Kyle Boyer took a liking to politics at an early age.

Boyer, who won the general election for Student Association executive vice president last week, fell in love with politics at 8. The sophomore said his interest in the subject began when he followed the 1996 presidential race between Democratic president Bill Clinton and Republican candidate Bob Dole.

At that young age, Boyer remembered the names of the politicians on television and realized he was politically minded.

“I had never really known about (politics before),” Boyer said. “You don’t think of government when you’re that young. You know people vote, but you don’t pay attention.”

Boyer’s interest in politics sparked a desire to run for student government. He began running for school positions in the fifth grade and said he never looked back.

“I like politics,” Boyer said. “I guess that led to me running for student council in fifth grade. I got the most votes so I kept running.”

Boyer said after he graduates from GW, he wants to teach social studies in a high school.

“I think it would be very fulfilling (to be a high school social studies teacher),” Boyer said. “I’ve always liked teaching other people things. I’ve always liked connecting with other people.”

The EVP-elect said he prides himself in his ability to bring people together. He said his hometown of Berwyn, Pa. – a suburb of Philadelphia – taught him how to relate to all types of people.

“I was exposed to different kinds of people,” said Boyer, who is black. “It was not necessarily the most diverse group of people, but considering I came from a community that was completely African-American, the greater community (outside of Berwyn) was mostly non-African-American, so I was exposed to different people in that way.”

Boyer said his ability to connect with a diverse group of people is an important aspect of being an EVP. His past experiences will help him when he is in office next year, he said.

“I am a minority student, for one, so I have a little bit of closer ties to a group of people on campus and that will help me inflict a little bit more unity to the senate,” Boyer said. “I think it’s going to be hard for people to call me a racist.”

The sophomore said he has tried to reach out to all types of people in the past and will continue to do so as EVP.

“I think if there’s one thing people will say about me is that I try to bring people together,” Boyer said. “By nature, I’m not about division. Just talking about unity sounds really empty and it gets old quick, so people really want to see what follows you, what kind of a trail have you left? Have you brought people together?”

Boyer said his campaign was an example of how he will handle himself as EVP.

“If you just looked at my campaign staff, there were a lot of my fraternity brothers, a lot of my close friends,” he said. “But there were people in other fraternities helping me out and girls in sororities and minority students, so hopefully we can take the same kind of approach to the senate and begin to really see that happen at GW.”