Daria Lesmerises ʼ29 is the newly elected Student Assembly president of the class of 2029 at the College of William and Mary. The announcement was made Thursday, Sept. 25, by the College’s Student Assembly Independent Elections Commission.
Lesmerises is an out-of-state student from Westerville, Ohio. In high school, her dad encouraged her to explore colleges outside of the state, specifically on the East Coast.
“We came and toured here. I really liked the campus, and I liked the vibes of it. But I heard that the food and the dorm situation was very bad from TikTok. So, I kind of decided I wouldn’t probably go here. But then I still applied,” Lesmerises said.
It was only after coming to the Day for Admitted Students for the class of 2029 that she decided to commit to the College.
“I loved it so much, and I found that the food was actually better than before, and the dorm situation was fixed,” she said. “So, I committed on the spot during admitted students’ day because I loved the campus so much and I love the people so much.”
Lesmerises decided to run for class president after going to the last information session about SA. She saw the ability that the president position and the SA senate held in making important decisions for the class and the College, and the impact these positions could bring served as motivation for her to join the election.
“I figured I should run because I’m always like, ‘I love William and Mary so much.’ I just want to make it as great as it can be,” she explained. “I had done a lot of leadership roles in high school. I was a student council president. I had done a statewide leadership program. I was drum major. I was like, any club I could lead, I basically tried to.”
The idea to make the College as great as it can be was a part of Lesmerises’s campaign that she incorporated into her Instagram posts, highlighting her goals as president. These include a Second Sunday on Sunken, College dorm tour videos, accessible educational information on campus recycling and borrowable umbrellas at the Sadler Center.
“I’m really hoping to make sure that the class of 2029 is aware of all the bills that we’re passing and how we’re trying to help them out,” she said. “Whenever we pass a bill, it’s for like the good of the class at least or like the good of the school in general. So, whenever we do something like that, I want to make sure that everyone’s aware of it and then can do what they can with that bill because it’s meant to help them.”
A part of this transparency is Lesmerises’s call for the class of 2029’s opinions and ideas for SA.
“I would encourage people right now at least to either reach out on my personal Instagram, my daria4prez Instagram, or any of the senators’ Instagrams or we have our like class of 2029 Senate Instagram and that’s wmsa2029,” she said. “Coming up in those newsletters that I send out every two weeks-ish. I’m going to add in a Google form that’s going to be like, if you have any ideas, feel free to share them, and then it’ll be in the newsletter every week from then on, and we’ll all, the senators and I, will all look at that.”
Lesmerises reflected that her campaign and the process of running up to the election day were fun, as it connected her friends and built friendships with the other candidates.
“We would, like, text each other and be like, what are you posting? And then it was just like a fun bonding experience, even though we were going against each other,” she said.
Even though the election was fun and very exciting at times, Lesmerises said there were challenges during the campaign.
“I got pretty busy with schoolwork as we went out with the campaign, so it was pretty hard to stay consistent every day, posting something. And I thought that might mess up my campaign because I got busy with school, and I was a little worried about that, she said
Now as president, Lesmerises puts a collaborative and enthusiastic spirit into her further role as she hopes to bring the class of 2029’s voice into action.
“I love William and Mary. I’m like Tribe Pride, William and Mary is awesome. And then also that like I’m super approachable. Like, I love saying hi to everyone. I’ll say hi to you whether we’ve met 50 times or one time. So just like say hi to me if you want, if you have any bill ideas, come up to me and say hi. Or if you just like, just wave at me and I’ll wave back. But yeah, I just, I love it here and I’m trying to do the best that I can to make sure everyone has a great experience.”
