Dwayne Jones, junior journalism major, and Shivani Vakharia, junior psychology and political science major, celebrate surrounded by their friends in the Student Union on Wednesday after being elected the next vice president and president of UCF Student Government.
Kendal Asbury
As the clock ticked down to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, anxiety grew and excitement filled the air in the UCF Student Union atrium.
All three presidential tickets gathered with supporters while waiting for the next UCF Student Government president to be announced. When the final reveal came, Shivani Vakharia and Dwayne Jones were named president and vice president-elect.
Vakharia and Jones defeated two other presidential tickets: Panayiota ‘Pon’ Laliotis and Athena Dieguez, as well as Alyssa Feige and Anna Ellis.
The race remained tight. According to the official final report, 10,121 ballots were cast using ranked-choice voting. Vakharia and Jones finished with 2,426 first-place votes, while Laliotis and Dieguez followed closely with 2,119. Feige and Ellis finished third with 175 votes.
In a highly tense moment, Vakharia said she couldn’t believe their names were announced. Her moment of realization came when Jones held her hand and raised it in victory. The only feeling she said she could express was gratitude after months of hard work, leading to a moment when it all felt like it paid off.
“I am feeling so grateful,” Vakharia said. “Our whole slogan is ‘Unite the Knights’, and that’s exactly what we did from start to end. No matter what happened, what the outcome was, I’m just happy that my team showed up for me. I’m just so grateful. I’m feeling really loved emotions. Happy. Grateful. All the above.”
Vakharia said the moment meant more than winning, pointing to the unity her team built throughout the campaign.
“I think as transfer students we don’t get the same startup as everyone else,” Vakharia said. “We’re kind of playing this game of catch-up. And so, you know, we understand what it takes to come here, hustle and make a name for ourselves. As a transfer student, we come in with a different set of eyes. I came in looking for every single opportunity that I can get my hands on. That’s exactly what I did. I didn’t think that it would get this far. But no, I’m just really surprised that we came this far as a team.”
With less than a week to go until voting begins for UCF’s student government presidential election, some students are not familiar with the ca…
For Jones, the sigh of relief brought mixed emotions. He said he needed to catch up on sleep but was excited to celebrate. He said campaigning became exhausting and took a toll on him, especially as the race entered its final week. When he heard his name announced, he had one way to describe how he felt.
“Absolute shock,” Jones said. “I’m really proud of the people who helped us get here. I’m proud of myself, and I’m proud of my running mate, Shivani. The story throughout this campaign has been that we’re two transfer students who arrived in Fall 2024. We had a slower start. We were a year behind and got involved later than others. It just shows that when you treat people right and connect with them on a personal level, anything is possible. UCF has given so much to me, and serving is the least I could do. I’m really excited.”
While celebrating is a big part of a successful night, Jones said he is already ready to get to work. He said he is grateful for the trust UCF students placed in him to make the university a better place.
“I love UCF,” Jones said. “I hope everybody knows that I can’t wait to serve this university. Honestly, helping this university get to a better place is what I want to do.”
Jones said this victory is not the result of luck but the hard work he has committed to UCF since transferring.
“It means so much because UCF has given me so many opportunities,” Jones said. “I started my first year of college back home at community college, transferred to UCF once I had enough credits, and I knew I loved student government. I did in high school, and I wanted to hit the ground running, and it didn’t take long to fall in love with this campus and the student body.”
Vakharia thanked students for their trust and promised to work every day to uphold the commitments they made during the campaign.
“I just want to say thank you so much for having the trust and faith in me to serve as your student body president,” Vakharia said. “I can promise you that I will work every single day to uphold what I promised you when running this campaign.”
“We are in this together, and anything that the student population needs, Dwayne and I are here for them,” she added.