Who’s Got
Your Vote?
*Disclaimer* Welcome to The Avion’s SGA Elections Special Edition Magazine. With the upcoming elections for the next Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Ticket, Student Senate, and Student Treasury, The Avion has made a way for all students to make an informed decision on selecting the next representatives for the student body. For this special edition, The Avion conducted interviews with the candidates of the 2021-2022 SGA Elections. Interviews were held between March 17 - 26, 2021. All candidates were given an opportunity to select a time to have their interview conducted. * denotes candidates that did not have an interview conducted due to scheduling conflicts. During the interviews, each candidate was asked the same questions as other candidates running for their same respective position. We have transcribed a few of the questions and candidate answers for you to read here. The magazine pages are ordered in the same order that the candidates submitted their elections packet to the SGA, and the way their names will appear on the official SGA ballot.
Full interviews available online at theavion.com. Official Ballot List Executive Ticket Johan Restrepo, Bethany Thompson, Savanna Sheahan Kelsey Ennis, Nickolas Bauman, Kenzie Klisz
Student Senate COA Ryan Groel Paul Louis Beliando Matthew Peed COAS Carlos Alvarez* Connor Smith
Frederick Lloyd Kennedy III Drake Pelletier HRL Jake Homer* International Eyad Mominkhan*
COB Yashika Vadlamani Kathleen Perry Rebekah Cunningham Jodie Harmon
Veteran N/A
COE Sofia Lorenzini Amanda Jacob
Graduate N/A
Student Life N/A
Student Treasury Carmen Botezan John Rachek Timothy Olson* Jordan Thomas Dinushika Pinto Gayathrie Kathiravan Ananth Srinivas Nayak Harley Valdez
Student Government Association
Every
Voice Matters SGA ELECTIONS
April 5 - April 9
Election ballots will be avaibale on Campus Groups starting April 5 @8am and closing April 9 @5pm Questions? Contact sga.elections@yahoo.com
President: Johan Restrepo Year: Junior Major/Minor(s): Global Conflict Studies/Arabic, Military Science. Campus Involvement: Student Senate, Dance Marathon Executive Director, Vice President of PIKE TA: What is a problem that you have seen on campus and want to fix? JR: I think one of the biggest problems that I’ve seen here going to campus is we’ve seem to have forgotten a little bit of what it means to be an Embry-Riddle Eagle. And I think you’ve seen it around, maybe with your friends and even in conversations, where students say, ‘you know, when I graduate, I’m not going to donate anything to Embry-Riddle. I did not have the best experience here and I don’t want to donate any of my money or anything like that.’ I want to change that. I know that with the COVID year it’s been tough, but I think from what it seems, it’s going to be slightly more normal for the upcoming year. I want to bring back what it means to be an Embry-Riddle Eagle, and I think a big portion of that is kind of like how we have Eagle Fest now, but expand that a little bit more with multiple organizations on campus like Athletics, ROTC, or even RSOs and create a big event, maybe once a month, to bring every student in to remind us of why we’re here. Kinda like stay true to the alma mater and better the life experience of being a student here at Embry-Riddle. TA: What plans do you have to improve communication between the student body and University Administration? How will you ensure students are being heard? JR: The way we want to go with that is, I think this past year this current exective board: the president, vice-president, and treasurer gave students a voice; at least gave students courage to speak out when things currently weren’t right. I think that’s perfect. Now, I want to take that little step forward, but instead of being one group of students having a conversions with upper-level faculty, I think it should be all of us. So when these conversatons happen, where a specific organization or specific group of students don’t agree with something that upper-level administration, they shouldn’t feel alone... I think it should be all of us across the board. And I think that starts with simply having conversations with like say marketing or Athletics, or even SAC. Bringing in ROTC and every student head, like the wing commander for the Airforce, the department head for Navy, and the overall XO for Army. Being able to have all those conversions I think will be the best bet for all of us to talk together...IFC, panhellenic and be like where are we all going... Having a lot of communication on the backhand to help present everyone to have that unified voice.
