Michelle Schraudner
Life Editor
Matthew Bloxham, the Idaho State University student who was elected student body president two years in a row and was a former student body senator, will leave ISU’s student government at the end of this semester.
Bloxham, who is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree, plans to graduate halfway through the next academic year in December 2014.
“It really is bittersweet,” said Bloxham about ending his time serving in the Associated Students of Idaho State University, ASISU. “But I’ll miss it.”
Although he’ll miss the experiences, people and opportunities that accompany being ASISU president, Bloxham said he’s looking forward to being able to relax after class. Being on call for any issue at all times gets to be draining after a while.
“I’m ready for a break. I’m ready to, after class, to just be a student again,” he said.
The Blackfoot, Idaho, native graduated high school in 2004. He came to ISU to join the nursing program that year. After a few years of school, traveling and chasing adventurous life experiences, Bloxham became an ASISU senator, which spurred him to switch his major to business administration.
“After I got involved, I served a term on the senate and I served on a student health insurance committee and found that I loved business and administration,” Bloxham said. “I didn’t want to leave healthcare, because that’s where all my prereqs were and my background in education was in healthcare, so healthcare administration was a reasonable switch.”
Although Bloxham’s love of ISU and the surrounding area is evident to anyone who meets him, he knows that he’ll likely have to move to find a good job when he graduates with his master’s degree in December.
“I’ll go wherever the job market takes me. My dream job in healthcare would be to be a hospital CEO,” said Bloxham.
Asked what he wants his legacy as ASISU president to be, Bloxham said, “I guess more than anything, I want to be the guy who was responsible with student dollars.”
He continued, “I would love to be remembered for fostering a greater connection between this university and the community. I wanted to build school pride. I would love for the students who are here to be happy to be here, to be able to take something positive out of their experience from coming to ISU.”
Getting students involved in the campus community and proud to be Bengals is an evident passion of Bloxham’s. Quick to urge people to wear orange and black on Wednesdays, and to leave their Boise State sweatshirts at home every day, Bloxham hopes other students will get involved on campus to enhance their college experience.
“They’re going to have higher GPAs, be more likely to graduate, have something on their resumes when they leave here, hopefully learn some skills, the soft skills,” he said. “The classes will teach you all the hard skills you need but getting involved during your time here will give you the soft skills that you need to be successful.”
