Ever since at least early high school, T.J. DeNofrio, a sophomore pre-law major and political science minor, has been active and interested in politics. In a country that continues to drift further and further nationally from meaningful discussion on important topics, DeNofrio remains level headed about the outstanding effect politics can truly create.

“I’m pretty sure [Thomas] Jefferson or one of the founding fathers walked out of a meeting and said something to someone on the side of the street to the likes of ‘If this democracy is going to stay strong, the people have to remain educated on what’s going on,’” said DeNofrio. “That’s kind of the key point here; if you want to make change in your society, politics is the best way to do it. You have to get involved, you have to know what’s going on and you have to pursue different things. That’s the best way to make change.”

DeNofrio, is taking over as president of Student Senate at Waynesburg University after Nick Cordova, former president, graduated a semester early. After DeNofrio was elected vice-president for the fall semester, the senate debated between running a special election or continuing the trend most democracies employ, where the vice-president would take over in the president’s absence.

They agreed as a whole on the latter, and wrote an amendment to grant DeNofrio to be the head of Student Senate.

DeNofrio has plenty of plans and ideas to help both the campus of Waynesburg University and Greene County as a whole, however with only one semester for certain as president, DeNofrio has one main project in mind for the coming months.

Inspired by the Thon charity event, where Penn State raises over a million dollars annually, DeNofrio hopes to raise money on this side of the state.

“We’re trying to do something similar here, so that we can get a bunch of students involved, raise money for what would be the Four Diamonds Foundation, and it would basically go to the pediatric cancer,” said DeNofrio. “We’d get people to stand outside of Walmart or wherever and we’d try to get as much of the student body involved as possible and then have one large event to sum it all up and figure out how much money we raised.”

DeNofrio is no stranger to leading political groups or starting such initiatives. While in high school, DeNofrio and his friend founded the Blair County Youth Republicans, now called the Blair County Youth Republican Chapter. What started as a small group of kids is now a nationally recognized Republican chapter, including students from multiple high schools in the area.

Such experience helped prepare him for the situation he is now in.

DeNofrio emphasized the need for more people to join Student Senate at Waynesburg University so the wishes of the students can more fully be heard and acted upon.

“I always hear a lot of people complain about a lot of things,” said DeNofrio. “Join Student Senate. It’s one of the best ways to change things. You get to literally work with the administration in some instances to get things done.”

Currently, the organization has approximately 20 members, and DeNofrio hopes that number rises dramatically in order to help the student body be heard better as a whole.

If students are interested in joining Student Senate and improving campus life, they can contact DeNofrio at den4016@student.waynesburg.edu for more information.