Vice-President: Bethany Thompson
Year: Junior Major/Minor(s): Aerospace Engineering Campus Involvement: Women’s Rowing Team Captain, Tri Sigma Sorority Treasurer, SGA Student Senator TA: How will you improve the SGA to better serve the student body? BT: I definitely love our outreach programs... This past year’s been so challenging mentally and like physically and just emotionally for all students with COVID. It’s been a very difficult year, and having outreach programs where we’re just trying to be supportive to let the students know that we see their pain and we understand their pain and communicating that with them and trying to let them know this is the SGA; this is what we’re here for. These are all the services that we offer to help make your college life a thousand times better. I feel like we can definitely do a better job at communicating those things and having an open door relationship with the students. I want students to feel comfortable coming into the SLS and not just feel like they need to be with someone whose already in the SGA because I’ve had friends that are like ‘are we allowed in there?’ I’m like yeah it’s open to all students, and I wish they didn’t feel that way. I really want to give them that opportunity.
Treasurer: Savanna Sheahan
Year: Junior Major/Minor(s): Mechanical Engineering Campus Involvement: Embry-Riddle Women’s Soccer Team, Dance Marathon Director TA: The Student Government oversees budgets for a diverse group of student organizations, how do you plan to ensure fair and equal representation of all groups on campus? SS: I’m looking to modernize how RSOs request money as well as how the allocations are divided between the divisions. Potentially looking into doing almost like an interactive pie chart of how, and it kind of displays how much is allocated to each RSO. How much they get, how much they’ve spent, and how much they have left, and it kind of helps them stay in budget. Then for divisions, looking into display, like what’s allocated and what they’re using the money for to give them that opportunity.
President: Kelsey Ennis Year: Sophmore Major/Minors(s): Meteorology Campus Involvement: American Meteoroligic Society
TA: What is a problem that you have seen on campus and want to fix? KE: There is a lot of problems on campus that we can fix one of them being the representation of the little majors here I am a Meteorology major as mentioned before and there are probably about 20 of us in the entire major... When you think of Embry-Riddle you think of pilots and you think of engineers and you are not really thinking of all the other opportunities that are enlisted in this school. With that, a lot of the funding that we have with this school goes to the name of the pilot and the engineer brand which is what Embry-Riddle is initially about, however the other opportunities with this school such as safety, meteorology, air traffic control,... all of those little majors are very underrepresented, so what I really want to do is make sure that those majors come to light and that they are represented equally as piloting and engineering are at this school because it is important for people to know that they have other opportunities besides piloting and engineering and that there are other ways to go and that these majors are just as important as the bigger name majors at this school.
TA: What led you to become interested in becoming SGA President? KE: The presidency is a pretty big position, you know, there is a lot of duties and responsibilities that comes with being president, but like I said before I have a lot of leadership past experience from high school, middle school, and elementary school. I always held big roles in the student government associations that I have been involved in in the past and I never took the leap to be president because I was either too timid or I always thought there was someone better for the job but then I got to college and i sat down and I thought about it for a while and I was thinking you know what, I could be president like this is a big role and I am definitely equipped with all the skills and knowledge to be able to put forth some good assets into this role as we move forward and to hopefully benefit the ERAU community as me being president. And, you know, this is a male dominated school so I am one of the first women presidents to run in a while and I think that it is important for women at this school to know that they should be as equally involved in leadership opportunities as anybody else is.
Vice President: Nickolas Bauman Year: Sophmore Major/Minor(s): Double major Meteorology & Comp Math Campus Involvement: Research TA: If elected, how do you plan to communicate with the rest of the Student Senate? NB: Well, a lot of organizations on campus like to use social media platforms like Instagram, and I’ve noticed that a lot of students don’t actually use Instagram, like a lot of them really just don’t. So I think expanding outreach to students beyond measures of like social media, like actually getting out there and doing stuff and doing things that students actually like to do and participate in, will expand the communication to them.
Treasurer: Kenzie Klisz Year: Sophmore Major/Minor(s): Meteorology Campus Involvement: N/A TA: The Student Government oversees budgets for a diverse group of student organizations, how do you plan to ensure fair and equal representation of all groups on campus? KK: We would definitely make sure to get input from everyone. That’s our main goal: to hear from all the students. So by hearing what they have to say, their ideas and stuff like that, that’s gonna be how we communicate it to the others and take action. We are the voice of everyone else that has any concerns.
