Jay Dawkins stood in a field on a hot June evening with a group of his friends.

They held in their hands a contraption made of PVC pipes glued together with a grill lighter in the back and a potato inside.

But there was only one problem with the maniacal creation.

It wasn’t working.

They were shooting potato cannons at a field in Dawkins’ neighborhood in Fayetteville near a school building. But the cannon wasn’t firing.

“I was holding it at waist-level, just clicking the trigger and I guess that got it to the point where it could fire because I was randomly clicking it and all of a sudden, it goes off,” Dawkins said.

It exploded in his hand and the potato launched into a light fixture and shattered it.

Thankfully, Dawkins said, no one found out about it.

“And that’s kind of what got me into engineering,” Dawkins, a junior in civil engineering, said. “I wanted to build things. That and my grandpa, my mom’s dad, teaching me to make things when I was a little kid — like wooden airplanes — got me into it.”

Dawkins, now the student body president-elect, had no idea he would follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps of the political realm.

Before N.C. StateDawkins said there have been a lot of influential people in his life, especially in his family. But one person stands out clearly — his sister.

Jill Dawkins is four years younger than her brother, but Jay said he wishes he could be even half the person she is.

Jill was diagnosed with brain cancer twice, once when she was four years old and once again around the age of 10.

“Everything she went through really put everything in perspective for me,” Jay said. “I realized that it’s so easy to get caught up in a lot of things in life that are truly insignificant in the big scheme of things. And almost losing her twice really pulled our family together.”

According to Jay, Jill never let the cancer get her down.

“Her attitude throughout all of it showed so much strength and she was undauntedly optimistic,” he said. “Even when she knew [the doctors didn’t think she would make it], she was so hopeful.”

The cancer is in remission now, Jay said, and though Jill faces side effects from the radiation, she is now applying to colleges, hoping to go into medicine, and continues to be an inspiration to many people.

“[To her], it’s never about her, it’s always about you,” Jay said.

Other influential people in Jay’s life were his dad and his grandfather on his dad’s side.

His grandfather worked in politics most of his life and was known as “the mayor till death.” Jay’s father worked in the Fayetteville City Council.

According to Jay, he realized how incredible his grandfather was when he heard his parents discussing what they should put on his grandfather’s tombstone. He had so many accomplishments, they didn’t know where to begin.

His grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer when Jay was about eight years old and he died when Jay was about 12.

“He really cared about people. If there’s one thing my grandpa taught me, it’s that all politics are ‘local,'” he said. “When you start getting out of touch with people involved, you start losing what it’s all about.”

Jay said he was a class officer his freshman year of high school and ran his sophomore and junior years but lost.

“I’m glad I did though, because I learned a lot of lessons in the process,” he said. “It’s so often in life that you have to fail so many times, but oftentimes, failure sparks us into action and teaches us things we otherwise would have never learned.”

Jay said his great-grandfather was also involved in politics, but that he thinks NCSU politics will be the last level he will be shooting for.

And finally, Jay said, it was his mom, Donna, who convinced him he could do anything he wanted to do.

Jay has never been one to stick to one activity — he was also on the wrestling, track and cross country teams in high school.

But he admits his wrestling career was short-lived.

“I didn’t eat enough and I was horrible,” he said. “My most memorable match must have been my first. I wrestled a girl. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I just kept tackling her. But it was her second year … I’m just so glad I won. My whole family was there.”

Deciding to become SBPDawkins wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing when he first attended NCSU.

“I goofed off and I didn’t have much direction until I joined the Sigma Pi fraternity,” he said. “It wasn’t your stereotypical fraternity. As with a lot of other Greek organizations on this campus, the focus is on building leadership and character within people and having a good time while you’re doing it.”

Dawkins said the idea of running for student body president didn’t cross his mind until the end of his sophomore year. And it didn’t fully click until this academic year.

“It was actually during basketball season this year and I always believed in this dream-big mentality at N.C. State. But then they show this video of Jim Valvano before the game and he’s talking about having big dreams and coming to N.C. State — big dreams like having one of the biggest stadiums in the ACC … and here I am standing in the RBC [Center],” he said.

Dawkins said he had a lot of ideas and changes he wanted to make for the University, because he said NCSU has the ability to be great.

“A lot of students are ready for change and I had a lot of very committed people who know me and believe in me working to spread the word,” he said.

And Dawkins said campaigning was an exciting experience, especially meeting people from different areas of campus.

“The best part of the whole campaign was getting to ride around that Farmhouse truck the day we ‘accidentally’ pulled into the Brickyard the day of the ‘Freeze the Bickyard’ event,” Dawkins said. “We had no idea what was going on or why all these people were frozen and here comes this big, loud, ridiculous-looking campaign truck … My favorite part of the campaign was driving that truck throughout campus and seeing people who would light up when they saw it.”

Next year’s goalsDawkins said he plans to stick to his platform promises and to continuously seek student feedback whether it’s about student tickets, fees or the Wolfline.

“If you have all the power in the world and accomplish nothing, what’s the point? It’s not about winning,” Dawkins said.

Dawkins said he wants the student body to critique him and he’s going to continuously get feedback on issues through referenda and even approval polls.

“I’m going to surround myself with the right people and be in constant communication with those that have the biggest influence on all things happening,” he said.

Dawkins said fixing ticketing is one of his top priorities.

“It’s something that students, Student Government and the administration can all be on the same page on because we all want to pack those stands to best support our team,” he said.

Dawkins said he also plans to make students more aware of where their money is spent, develop a cross-cultural peer mentoring program, and work on getting a Wolfline bus to run through downtown and Hillsborough Street to student apartments and campus, in addition to other programs.