"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=40802294586"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=40802294586"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=40802294586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}