Executive Ticket #1 President - Johan Restrepo Vice President- Bethany Thompson Treasurer- Savanna Sheahan What makes our ticket special is that all of us are very different in terms of what we cover on campus. Personally I’m a COAS major, but Savannah and Bethany are both COE majors. Also, we have two student Athletes, and being one isn’t easy so having two that share that perspective will help create events that orientate that specific group of students. I myself am a ROTC student which, while being similar to a student athlete is also quite different. Because of this, I think my ticket covers a lot of aspects when it comes to student life. I am in PIKE and Bethany is in Tri-sigma so we both understand greek life as well. When me and Savanna started Dance Marathon, we got to understand how RSOs work such as stuff like funding and how to do large-scale events. All these little experiences here and there are what I think make our ticket unique.
Executive Ticket #2 President - Kelsey Ennis Vice President - Nickolas Bauman Tresurer - Kenzie Klisz What makes my ticket special? My ticket is the minorities of the school. We are all meteorology majors, so we are kind of the underdogs per say. We decided a little bit last minute that we would like to run, but what really makes us special is we have the experience of being minorities here instead of people who are in the bigger picture majors. We are also all involved in other activities outside of this which also helps us with the campaign. Nick is involved in research. I am involved in the American Meteorologic Society, Kenzie is involved in many other clubs as well. We are all involved in different organizations and we have all heard concerns from these other organizations. We all have different networks of people that we talk to and associate with, and that makes us special because since we have so many wide variety of people that we do talk to, it helps us get of a variety of concerns or feel for what people think is wrong or maybe want changed in the school, and we can go ahead and do that when we step into the role.
COA Senator: Ryan Groel TA: What is a problem that you have seen in the College of Aviation that you want to fix? RG: One of the big problem that the College of Aviation is the lack of intuity from the AMS department with the rest of the College of Aviation, and that goes for couple of the majors in the College of Aviation. Focusing on AMS, we want to have them be more of part of our family inside the College of Aviation. Over the past year, I have been working with my other Senator Miles and we have begun to close the gap, hosting events inside of the AMS hangar and trying to get everyone on the same page. TA: What do you as a leader bring to this position that will help to promote the growth of students around you? RG: Being a leader has always been one of my traits as a person. Between all of the different things I was doing growing up such as being a part of Young Aviators and Aviation Explorers, I have always wanted to put myself in the best position possible, and being a member of an organization or club is great, its fantastic, but sometimes those ideas as a member cannot really be shared. So in order to make things happen, I feel like stepping up to the plate has definitely made sure that things can get done, and that’s where I currently stand. TA: If elected, how will you represent your constituents?
RG: If I were elected as a COA Senator, I feel like being an Aeronautics major is very broad, I am also taking two of the different minors inside the College of Aviation so I feel like I have a good understanding of most of the things that are happening inside the College of Aviation. With that being said, I also feel like there is a lot I do not know inside the College of Aviation and me continuing in this role as a Senator would really want to push would want to get to know everyone and all the different majors and minors, groups, clubs, organizations inside the College of Aviation. I feel like by doing that I will be better able to represent the constituents of the College of Aviation.
COA Senator: Paul Louis Beliando
TA: Tell us about yourself? PB: My name is Paul. My full name is Paul Louis Beliand. I’m half and half American. I was born in France, grew up there until I was around 12 or 13. I then had the chance of moving to Thailand and lived there for about four to five years. I went to international school and studied the international baccalaureate. There I found various passions including model UN- I’m currently a sophomore and studying aeronautical science finishing my commercial rating with a goal to become a flight instructor during the summer. TA: What led you to become interested in becoming a student senator? PB: Several reasons led me to become interested to become a student senate. I briefly touched up about my past experiences in Thailand and leadership positions. I was fortunate enough to have various leadership positions, most notably in model united nations, and this really sparked within me an interest in representing the student body, representing different people, and taking on different leadership positions to make sure everyone gets the best experience in everything they do. That to me is something that is very important, especially as a student at Embry-Riddle, making sure that everyone gets the best opportunity they can to progress as an individual, grow as an individual, and ultimately get the biggest chance for success in life once they graduate from this beautiful university.
