1. Why did you decide to run for A.S Executive Vice President?
I decided to run because I think both as a society and a campus we’re at kind of a point of transition, like a changing point, and I definitely love so many things that A.S. has to offer. Personally I’ve been given opportunities at this campus I wouldn’t have even dreamed were possible. I want that for all students.
I want all students to have a voice no matter how big their involvement on-campus is, and I want them to feel empowered and I want them to feel like they can make a change in their campus community. We’re the generation to do that you know we’re going to graduate college and go out into the real world, and here we have the opportunity to learn those skills and really make an impact.
I got involved in A.S. my second year on campus I joined Green Love, the sustainability commission and just really fell in love with the people — how driven they were, the vibe there and I just really wanted to know more. Green Love implements policy on-campus to move towards a more sustainable lower carbon footprint, so we do a lot of the solar panels, the hydration stations and the double LEED platinum certified Union. I said ‘wow these are students making these real changes; I wonder what else I can do so from there’ so I joined GreenFest, which I am now the executive committee vice-chair of and I’m involved in other organizations outside of A.S. as well such as the Public Relations Student Society of America, and I actually helped start the SDSU Yoga club on campus.
2. If elected, what do you hope to accomplish?
I want to collaborate with Student Life and Leadership. I feel right now that there’s a sort of divide between registered student organizations and A.S., both commissions and committees, so with a collaboration with Student Life and Leadership, I will put together a comprehensive resource guide that details the processes for starting an organization, getting funding that students already pay into with their tuition dollar and for increasing transparency. All that kind of stuff really gives students a tangible guide to make those changes that I spoke of on-campus.
I helped implement Green Love event guidelines which help all organizations on campus be more sustainable, and more intentional with their events. But there’s no real assessment survey after that, so I would like to create an after-event assessment survey to identify the strengths and struggles the students came across in trying to be zero-waste. The final thing I’d like to do is collaborate with Student Affairs. These may be the traditionally underrepresented groups in the student government so we’re talking international students, graduate students, EOP students and guardian scholar. I first want to ask what they need and what they want to see, and I think a big issue is that it’s all with good intentions, but sometimes we automatically assume ‘ok this is what they need, but we can’t always do that because every person is so individual and so unique.
So by collaborating with Student Affairs we’ll be able to really increase transparency and inclusion with the student government, and spread the mission of all of the organizations I spoke of.
3. What do you like and dislike about A.S.? What would you change about it?
There are so many things that I love, but I also see opportunity in that, and I love that once you’re a part of A.S., really like I don’t want to say opportunities are handed to you, but I will say there’s all these resources that you didn’t even know existed. And you say ‘OK this a goal I have and someone involved, a director at A.S. will say ‘oh you know what, I’ll connect you with this person or this organization that can do that.
I love that I also see that that’s not always the case for all students on campus. A lot of students have to work full time or have to commute, things like that that take away the time that they have on campus. So I would like to speed up some of those processes in order to get students involved. I think a lot of times this is an issue with both freshman and transfer students.
There’s so many boards that we don’t always know like ‘OK i have all these interests, but how do those align?’ I would love to set up a type of mentorship program between A.S. and RHA and the residence halls. I would love to have a peer advising one-on-one like ‘ok you’re a new student, what do you like to do and here’s what’s available for you,’ and that would be for all students across the board because SDSU really values leadership.
I can see that and that’s in our mission, and having an opportunity to be a part of that student leadership, I definitely think that’s implemented. We can benefit from more communication, more transparency and more resources for all students.
4. What areas does SDSU need to improve most on?
Thats a good question. I would say SDSU needs to improve on being more representative of the entire student body through a few different research tools we’ve discovered that within the student government there are not – i’m going to start over.
Within the student government there not the ethnic groups that are involved on-campus so while we may have a certain number of African Americans students on-campus, that is not equally represented in the student government.
There’s one graduate student in Associated Students and things like that that aren’t necessarily – we can make changes for people that we’re not representing. So i would say that’s the biggest issue. I definitely think that with tuition possibly increasing and with second-years being required to live on-campus there are some financial issues we need to look into more and that’s something I will definitely do with the V.P. of financial affairs, my teammate Krystal and yeah i just think that communication really is the key. Campus is so expansive that there are so many different offices that represent different students, but we don’t always communicate with each other as well as we could.
5. What’s one thing people don’t know about you?
I was a competitive dancer my entire life, and I loved every moment of it. It taught me so much dedication and commitment, and that was something I was continuously passionate about growing up. When I came to college, I didn’t really know what to do. I didn’t want to pursue it as a career, so i got into yoga. Like I mentioned, I helped start the SDSU yoga club and so there are times where I’ll have a crazy, busy day on campus and instead of coming home and sleeping, you can find me on the yoga mat meditating or practicing some new poses. I love to check out new studios around here.