Patrick Ellis can talk about anything: music, the Knicks, philosophy, South Carolina history, scuba diving — and Student Government.
“I think that everything you do you can learn from and you gain some facet of knowledge,” he said. He’d want to talk to every single student if he could.
While Ellis was shy and uninterested in high school, he credits the Palmetto Boys State program with getting him to become more outspoken.
With advice from former Student Body President Chase Mizzell, Ellis spoke in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 people.
“From then on ... I really broke out of my shell,” he said. “I kind of got the confidence from the people I was around in my city and then the amazing advisors I had while I was there.”
Growing up in Hampton, South Carolina, meant that Ellis went to school in the ‘Corridor of Shame,’ an area along I-95 with historically bad schools. As part of the Abbeville County School District v. the State of South Carolina case, Ellis got involved with a student advisory committee that met with state legislators.
“Being in the room where the decisions are made, being able to speak receptively to legislators, motivated me to pursue change at the local level and state level,” he said.
At his school, Wade Hampton High School, extreme teacher turnover and a lack of vocational programs were two of his main concerns. After his senior year, though, Wade Hampton was able to add the vocational program he felt it lacked.
“When you are known as the 'Corridor of Shame,' it kind of permeates every aspect of the culture,” Ellis said. “I think it’s generally just, people don’t think they can get out.”
While Ellis always knew that he wanted to follow his father and come to USC, he hopes to make it easier from other students from his school to pursue higher education. In high school, he got involved in three sports and became student body president. Now in college, he views his own success as reflecting on where he comes from.
“I have been passionate ever since about making people from my hometown proud,” he said.
While Ellis is involved across campus in three organizations and also has an internship, he said that he enjoys juggling everything. With his current radio show at WUSC, the Hat Trick with Pat and Nick, he just tries to "have a lot of fun" and get the audience involved.
“I’m very much a people pleaser,” he said. “I wish I was better at telling people ‘no.’”
Right after Ellis found out he’d be serving as the first ever speaker of the student senate, he had to go straight to a senate meeting and then on to a committee meeting. He still stuck around to hug almost everyone in the room, though.
After graduation, Ellis plans to go to law school, maybe even at USC.
“That’s the dream,” he said. “I love my hometown and I love South Carolina.”