TA: What are some ideas you have to better facilitate communication with your constituents? PB: That is actually something that I have long thought about, and I believe that obviously, given the age and times, that technology is such a big thing. One of the biggest, and I say the most appropriate, tool to reach out to a large number of people would be to have an Instagram account. Now I’m aware that the COA senate already has an Instagram account, but if I were to be elected I would really boast that into something that is with a bigger outreach, make it something more significant. For an example, every week or every month we have the opportunity of letting people ask their own questions if they experience any issues, they can write to us directly. We can also do some sort of FAQ where people ask questions, and we can post it on our stories so that everyone can see what people are thinking. Based on that, we can, at end of the month, brainstorm what really needs to be addressed and what really needs to be changed. Apart from that we obviously have office hours as student senators, you guys are all welcome to come see us during our student hours, and again, we are here to address your concerns. Please do come and talk to us about this. Apart from that, if elected, I will try to make you guys more comfortable reaching out to us because that is the core of our job. Apart from social media, reaching out during student hours and also trying to create more events so that people seem more welcome to speak directly to us.
COA Senator: Matthew Peed TA: What is a problem that you have seen in the College of Aviation that you want to fix? MP: The computer labs need to be upgraded. It’s been a while since they’ve been upgraded. I think that’s the main problem that I have seen. TA: What are some ideas you have to better facilitate communication with your constituents? MP: I think maybe having an office in the COA where people can come in instead of in the union. It’s great to have an office in the union, but most students don’t even know this place exists. So, if there was an office in the COA where they can come and actually vent mostly just to get the things they want across done. TA: What do you, as a leader, bring to this position that will help to promote growth in the students around you? MP: I’m the Sergeant-at-Arms for my fraternity right now, and I think from playing football and being in a leadership role and also in a fraternity, it gave me a different mentality towards leadership where I can connect with people more. When I connect with them, they feel more comfortable, and they will also share their ideas and what we can improve to help the COA.
COAS: Connor Smith TA: What led you to become interested in becoming a student senator? CS: I really became interested because I actually I had brought issues up to Jim Myers because he is so outgoing, and I got the issue resolved really quickly. They did a great job, and I said, ‘Well, I want to do that to help other people.’ TA: What is a problem that you have seen in the College of Arts and Sciences that you want to fix? CS: One of the problems that we have in the College of Arts and Sciences is because that is such a huge college. We really want to make sure that all of the upper-level classes have sufficient tutoring and resources for that upper-level student because we know that classes are very difficult and hard and challenging so we want to give them opportunities to have that upper-level tutoring, and we actually got that accomplished with one of the physics courses classical mechanics. We have opened up an SI session so some more students can get help with that specific course. TA: What are some ideas that you have to better facilitate communication with your constituents? CS: One of the ways that we can better communicate is by using social media. It has definitely been a huge thing that we have used to communicate and figure out what are the actual concerns that we can help you with, so we do polls on Instagram and surveys.
COB Senator: Yashika Vadlamani TA: What is the purpose of the SGA Student Senate? YV: I believe the SGA Student Senate is there to represent the student’s interests and the student’s voice. So, obviously, the students believe that some things need to be changed, or some programs need to be implemented. And so, our Student Senators are there to listen to what the students have to say, whatever they want in terms of changes to their own colleges and what not, and we’re here to implement whatever the students want. So, we’re kind of just the voice for the students, and we just get things done in terms of what the students want. TA: What do you as a leader bring to this position that will help to promote growth in the students around you? YV: Well, I believe the first thing I have is passion. I want to see the College of Business continually become better and become a better place for students to grow and innovate. And so, I feel like having that passion is really important, and that really pushes me to work harder and get things done every day. And then, apart from that, I have served as a freshman liaison for the Honor Students Association, and I continue to serve as a freshman liaison... So, I feel like my public speaking experience, my experience with organizing events for the Honor Students Association, and just, in general, my passion for serving the College of Business students would make me a great fit for this role and will help me excel in this role. TA: What led you to become interested in becoming a student Senator? YV: As far as just student government and becoming a college of business senator goes,
I’ve always been interested in taking a bit of a, I guess you could say, a role that requires a good amount of responsibility and requires me to actually challenge myself. And as a College of Business student, I love everything about the College of Business: the classes, the professors, and the resources we have. And what I thought is, ‘What if I can represent all of those College of Business students who want to see even more in the College of Business, and want those resources to increase and want more programs to be developed; or if I could be a voice for all those College of Business students who have something to change or want something to be implemented? I think that would be great.’ Apart from it being a challenge for myself, I also just believe that being there for the College of Business students is amazing, and that is just something that I really enjoy, being a voice for the people.
