By MICHAEL HYTE
Tell Bill Brady he’s ambitious, and he’ll crack a smile. Call him a Canuck, and he won’t mind that, either.
Although Brady’s runningmate Sarah Sandberg can lay no claim to being Canadian, at 4 feet 11 inches tall, she welcomes the description “short” and will quickly tell you Mother Teresa and Lucy Mack Smith were the same height that she is.
Sandberg identifies with and admires both of these women, not just because they’re short, but also because of their “service contributions,” she said, chuckling.
BYUSA candidates for president and executive vice president Brady and Sandberg do, however, share common ambition and experience in service.
Brady, BYUSA student body presidential candidate from Cornwall, Ontario, is proud of both his nationality and his accomplishments, including serving as BYUSA vice president of public relations.
About his Canadian identity, Brady said it makes for frequent conversation.
“It’s a great conversation piece. I love it when people pick up on my accent,” Brady said.
Though Brady said he notices the differences in his accent and schooling (Ontario has a five-year high school system) he also recognizes that Canadian and American cultures are pretty similar.
“We read the same magazines, watch the same movies and enjoy the same television programs. Cultural differences are few, though there’s still a Canadian identity,” Brady said.
And if you walk with Brady across campus, you’ll notice he stops to pick up just about every piece of litter he comes across. That, Brady said, is also part of being Canadian.
“You can sit on a park bench in Ontario and just watch people pick up trash as they walk by,” Brady said.
Besides being Canadian, Brady is also a self-starter who doesn’t let the grass grow under his feet.
A public relations major, Brady was approached by fellow public relations student Jon Schmitt last year about starting a company together. The result of that idea is Avante Communications. Brady describes the opportunity as a “self-made internship.”
“Learning to run a business is an adventure. Once you get a business loan, it becomes awfully real,” Brady said.
The company’s clientele includes the band Olea. Avante designed Olea’s compact disc cover and liner and helps in the band’s promotion.
“At BYUSA, I have the opportunities to learn and grow while serving others. It’s the perfect combination,” Brady said.
“Our motto all along has been ‘professionalism with personality,'” he said.
If personality is a characteristic Brady wanted to include in his campaign, he chose well by asking executive vice presidential candidate Sarah Sandberg to run with him, Brady said.
Sandberg, although serving as president of student alumni and having previous experience at BYUSA, said she never thought about running for BYUSA office before this year.
Sandberg is an elementary education major who was born in Nashville, Tenn., and moved to Provo with her family when she was 7 years old.
“I’m an elementary education major, so obviously it’s not for my resume. I’ve had great opportunities serving before. That’s why I’m running,” Sandberg said.
Sandberg said she wants to teach children because of the contribution for good she believes it can make.
“Young minds are malleable. If you can reach children early on, that’s where you can make a difference in society,” Sandberg said.
“At that age, children are so anxious to learn, but I’m still taller than they are,” she said.
