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One step closer to the top

A second Palm Harbor University High Class of '04 alumnus is elected student president of a state school.

By Theresa Blackwell, Times Staff Writer
Published March 4, 2008

University of Florida student body president Kevin Reilly, center, cheers with his father, Kevin Reilly, during Thursday's election.
	[Andrew Stanfill | Independent Florida Alligator]

PALM HARBOR - When Kevin Reilly was still a toddler, neighbors and family friends called him "the Little Mayor."

"At 2, he would walk into a room and say, 'Hi, I'm Kevin,' and shake their hands," said his mom, Felicia Reilly of Palm Harbor. "And he didn't even know who they were."

Kevin is 21 now, but he remains on the path he set so early.

Early Thursday, the college senior was elected student body president at the University of Florida.

That's noteworthy, but consider this: Kevin is the second member of Palm Harbor University High School's Class of 2004 to become student body president at one of Florida's best-known universities.

His former classmate, Joe O'Shea of Dunedin, is currently the student body president at rival Florida State University. While at Palm Harbor University High School, Joe was president of the senior class and Kevin was vice president.

"He's always been extremely outgoing, very confident in himself, very positive," Felicia Reilly said of her son, the oldest of three children.

And along the way, she said, Kevin had some great influences - namely his father, also named Kevin Reilly.

"He always says, 'It's not what happens to you, it's how you react to what happens to you,'" she said.

Kevin was unusual, his mother said, because he knew what he wanted so young. "He went after it and he got it," she said.

And what does he want?

"Politics," she said. "He loves politics."

***

Another of Kevin's influences was Susan Englert of Clearwater, his teacher in the eighth grade gifted class at Palm Harbor Middle School.

Kevin was a new student and Englert was in the school library when he strolled in, she said Monday.

"He had such confidence about him," she said. "You don't see that in a new kid in class - ever."

Kevin has kept in touch, and Englert brought the university's newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator, in to show her students the story about his victory.

"This is one of your role models," she told them. "I want you to have a remarkable life, too."

***

With his son's election, "he's got a bigger office than me, and I've been in the corporate world 25 years," the elder Kevin Reilly said Monday.

Reilly, who went to Gainesville with his wife for election night, recalled hearing hundreds chant, "Reilly! Reilly! Reilly!"

"It's not easy raising children," he said. "It's moments like that that make it all worth it."

Pinellas County and its public schools gave Kevin lots of opportunities, he said, and now two of the county's graduates have been elected to prominent leadership positions at their universities.

"That's a great accomplishment for Pinellas County schools," said Reilly, who works as an operations manager for the JP Morgan Chase financial services firm.

He said Kevin had internships with County Commissioner Calvin Harris and with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

"He's his father's son," the elder Reilly said, "a lot of positive energy."

When things go wrong, learn from it and move on, he always advised his son.

And other lesson: "When you win, be humble."

***

So it must be exciting to be elected student body president of 50,000-plus students, presiding over an annual student government budget of $13.3-million?

"It's a very humbling experience to know that your peers selected you to be their voice and to work for them," Kevin said.

And what does he plan to do?

The biggest issue in his Gator party platform is transportation, not only for the school but for the city of Gainesville. He wants to make sure that alternate transportation is readily available, particularly at night when some might be drinking.

"Making sure students have safe alternatives," he said.

Kevin plans to go on to graduate school at UF next year to pursue a master's of science in management in the school of business. That's after he graduates with a political science degree this term.

Political science is about helping people, he said.

"It's all about making the world a better place," he said. "The work you do really does affect the lives of people, and that's what's always interested me about it."

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.

[Last modified March 3, 2008, 21:20:42]