COB Senator: Kathleen Perry TA: What led you to become interested in be- TA: What are some ideas you have to better facilitate communication with your constituents? coming a student senator? KP: I was involved in STEP Student Court last semester where I learned quite a bit about SGA in total as a whole, and I was able to study the constitution in depth. I’m interested in serving on the Student Senate to be a voice, not only for the College of Business, but the clubs and organizations I am apart of [to] act as a connection. I’m pretty involved on campus, as you’ve heard, and I think I can be the best link possible between the student body and SGA, specifically the Senate.
KP: Of course I’d reach out just through listening in the business-related clubs I’m in and the classes I’m in and speak to students myself, making sure to reach out to them. As I know, because sometimes even though students have complaints it’s harder to put those complaints into specific sentences that they can bring forth to the representatives. So, kind of like reaching out myself. And maybe also something like a suggestion box, which is easier than just voicing your complaint. TA: What is a problem that you have seen in the college of busniess that you want to fix? KP: I think we should have more community and integration withing the college of business. I would love to see more opportunity for students within the college of business to network between themsevles, and have a stronger sense of community.
COB Senator: Rebekah Cunningham TA: What is a problem that you have seen in the their own whiteboard markers because COVID, College of Business that you want to fix? but they’re able to like be like, ‘Ah, yeah, me too! I love Captain America,’ or something. RC: The biggest problem I’ve seen is it seems And that would just create more engagement like an almost unwelcoming kind of environ- with each other. ment in there. There’s nothing really on the walls, there’s nothing that catches your eye TA: What are some ideas you have to better fathat makes you excited to be there, and I think cilitate communication with your constituents? that I would like to change that. Whether it’s just putting up more decorations, or my idea RC: I kind of just answered that question, but was to put whiteboards up on the walls and more than just that, I think that we could... so, have a different question every week on it like, one thing I’ve seen the senate do before is do “Who’s your favorite superhero?” or “What’s a donut day or give donuts to the students and your favorite movie?” and people write with ask them questions and stuff, but the one thing I have noticed is that it’s just donuts and there’s no other options and there are more and more vegan people. And so, if we could create an option for them as well; therefore they feel more included in the college as well. TA: What do you as a leader bring to this position that will help to promote growth in the students around you? RC: Well, I find myself to be a very friendly person. I’m a good listener, and so people tend to talk to me about things and open up and I really enjoy listening to them. And so, if I can have people open up to me about what they think the College of Business is missing then maybe I can change that, and I would love to be able to change it.
COB Senator: Jodie Harmon TA: What led you to become interested in be- TA: What are some ideas you have to better facoming a student senator? cilitate communication with your constituents? JH: I would say my drive to get more involved with my college. I feel like I kind of get in the monotony of just studying and just focusing on my classes and stuff like that, but I’m like, ‘I actually really enjoy being at Riddle, and I want to make change here.’ I really wanted to get in that mindset of having an impact on my school, so I wanted to have something to do that would actually impact and benefit students and get students to be more social. So, I try and plan events for students; I’ve tried since freshman year, being in the student advisory board in the College of Business, to get students to go to ice cream socials just to get the students to be happy with where they are and to actually identify as an Embry-Riddle Eagle.
