At McIntire, a student-run council works behind the scenes to make sure every business student feels like they belong. The Commerce Council, McIntire’s undergraduate student government organization, is entering the 2026-2027 academic year with an ambitious agenda and a new leadership team eager to widen its reach.
Commerce Council Vice President Sophia White
Council President Rohan Misra and Treasurer Jackson Manderfield, who head the Council alongside fellow fourth-year Vice President Sophia White, describe it as far more than an administrative body. Misra, who is studying Finance and Management with a double major in Government, calls the organization a liaison between faculty and students and “a building block for community.” Manderfield, a Finance and Management student from McLean, VA, puts it plainly: At its core, it is a student government organization whose members serve on committees designed to give every student the best possible experience, from health and wellness to professional development.
Both leaders return again and again to the idea of belonging. “I’ve seen firsthand how Comm Council makes sure that every student feels valued and heard,” Misra says. He credits the McIntire community with shaping his own path, describing the School as his first family away from home and framing his presidency as a chance to give back even a fraction of what it has given him.
Those aims take concrete shape this year around three themes that Manderfield lays out: unity, engagement, and wellness. Unity has taken on new urgency as McIntire has grown into a three-year program. Manderfield notes that student relationships can become siloed by year, often forming only through other organizations or mutual friends. The council wants to be a facilitator that connects students across all three cohorts, especially those who are not already part of Commerce-related groups.
Engagement, Misra explains, speaks to why students come to McIntire in the first place: the community and the friendships. The council is planning social events such as pickleball, basketball, and other sports tournaments, along with a “walk and talk” that invites professors to interact with students outside the classroom and a holiday event during finals season that’s still in the works. Wellness rounds out the trio, with food drops and exercise-related activities planned across the fall and spring. He and Manderfield have already sketched out roughly 10 ideas to bring to the wider council in the fall.
Collaboration runs through how the leaders operate. Misra stresses that the executive team wants to be as collaborative as possible, gathering feedback from past block representatives and inviting input from across the student body. “It’s a council for the student body, and we want the student body’s voices represented,” he says. Manderfield, who was drawn to the treasurer role by past experience managing money and by the chance to turn good ideas into real events, describes his job as balancing ambition against a fixed budget, a problem he calls fun and rewarding to solve. His position, he adds, is crucial in determining which events actually happen, since concepts that sound good can fall apart on the practical side of the money.
The council is sizable. Its structure includes second-year representatives, third-year block representatives (growing from eight to nine this year to match the School’s nine blocks), and a majority of fourth-years, who fill committee positions. In a typical year, that adds up to around 35 members, and the leaders say they want everyone who wishes to participate to have a place.
Looking outward, Misra and Manderfield hope to extend the council’s reach beyond McIntire. After attending a summer leadership program where they met student leaders from other schools, they are exploring cross-Grounds collaborations with the Engineering School, the Batten School, and the School of Data Science. They have also connected with the McIntire Young Alumni Council and plan to launch initiatives with alumni in the coming weeks. Both leaders describe the council as a facilitator among students, faculty, and alumni alike, and they welcome advice, mentorship, and career conversations from the broader Commerce community.
Getting involved, they say, is meant to be easy. Students can reach out to a council member in the fall, submit an informal application to become a part of a committee, or simply send a message. “You don’t have to be a part of Comm Council to have a say,” Manderfield says, pointing to the group’s email and Instagram as open channels for ideas. The leaders plan to visit classrooms and email the entire school at the start of the semester to spread the word.
Students, alumni, and friends who want to learn more about the Commerce Council can follow the council on Instagram.
