SLC President Student Spotlight – Lia Schmeck

Lia is a freshman studying Art and Design. She grew up in California, Massachusetts, and the Willamette Valley. Lia was recently elected to be LBCC’s 2026-2027 school year president of the Student Leadership Council. She has served her first year on SLC as Chieftain of Events and has enjoyed her time.

Lia enjoys enjoys family, hiking, and is passionate about art.

Photo Credit: LBCC

What was your role on the team this year?

This last year, I was the chieftain of events, and I was the chair of the ETF [Event Task Force], so I helped guide event planning, coordinating and facilitating for all of the events that were planned and prepared by the event planning team. And then I also just functioned as a student leader generally on SLC.

How did you hear about SLC and what made you join?

I heard about SLC just from the community interaction with our prior president from last year, Travis Overvig. Students were walking to a table to hear about upcoming elections, and I was passing by. Travis was so friendly and welcoming, and he was offering free pizza to students to just come sit down and hear them talk about their resources. And I was interested in leadership, but definitely didn't have enough experience to be like President or anything. But he was still very encouraging, and said that anyone should run. And so I did.

What is your major and how does being involved in the Student Leadership Council support you?

My major is studio art, but when I started at LBCC, it was surgical technology, and then I changed it to biology, and then I changed it one more time to studio art. And I think through the interactions I've had in SLC, I've realized that I really like being a facilitator, and I like doing task management. So ideally, after I pursue an undergraduate education, I would like to do creative direction, which is what I do now as Chieftain. So I think the experience is really supporting, and I think it's leadership is really creative in a lot of ways. So that's always been a learning experience. I feel that the community I have in a less like, you know, physical sense of, how do these roles support my education, the community we have has been really supportive

What made you want to run for President this year? 

This year, I didn't want to run for president originally. Yeah, I ran for chieftain, and I've been really pleased with the work that I've been doing. Like I said, I want to pursue task facilitation as my career. So I was really interested in staying as chieftain. But honestly, a lot of my team was kind of asking, like, are you going to run for president? We need you. And I told them no initially, because it felt like I was biting off more than I could chew, but rehashing out the responsibilities and seeing that it's still adjacent to what the ETF does. It's just more general. It's on a larger scale. It made me really interested in the fact that I am really passionate about people and advocacy, and a lot of things have come up this last year that I would love to have more say in, you know, certain initiatives or interactions with students. I definitely have felt like my passion has been reignited in some kind of way to run for president. So originally I didn't want to, but the team's been really encouraging, and it seemed more obtainable this time, so it was worth going again.

What is an issue you hope to focus on in the coming school year? Why?

I think there's a couple of initiatives that I've been working on this year that I've already been prioritizing. So I've done some work with Colleen with textbook affordability. So just gathering data about how textbooks and other resources affect students, things like that are work that I hope to continue doing. We're going to compile the data and then present it for the staff and faculty panel style, that's my understanding now. So continuing to do initiatives like that, but on a broader scale, I really want to focus on deeper unity within our team. There's a lot of importance and transparency of, like, our governing documents, and how we facilitate that. And so that's what I'm looking to focus on this year. I want to make sure that students understand that we're here to serve them, and they need to know how we do that. So just more transparency between our team and then also the services we have for our students.

What are you looking forward to the most in the coming school year? Why?

Well, I graduate this next year, so on a personal note, I look forward to that, yeah, but this year on the team, I think I really look forward to the opportunities or how open everything is. I really look forward to the fact that, at the moment, I don't really know what we have in store, but I think that's exciting. Yeah, we have so many open spots on our team that there's going to be a lot of space for things to happen and for people to work towards their goals that they have. I know that this upcoming year, I'm really excited for welcome day again. We had our pancake feed last year, so I hoped that we're going to replicate that. I hope that how Halloween, like our Halloween Bash, happened last year, is at least inspiring to like larger scale events. I look forward to pride. I look forward to all these really large scale collaborations that our teams do, because it's really impactful. 

What are your plans when you graduate from LBCC?

I'm interested in pursuing my bachelor's in art and design, or some sort of art study. Right after I leave LB, my intention is to take a gap year, but I would like to attend PSU, and they have a lot of leadership opportunities up there too. So I'm sure I'll find my way into something at that point, but ideally I'll get to start working either an internship or some sort of art, like a facilitation role would be really great. I'm not sure what Albany has to offer me, so I think I'll be going up north.

What are you passionate about outside of school? 

Art. Of course, there's unfortunately not a lot of opportunity for me to pursue that at the moment because of my busy, busy schedule. But I really enjoy spending time with my friends and my family, outdoor activities, exercise, hiking, things like that. I think I'm most passionate though about using my time to spend with those that I really enjoy. 

Where did you grow up and go to high school? What activities were you involved in? 

I grew up in this area, like the Willamette generally. I spent a lot of my younger childhood in Salem, but I've also lived a couple years like in Massachusetts. Just random places from the consequence of being a military kid, but most of my childhood and older years were spent in Salem. I moved to California to finish high school and live with my family out there. I graduated high school through an online Academy, actually out of Missouri. That high school program offered accelerated learning opportunities and things like that, so it was beneficial. I got behind due to being a covid high schooler, so there were natural consequences from that, which also meant what I was participating in was pretty lackluster. You know what you can do from quarantine, but I was able to really foster some creative outlets and things of that nature. I was interested in leadership in grade school. I did Junior National Honor Society and little cute things like that. But my time at college has really been re-fostering what I wasn't able to do in high school.

If someone was interested in student leadership, or they were interested in getting involved, what would you tell them?

Let's see, I think I would tell them that there's a lot of character growth. I think you learn a lot by trying to lead others. You learn a lot about yourself. There's a lot of self exploration that happens when you are set on this path of things that need to get done. You know, it's a different kind of deadline that we work with, because we're working with people. There's there's things that we do to serve other students. So I would tell them that it's really worth the ride. It's challenging sometimes, but there's a lot that can be learned from that.

At a glance:

Major: Studio Art

Current SLC Position: Chieftain of Events

27/27 SY SLC Position: President

Grew up: In the Willamette Valley

Hobbies: Hiking, exercise, outdoor activities, and friends and family