JH: One of my current ideas is to table within the College of Business and have more interaction with my constituents based on just the fact that I can be super personal with them, like I’m a student too. And I’m just down to hear whatever you want to change to the College of Business, like any ideas we write down, so surveys are always a good option. Even just passing out College of Business merchandise, when we give out the merchandise we’re just like ‘Hey, so what do you think we should do to the College of Business?’ So, just having that personal interaction in the College of Business, but then also we do outdoor events and different events in the Union to get everyone kind of more involved. TA: If elected, how will you represent your constituents? JH: Okay so, if elected, I’d like to represent my constituents by making the change they want to see happen. I really want to take all of your ideas as a student and put them into reality. I have conversations with the Dean biweekly. I actually work in the College of Business, so I can constantly ask and see if it’s even possible for these changes to happen. I just really want to hear your ideas and really expand on them so you have the best college experience you can.
TA: What is a problem that you have seen in the College of Engineering that you want to fix? SL: I would say when it comes to me and some of the other students that I had talked to about this, a lot of students have problems with renting computers to work with that have MATLAB or CATIA on them because a lot of students that come here don’t have access to computers. I know that we have access in the library and in the Union, but a lot of people can’t just come here all the time. People have so many circumstances where it’s just not that easy, so I was hoping to look into creating a better, more well-known program of helping more students have easier access to renting laptops or working with computers that have the engineering tools on them that we need to use on a day-to-day basis.
sixty women at a time or other adults/people my age. Trying to organize events/plans can be very difficult sometimes, and I think with my growth and my leadership skills over my freshman year up until now, it’s going to help me deal with people on an everyday basis, or just students or anyone I come in contact with. I’m able to organize, plan, and do things very efficiently just because I learned a lot of skills, and I’ve learned how to be a leader; my leadership style and just things about myself that can help towards other people and working with other people to make things better here. I guess leadership is a very broad term because it can really mean anything. Everyone has a different leadership style... it really comes down to when you work with someone/multiple people; it’s how we all work together to accomplish a problem and I think I’m very good at that and I’m excited to see how I can be of use in a senator position.
TA: What do you, as a leader, bring to this position, that will help to promote growth in the students around you? TA: If elected, how will you represent your constituents? SL: Well, I would say being a leader in this campus, I’ve been a part of the Emerging Leaders SL: I plan on hopefully just representing them, program, and through my sorority, I’ve gained obviously in the best way possible, but also I a lot of leadership experience dealing with really want to try to get feedback from them on issues as often as possible. I know it’s difficult because a lot of people think it’s kind of boring and dumb to respond to mass emails or things coming from the SGA office; however, my goal is to try to get a little bit more representation from the student body; what they need from me when they need it. So, hopefully we can try more Google Forms or tabling a little bit more to hopefully get a little bit more of their input on what they might want because everyone’s experience is different with what they have to deal with on a daily basis. So, if I can just try to reach out more often, I think it would be very helpful towards the whole student body and the College of Engineering because everyone needs something to change at some point. So, just working to try to make sure Page X that they’re heard.
TA: What is a problem that you have seen in the College of Engineering that you want to fix?
for the students to input what their major was and the classes they had concerns about. We were able to get atleast one course from each AJ: I think one of the biggest problems that I of the majors that responded to our survey, and have noticed during my time here at Riddle we weren’t just focusing on the main ones that has been the lack of academic support that people look at when they see the College of the College of Engineering students are given Engineering. in their upper-level classes compared to a lot of the other colleges. All of the other colleges TA: What do you as a leader bring to this posi(COAS, COB, COA) have their own version of tion that will help to promote growth in the stuthe tutoring lab, and a lot of them serve for up- dents around you? per-level classes that the students are taking. But for College of Engineering, because it’s a AJ: So, for me I learned about different styles little bit harder to find tutors that are available in the Emerging Leaders program my freshmen and even tutors that are successful in those up- year. Ms. Christie Miller talked about all the difper-level courses that the students need help in. ferent leadership styles, and the one that resThey haven’t been really able to open one, and onated with me the most was servant leaderstudents haven’t been as receptive because of ship. Me, being a servant leader, kind of put the marketing concerns. One of my main goals and needs of the people that I am serving first, and projects this current year on the Student Senate I put them as top priority. So, when a concern was to open up an upper-level College of Engi- comes to me or any question comes to me, I neering tutoring lab for the students, and make want that to be my top priority. I want to get it a point to not just focus on the main majors the information that the student needs to help like Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace them, and I want to reach out to the right peoEngineering, but include all the majors that had ple to make sure that issue gets resolved as concerns, which is why we opened up a survey quickly and as efficiently as possible. TA: If elected, how will you represent your constituents? AJ: That’s a good question. I want to be a face for the College of Engineering students. I want to represent them well. I want to make sure they are not overlookeed the Student Government. I want to make sure their voices are heard, their concerns are being addressed ,and I want to be an open line of communication for them. I want to make sure that if they are struggling with anything, even if they are not College of Engineering related, they can come and talk to me, and I will help them find the right people and direct them to because it is hard to find someone here and not do the Riddle Runaround, and I don’t want them to suffer through that if I can be that pipeline for them to help out with that.
