Samantha Zwerling Graphic

Samantha Zwerling has always been mature for her age.

On field  trips in preschool, while all the other kids sat with classmates, Zwerling sat with the adults  — holding conversations with them at age 4. It was a story the teachers would always joke about.

Instances when Zwerling acted older than her peers go “all the way back,” said Zwerling’s mom, Naomi. Eric Zwerling, her dad, remembers a time when Zwerling had to choose between siding with the popular kids or defending another girl after moving to a new school. She chose the latter and didn’t think twice, he said.

As Student Government Association president, Zwerling has worked to stand up for students. She’s helped provide $5 million in funding over the next 10 years for university mental health services, implemented an outlet for problems around the university with W.T.F. UMD and spoke in Annapolis to protect students against hikes in tuition. Her efforts have been focused toward providing students a voice on topics being discussed at the state or national level.

SGA presidents do not have a lot of tangible “strategic powers,” according to university alumnus and former University System of Maryland student regent Steven Hershkowitz. Zwerling said she understands how to systematically achieve certain goals, when to compromise and when to stand against state, university and city officials twice her age.

“She’s the strongest student leader that I’ve ever met,” said Ryan Heisinger, university alumnus and former SGA academic affairs vice president.

Still, with every success, sacrifices have been made. In becoming student body president, Zwerling has dropped a minor, left her role as president of student lobbying group MaryPIRG and even given up being a vegetarian.

“[SGA] has really been my life for two years,” Zwerling said.

NO MORE HIGH SCHOOL DANCES

When Zwerling came to College Park her freshman year in fall 2010, she had two goals: join Hillel and take part in an environmental group on the campus. By the end of her first semester, Zwerling had done both.

That October, Zwerling worked with MaryPIRG to get 1,500 students registered to vote — a goal some said was impossible, Zwerling said.

Hours before the deadline, Zwerling and other members learned they were 30 students away from achieving their goal.

While they all worked for those last signatures, Zwerling found out members of the SGA were holding meetings to discuss student voter apathy rather than volunteering to assist MaryPIRG.

Zwerling wanted to change that. In her mind, SGA could do better.

This wasn’t the first time Zwerling wanted to join SGA. She had been a part of student government since her freshman year of high school. Zwerling even ran for high school president junior year, but lost.

Coming to college, Zwerling was done planning school dances. She didn’t initially want any part of this university’s SGA, but she found herself at almost every meeting freshman year because of MaryPIRG. At these meetings, Zwerling realized the potential of the SGA to do more than dances or fundraisers by becoming the voice of the student body.

“[SGA] was kind of just a group of people feeling important because of their titles, as opposed to actually being important because of their actions,” Zwerling said.

In her sophomore year, Zwerling stepped down from her role as president of MaryPIRG and persuaded some of the top leaders from the group to help assemble her campaign, a move she spent a lot of time reflecting on.

During her presidency, a student referendum voted to cut funding for two full-time employees at the organization. Coupled with the fact that she recruited some of the group’s members to join her campaign,  “there was a time I felt I personally killed MaryPIRG,” Zwerling said. But she moved on after a friend convinced her the success or failure of MaryPIRG was not her responsibility.

When the SGA election season rolled around, Zwerling was not only the “outside candidate” — a term given to individuals who have never been in SGA before — but she intended to run a different style campaign. While the other party gave out free Rita’s during election week, she said, her team promoted grassroots initiatives. They ran a phone bank and spent countless hours talking to students around the campus, sharing their plans and getting their input.

“Certainly, I had doubts that we could actually pull the whole thing off,” said Heisinger, who joined the campaign team after Zwerling impressed him with her “solution-oriented campaign platforms to re-energize the organization.” 

Zwerling and her Go Party executive board talked until 2 a.m. some nights “working and tweaking the platform,” said Landon Greer, Zwerling’s former chief of staff.

Greer was the only student on Zwerling’s ticket previously a part of SGA, and he said he saw her campaign as the beginning of something that had never been done before. They created much more than a 10-point plan of what to fix on the campus, Greer added. Zwerling was using real campaign tactics to spread her message about university initiatives. 

“As hectic as those nights were, those were some really great times,” he said.

REFUSING TO BACK DOWN

Zwerling hates it when people talk about student issues.

Textbook prices, college affordability and class sizes are all problems affecting those enrolled at this university — they’re student issues SGA takes a stance on every year. It’s easy to only discuss tuition issues, Zwerling said, but if the student government wants to fully represent those on-campus, there needs to be discussions regarding more controversial issues.

So Zwerling advocated SGA’s sponsorship of a marriage equality rally on the campus. Former student government members told Zwerling she shouldn’t get involved in those types of controversial issues. She disagreed.

There wasn’t just one rally for marriage equality, there were two. Gov. Martin O’Malley, U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer and U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin all attended one of them, Zwerling said, along with hundreds of students.

“She doesn’t back down,” University Police Chief David Mitchell said. “And I applaud her for that.”

If she doesn’t agree with you, Heisinger said, “she definitely makes it known.”

“WE DON’T DO EVENTS”

Zwerling has made the SGA about acting on policy, and she’s motivating those under her to follow her lead. Student groups — not the SGA — should organize events, she said.

“SGA is going places and it’s because Sam is pushing us to go there,” SGA Communications Director Eshe Hill said.

Big Ten Students Association Executive Director Adi Sathi said Zwerling is one of the most talented and well-respected student body presidents in the organization.

“I’ve never seen Sam make a mistake,” he said.

Mitchell said it’s been a “big help” to have a two-term president, because he and Zwerling have formed a direct line of communication — literally; the two have each other’s cellphone numbers.

Though far from realistic for students, it would be ideal for leadership positions at the university to last two terms, according to university President Wallace Loh.

“It’s not just knowledge. It’s the maturity and sophistication that comes with being on the job,” Loh said.

The “learning curve” that comes along with being SGA president takes around three months to get over, according to Loh. When Zwerling started her second term, the conversations were much more “substantive” from the start, he said.

“You can get straight to the issues,” Loh said.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Eric Zwerling said he tried to show his daughter from an early age the importance of making a difference. It all began when she attended environmental awareness meetings her dad helped form.

“She saw that as an individual you can make a difference and you can make an even greater difference if you motivate a lot of people,” he said.

Even now, as she prepares for graduation and a career in politics in the Washington area, Zwerling is personally invested. When SGA succeeds, Zwerling said she’s in a great mood. 

One cold afternoon in February, inside a committee room at the State House, Zwerling leaned over tubs of half-melted ice cream in high heels and a dress, and scooped bowls to legislators, staffers and interns. 

Zwerling, along with others from the student government, was spending an afternoon passing out 24 gallons of ice cream at a annual social sponsored by SGA. It’s an event Zwerling’s administration started her first year as a way to put a face on the SGA for when legislators debate increasing tuition prices or other issues involving the university.

The line snaked outside of the room and into the hall. Those waiting killed time discussing bills that were close to reaching the House floor.

“You guys are the new leaders,” said one woman near the front of the line.

Zwerling lit up in response and with a grin on her face, she agreed.

Senior staff writer Yasmeen Abutaleb contributed to this report.