The spirit of the Hill made its presence known in New York City on Jan. 14 when representatives of the Student Government Association made the trip to attend No Labels’ Meeting to Make America Work.

No Labels is an organization with many active members that encourages political leaders, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or anything in between, to come together.

Members work to end fighting within the government so that more problem-solving action can be taken.

Elizabethtown WKU alumnus Kendrick Bryan is a former executive vice president of SGA.

He said he enjoyed being able to openly discuss issues with powerful leaders in government at the meeting.

“We met several influential people,” Bryan said.

Some of those influential people included former Gov. Jon Huntsman, who was a candidate for the 2012 presidential nominations, and Sen. Joe Manchin.

Lewisport sophomore Cain Alvey, administrative vice president of SGA, said his favorite part about the experience was meeting Huntsman and Manchin.

“We told them about the red towel and how it’s a symbol for us,” Alvey said. “We had many discussions — not about No Labels, (but) more who we are.”

Several members of Congress spoke at the meeting, and among them was Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. Bryan and Alvey were able to meet and talk with some of them personally.

Alvey said he was interested to learn many different things about Congress that most people don’t know, such as how often members of Congress spend time outside of Washington, D.C.

Both Bryan and Alvey learned different techniques on how to spread No Labels’ message and reach out to different individuals. They even have plans to possibly create a No Labels organization on-campus as a way for people to get more politically involved.

“I’m interested to see if we can do some No Labels programming and have an event on campus,” Bryan said.

Bryan said he has thoughts on creating a registration drive on-campus so that students could register to vote.

Bowling Green junior Keyana Boka, executive vice president of SGA, couldn’t make the trip due to winter term classes and research.

“I am disappointed that I couldn’t make the trip because of other obligations, but I’m glad that other members of SGA were able to make it and represent us,” Boka said.

While in New York City, Alvey and Bryan were also able to see “The David Letterman Show,” “The Colbert Report,” “Chicago” on Broadway and many popular New York City tourist spots.

“I learned a lot, and it was an overall great experience,” Alvey said.