Levi Birky, 21, has made his way from Flathead High School (where he graduated in 2013) to a position representing all college students in the state.

Birky, a senior at Montana State University, recently was appointed by Gov. Steve Bullock to the Montana University System Board of Regents. One student regent is selected annually.

The seven-member board oversees the Montana University System, which encompasses more than 40,000 students and operates on a $1.54 billion budget.

Birky, a broad-field social studies education major and student in the MSU Honors College, plans to visit campuses across the state in the next two months to visit with students and administrators. Birky’s appointment began July 1.

“I want to empower the student voice,” Birky said. “The best way to do that is to travel around the state and listen to what the students and administrators have to say.”

Montana State University President Waded Cruzado said Birky’s leadership style, including his skill at listening and acting on behalf of his constituents, will serve him well as the student regent.

“Levi Birky is an exceptional talent. He has already improved, and will continue to improve, public education in Montana,” Cruzado said.

Birky is the first Montana State University student since 2011 to serve as a student regent.

As student regent, Birky said, one of his goals is to institute a statewide student bill of rights.

He was part of the student government that proposed a student bill of rights at Montana State University, which was implemented in 2015 — the first and only university to do so in the state, according to Birky.

While most colleges and universities have a student code of conduct outlining what students can and can’t do, he said a bill of rights would inform students in what ways an educational institution should respect civil or legal rights.

“The transition from high school to higher education is a big transition,” he said, and the purpose of his proposal is to make it easy to educate students on their rights.

Leadership roles are not new to Birky, but it wasn’t always that way. It wasn’t until he started college as a freshman that he became involved in activities outside of class.

“When I came to MSU, I decided to run for student government right away. I was convinced by a friend’s aunt who said it was a good way to get involved. I hadn’t been particularly involved in high school, so I wanted to change that,” he said.

He decided to run and won by two votes.

“I was two votes away from a totally different trajectory in life,” Birky said.

He has stepped up his leadership responsibilities ever since. In 2015, he was elected vice president of Associated Students of Montana State University and stepped into the president’s role after his predecessor resigned at the beginning of the school year.

One of his accomplishments in student government has been negotiating the return of a Gallatin County polling place to the university campus from a location that was inaccessible by public transportation, pedestrian walkways or bike lanes. This was an important move, Birky said, because the precinct it covers encompasses most of the student body.

These efforts to find a solution to an issue in the community were recognized by Campus Compact, which awarded Birky a Newman Civic Fellowship.

Also in the spring, Birky applied for and was named a 2016 Truman Scholar and awarded a $30,000 scholarship. The Truman is a competitive national scholarship awarded by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation to college juniors demonstrating leadership potential and commitment to public service.

Birky has set his sights on using the Truman scholarship to study education policy at Harvard University after teaching for a year upon graduating from Montana State University.

“I’d like to come back and to be an agent of change — whether in government or somewhere else — but I want to come back to Montana,” he said.

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.