Meet Grey Thompson, MC's Next Student Body President
Thompson is bringing ambition, passion, and a strong connection to student life to his new role.
The phrase Choctaw family is used casually by many, but for Grey Thompson, Mississippi College and the Magnolia State have always felt like home. Thompson, a well-known and active student on campus, has ambitious goals for the future as he steps into his newest responsibility — the Student Government Association (SGA) presidency.
While Thompson spent his childhood and early teenage years moving around before settling in Columbus, Ohio, Mississippi is at the root of his family. His parents, Dr. Blake and Jana Thompson, graduated from the same Mississippi high school, then from Ole Miss.
In 2018, the Thompsons moved back to Mississippi as Dr. Thompson accepted a role in Mississippi College’s administration. It was during this time that Grey Thompson started learning skills and gaining experience that still drive him today. Thompson attended Jackson Preparatory Academy (Jackson Prep) throughout high school, where he pursued athletics as vigorously as academics. As a member of the school's football and track teams, Thompson developed the discipline and dedication that helped shape him into who he is today.
“They [sports] took up a lot of my time. A lot of great lessons about life and leadership came through sports. You know, I use a lot of sports analogies,” Grey Thompson said.
After graduating from high school, Thompson seamlessly transitioned into MC student life. The pre-law student found himself engaging in several campus clubs and organizations. In his first year, 2023, Thompson went through the MC recruitment process for clubs and tribes. There, he met other students, established himself as an active voice on campus, and ultimately rushed Rotaract Men’s Service Club. The following year, he was elected as an officer of Rotaract and led a large-scale recruiting effort that ranked among the best in the club’s history. In 2024, Thompson joined the Choctaw Ambassadors, a school-sanctioned student group responsible for hosting alumni and representing the university in a positive light. Most recently, in the spring of 2025, Thompson aided in the establishment of the MC College Republicans group as a charter member.
Other students were quick to recognize Thompson’s easy-going, extroverted personality and considered it to be one of his greatest strengths. “Grey is very extroverted,” Lawson Goodman, a sophomore accounting student, said. “He’s a super good guy who is going to go out there and talk to people. It doesn’t matter who you are — he’ll talk to you. He’ll hold a conversation. He’s really easy to talk to.” Goodman, one of Thompson’s roommates, considers him to be among his closest friends at MC.
Goodman also weighed in on what he perceived might be one of the incoming president's greatest challenges. He stated that while Thompson’s extroversion may help him engage in conversation, it may intimidate or discourage his peers from initiating interactions. “He’s extroverted, but if you don’t know him, it may be hard to approach him to talk about stuff,” Goodman said.
During the 2025 spring semester, Thompson officially set his sights on the presidency and began to make his agenda known. He served on the student affairs committee, where he gained more experience and insight into the planning and execution of student events at MC. Thompson also joined the SGA constitutional convention, a specialized committee tasked with rebuilding the structure of the SGA’s steering documents. In this committee, Thompson advocated for better clarity in policy implementation and argued for policies that would increase SGA authority and influence in the approval of student organizations.
“There are a lot of things that could be changed, and a lot of things we can do better on campus as far as student events and student outreach,” Thompson said. “Those are some of the areas I’m really passionate about. I think I saw that I could be an agent for change — the status quo doesn’t have to remain the status quo. We can kind of change that for the better.”
In further detail, Thompson expressed his desire to see SGA take on a bigger role in student organizations and aid in event planning.
“We have a lot of student organizations, and I'd like to see them do more public events. I'd also like to see SGA help foster these events and partner with many of these student organizations,” Thompson said. The president-elect also mentioned specific SGA efforts that align with his goals. “We’re doing a spring refresh [service project] week coming up, and I think we should definitely consider making that a yearly thing because I think it’s going to help our campus, giving back to our campus.”
Thompson’s stances are popular among the rest of the incoming SGA executive body. Vice President-Elect Jace Denson discussed their mutual desire to increase SGA involvement in organizational approval.
“That’s something we both want,” Denson said. “We don’t want things to be approved without thought. We want it to be legitimate, going through the whole process of being able to be approved.” Both Thompson and Denson expressed dissatisfaction with the current method of organizational charter confirmation. According to the two incoming executives, newly forming organizations currently submit their charter documents to the Student Senate for approval, and then are rarely heard from again. Both Thompson and Denson expressed their desire to hear from organization members in person during Senate confirmations.
Denson also commented on Thompson’s personality and their friendship. “He has a really good sense of humor, but he can also be serious when he needs to be. Since then [executive council elections], we’ve grown to respect each other and be even better friends,” Denson said. “We’ve had a lot of meetings—just about the future of SGA now that we’re both elected. So I’m really excited to see where that goes.”
Thompson hopes to leave a legacy of positive and lasting change. The SGA president-elect expressed his desire to use his position to help students of all backgrounds get more out of student life at Mississippi College.
“I can relate well with the student body. I know it is a very large, very diverse group of people,” Thompson said. “I’m out there to work for the people, you know, not to work for me.”
Thompson, along with the rest of the incoming executive body, will be officially sworn in on April 28.
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