New Iberia certainly has its fair share of high profile public servants serving in offices all across Louisiana. 

Add to that distinguished list 21-year-old Stewart Lockett, who was sworn into office recently as student body president at LSU. 

Lockett, who was born in New Iberia and raised in the Southport Subdivision area, is a 2015 graduate of New Iberia Senior High. While he served for two years in the Student Senate, the LSU junior said he didn’t initially plan on running on for the ticket. 

“I really didn’t think I was going to run at first, but I really just wanted to serve,” Lockett said. 

Along with Rachel Campbell, his running mate, Lockett ran on a platform of “Together We Can” and got other students the LSU student body to run as well. 

“We wanted to make sure we got a lot of different students and that was evident,” Lockett said. “We have a lot of races and ethnicities. Our main goal is to make sure students are more aware of student government and plan on doing that by big social media pushes.”

Lockett, a bioengineering major at LSU, also served as student body president at NISH when he was a senior. He’s already received praise from local family and friends, he said. 

His mother, Iberia Parish School Board member Kim Lockett, said she told Stewart to seek God first when he told her months back that he planned on running. 

“He asked me if I could make enough food for 200,” she said with laugh. “It’s amazing. I’m so proud.”

Lockett’s win as president was also special for another reason. He is the first black student body president at LSU since 1990. 

“It makes me feel excited,” he said. “It’s progress and I think it opened a lot of eyes.”

Apart from student government, Lockett has been involved with the LSU Ambassadors Program as well as the Black Male Leadership Initiative. 

Although he won’t be graduating until next year, Lockett said he plans to apply to medical school after he graduates.