Faces of Xavier: Justin Westbrook-Lowery '16

Last week, Xavier’s student body went to the polls to vote in the 2015-16 Student Leadership Council (SLC) elections. Newly-elected SLC President Justin Westbrook-Lowery ’16 sat down with the Xavier E-News to talk about his plans for the future. 

Elected office has long been in the sights of Student Leadership Council President-Elect Justin Westbrook-Lowery. The Bronx native—whose current co-curricular activities include the speech and debate team (for which he serves as president of Student Congress), Model United Nations, the African-American Cultural Society, the Gay-Straight Alliance (for which he was recently elected co-president), and the Student Concerns Committee—credits his mother, Harriet Brown, for instilling in him a sense of public service.

When he was just 11 months old, his mother took him along while she voted. He began volunteering for political campaigns at the tender age of 11, and his resume now includes volunteering stints with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s 2010 and 2012 campaigns. 

Westbrook-Lowery said the presidential election of 2008 in particular inspired him to seek office and contribute to meaningful change. “I always used to take a look at the presidents. None of them looked like me,” he said. “And then in 2008, I saw then-Senator Obama, an African-American, and I saw Hillary Clinton, a woman, and Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, and that opened up new possibilities for me.” 

His goals as SLC President include expanding student use of personal technology, deepening Xavier’s relationships with other Jesuit schools, making student government more efficient, and encouraging a greater number of students to participate in a variety of issues. It is his hope that contributing to student life more actively will encourage members of Xavier’s student body to participate in political life as well.

Westbrook-Lowery, who hopes to attend New York University and major in political science, now looks forward to being sworn in as president in September. He said he is filled with gratitude for those who helped him along the way.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teachers who taught me speech and debate, my coaches who gave me the ability to convey my thoughts well, my Model UN team who taught me to compromise and work together to get things done,” he said. “And I couldn’t have done it without my family, who believed in me before I believed in myself.” 

“I’ve always loved politics, and I want to use government as a force for good,” he added. “That’s something that I want to bring here to Xavier.”