For being a private college with less than 1,800 students, Simpson students are engaged and active on campus. Freshman Pierce Carey is one student who likes to keep himself busy.

Carey, who is majoring in political science with a minor in management, is an out-of-state student from Salina, Kansas, and finds himself rarely going home unless during break. When he does go home, he works two jobs, one at Starbucks and one at Kohl’s.

“When I’m not busy, I feel like I’m wasting time,” Carey said. “Spring break and Christmas are always times of me looking for stuff to do.”

To keep busy at Simpson, he’s a Student Government Association senator, an executive for the Pride organization and political director of the Simpson College Democrats. He also works with the first-year counsel on connect floors, more specifically the student leadership floor, which is new this year.

Carey is also heavily involved with Simpson’s speech and debate team and tennis. His involvement with tennis also happened to be one of the reasons he chose Simpson.

“It was the matter of the tennis coach reaching out to me and then meeting the debate coach at a coincidence in June back to back. I was like, ‘Maybe this is a sign. Maybe I should just go.’”

Debate coach Spencer Waugh was also another reason Carey chose Simpson. In high school, Carey was also involved with the speech and debate team, starting his sophomore year. He related the experience in high school as pushing him more as an individual, whereas Simpson pushes him to work in a team.

“We really encourage everyone to contribute little pieces – not just a few people contributing,” Carey said.

Every member contributes and researches separately, then combines the information together and analyzes topics so that every person has a firm grasp.

Carey said when some topics are more biased, it’s easier to seek out his teammates opinions in research.

He went on to say that he both loves and hates debate because it’s not simply touch, and go and the best team doesn’t always win. The judges can choose the other team based on simply their demeanor, or choosing their team for that reason as well.

Last year, the team placed fifth in the nation, and he’s very proud of their team, especially with how young the team is. There are only four seniors and a select few juniors, the rest of the team being freshmen and sophomores.

“We’re young, and we’re here to make a lasting presence for Simpson College and continue to be young and energetic and ready,” Carey said.

Their team also doesn’t strictly go against other District III schools, but rather on a more even playing field. They’ll go against community colleges with teams of 10 or against bigger schools with 100 students on various squads.

Other aspects of Simpson that stuck out to Carey was the political aspect, having worked on a campaign last semester.

With his involvement with SGA, he’s enjoyed his time spent on the counsel as a senator. SGA allocates funds to different organizations and organizations on campus, makes decisions as for different budgeting aspects, and making initiatives to achieve goals on campus.

Carey mentioned that his main goal with SGA is for the people of color and the LGBT community to feel like they’re getting the same education and life on campus.

Some legislature Carey has been involved with or supported have been an open letter toward the administrative budget and the project to get tampons into the women’s bathrooms. The Buzz app is also something that he was proud to help achieve. It is an app that gives students push notifications from various breaking news sites, such as USA Today and the Simpsonian. There are also some ideas about getting solar panels on campus, as well as more trash bins.

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