At 19 years old, many Lee University students are just getting into the swing of the world of higher education.

But as Tennessee’s youngest school board member, Russ Swafford is getting used to attending both college classes and school board meetings.

Swafford was elected to the Polk County school board in August after a rigorous summer of campaigning.

Swafford, a sophmore at Lee, is triple majoring in business administration, accounting and political science.

He first began to think about running for the school board after his father suggested it to him last fall. After praying about the responsibility, he made a decision to run for the position and picked up a petition this past April.

Swafford campaigned most of last summer, but really concentrated on it in July after he finished summer school.

With considerable competition for the position and Swafford being the youngest competitor, he said he knew he was “going to be the underdog” in the election.

“I knew I wasn’t going to lose by lack of effort,” he said.

Swafford said one of the reasons he believes the people voted for him was because they liked the idea of having someone with a student’s perspective on the school board. He also believes that the voters liked that he was bringing the knowledge that comes from his specialty classes at Lee.

While Swafford said that some people laughed at him at first because he was running for the school board position, he said they finally realized that he was serious about his campaign.

Now when Swafford attends the school board meetings, he said he always tries to get all of his questions out of the way before the meeting is called to order.

Not only does Swafford juggle being a triple-major and being a member of the Polk County School Board, he works for the Tennessee State Government in promoting programs and for his uncle’s wholesale tire business.

It’s a give and take relationship, Swafford said. “It feels like I miss out on some of the social events any other college kid takes advantage of, but being on the school board is great experience.”

Swafford had a history of being a leader before coming to Lee.

He attended Polk County High School, where he was the president of the Beta Club and a member of the Future Business Leaders of America.

While in high school, Swafford was already registered to attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, but after visiting Lee University’s campus, he said he “felt led to come to Lee.”

Swafford said that after graduation he wants to attend law school at Vanderbilt University and pursue a career in corporate law and then eventually get back into politics. He has always wanted to be a lawyer but that he enjoys business in general.

“Business and law have always been a passion of mine,” he said.

Swafford said one of his favorite politicians is John F. Kennedy because he feels like he can relate to some of Kennedy’s struggles on a smaller scale.

For example, Kennedy was the youngest to campaign for the United States presidency at the time and he had difficulty gaining respect and getting people to take him seriously.

Swafford said he has dealt with similar situations in running for the school board and that he looks up to Kennedy’s methods of dealing with those struggles.

One of Swafford’s goals while he is on Polk County’s school board is to change the way surrounding counties perceive the schools in Polk County, building positive publicity for the county as a whole.

“It’s definitely going to be a good experience,” he said.