Get to know your future Student Body President Trey Adelsman.

By Molly Wilson

Xavier Blasingame looked out the window of his first-floor suite to see his roommate and resident assistant Trey Adelsman clearing a path through the woods with a multi-tool. Blasingame understood the frustration of students having to walk a long way to get to the Scandia parking lot, so he joined Adelsman with a golf club. 

During the April Fools’ Day snowstorm, which dumped over eight inches of snow, a tree fell onto the path behind Lissner. Blasingame and Adelsman grabbed their tools once more to help out. 

Adelsman was elected 2023-24 Student Body President of Bethel University in February. He is currently in his second year of being an RA – this year in Lissner Hall and last year in Edgren. 

“[Adelsman] will do as much as he’s able to while serving as the student body president. He won’t want to just coast through it,” Kimberly Adelsman, his mom, said. 

While his previous BSG and other leadership positions may help Adelsman in a successful presidency, he wants to make sure he is connected to the interests of the student body. His human experience is what will help him take the role of president beyond basic administrative work. 

—

In fifth grade, Adelsman was in a production of Peter Pan, where he played the role of Tootles. Tootles had one job – to shoot Wendy as she flew into Neverland. 

All the Lost Boys were on stage as Tinkerbell told them to shoot the “thing” flying in the air. It was not just a “thing,” but a human girl. The other lost boys pulled out their bows and missed.

“Stand back, guys, I got it,” Adelsman said, reciting his line. 

Adelsman pulled the string back and fired. The arrow went back too far and got stuck in the back of the bow. 

So he tried again. Pulled the string. Released it. The arrow got stuck. 

Again: Pull. Release. Stuck.

This time it had to work. Adelsman refused to ruin the show by not shooting Wendy. 

Pull. Release… 

A wave of relief hit Adelsman as the arrow flew towards the corner of the stage where Wendy would soon appear – injured – as she should be. 

—

Adelsman’s senior baseball season in the spring of 2020 was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the world transitioned to Zoom calls and curbside pickup, his teammates decided to form a new team for a summer league – the Beach Bums.

During what would become his last Beach Bums game, Adelsman slid home. There were two outs.

“Safe!” the umpire shouted.

Adelsman had hit the base before the catcher tagged him out. He started moving from the plate to make room for a teammate if needed, when the umpire shouted again.

“Out!” reversing his original call.

When the team talked to the referee, he wouldn’t budge – Adelsman had moved his hand from the base and was tagged. The third out. Inning over. 

The Beach Bums headed back into the dugout to grab gloves, and Adelsman ran to the outfield. His wrist was hurting, but he kept warming up. As the inning passed, the pain kept getting worse – and by the end of the inning, Adelsman was standing in the outfield cradling his wrist, hoping that none of the batters would hit the ball in his direction. 

The inning finished with no close calls, and Adelsman went to the dugout. 

“Hey Coach, I’m gonna have to sit out this next one,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

The game was tied, and not many people could play outfield. Later in the game Adelsman watched as a ball was hit towards the first place man in the outfield where he was supposed to be standing, and hoped it wouldn’t cost the Beach Bums the game. The Beach Bums did win. 

That week, he went to the doctor for an X-ray and found out that his wrist was broken. 

When Adelsman went to tell his teammates, the catcher said, “I could have told you that. If Trey’s sitting out, something’s broken.”

—

Kimberly, Adelsman’s mom, has a motto: “I’ll try anything once.”

Adelsman has adopted that motto for himself, so when he found himself in a Swiss Alps ski resort during his History of Science study abroad trip in January, he decided to go all the way to the highest run with three other people, two of whom skied competitively. 

Adelsman didn’t have much experience with skiing. The time he had spent on the slopes hadn’t been on slopes at all. Rather, he was used to the hills in Minnesota that take minutes to slide down. When he saw the two fastest skiers in his group take a run down a steep incline, he asked someone what the easier way down was and set his skis in that direction. 

After a while, he realized he had skied farther down the mountain than when he started going up the cable car, but the path below him continued and so did he. Eventually, he made it to the bottom, only to realize that he was past all of the resort infrastructure. There was a path that appeared to take him across a road into a town. However, this was not the town that Adelsman had originally come from. But he followed the path. 

Eventually, he came to a cable car and took a 20-minute ride back to the resort, where he ran into the other non-competitive skier from their group. While talking they realized that they had both taken the same path and had very nearly tried a Swiss Black Diamond route. 

They still had time to ski, so they decided to take the run again – faster. It took them an hour. 

—

“I really appreciate how willing Trey is to just do things. I’ve had a different roommate every year, and Trey is the most fun roommate, while also down to earth and still personable,” Blasingame said. 

Adelsman will soon pass off his current role in Residence Life to the new Lissner first-floor RA, who will become the “keeper of the path.” Before that time comes, he looks forward to being sworn into office with BSG, complete with a couch that he can – and will – take a nap on anytime.