TA: Tell us about yourself. FK: My name is Fredrick Kennedy, I am running for COE senator. On Campus I am currently involved in A2. It is here where I tutor and where I hear all the concerns and ideas from students in the College of Engineering. Because of this, I think I am very well-versed in what the students need and what their main concerns are. I am also involved with AIAA, where I am in the design build fly team, Tao Beta Pi, and the orientation team. TA: What are some ideas you have to better facilitate communication with your constituents? FK: As of currently, I believe the Reps of the College of Engineering hold office hours every week in the Student Leadership Suite; however, it may be inconvenient for the students to come and meet with their senators to announce their concerns. I think it would be best for me to come to them instead to eliminate that inconvenience factor. What I've been planning is to table within the COE so I could hear any ideas that you guys may not deem important enough to bring it to us in the SLS. So I think that convenience factor is important so that I could communicate to you guys and vice versa. TA: What do you, as a leader, bring to this position that will help to promote growth in the students around you? FK: I have a very go-getter type of attitude. When I see a problem, I fix it. In this position I will be the same; if you bring a problem to me and my team then I will fix it because as a senator, we begin the process to make your hopes a reality. Without us getting that ball rolling, then that process will not begin, and the completion of the project will be completely delayed. So, I think that attitude of mine will speed up the process of the projects I hope to complete as College of Engineering Senator.
TA: What led you to become interested in becoming a student senator? DP: Back in high school I was never really involved in SGA, but I have always wanted to try out and I feel like if I am able to get involved I would be able to make a change and improve student life on campus in general. Just making everyone happier on campus and make changes that they want. TA: What is a problem you have seen in the College of Engineering that you want to fix? DP: One thing is I would like more access to the labs or the workshops. I feel like in the workshops, students are free to express themselves and create things that they enjoy and find interesting and that helps them better understand their interest and what they want to do. It seems that the labs and workshops are always closed off, so I would like to change that and bring access to those so students can engage with them more. TA: What are some ideas you have to better facilitate communication with your constituents? DP: I feel like providing various means for contact and truly putting yourself out there for other people can help. I would like to be readily available to most people so they are able to able to communicate with me whenever they can.
SGA Student Treasury Carmen Botezan
John Rachek
TA: Tell us about yourself. CB: My name is Carmen, but I go by Tia. I have been a member of the Student Treasury for the past year, and I’m also involved in some other things on campus. I’m the treasurer of the paintball Club, and I’m in Air Force ROTC.
TA: What previous experience in finances do you have that qualifies you for this position?
TA: What is a current process of the Student Treasury that you would like to change or improve? CB: Definitely our current allocation process because sometimes I think that a lot of organizations feel that they don’t have complete clarity of it, or sometimes they don’t feel like they know exactly how to do. I really want to improve our outreach to organizations on how we allocate money and how to help them get as much money as they can from their budget. TA: If elected how do you plan to communicate the budget allocation with RSOs? CB: In the past, we have done emails. Usually, we will send out an email before a week before allocations and then just continue to remind organizations about when deadlines are, but I really think that going to club meetings and maybe just presenting ourselves a bit more to RSOs will be beneficial in the future.
Left: Carmen
Right: John
JR: I’m currently on the Student Treasury, so I’m very familiar with the budget process and all the different ways to receive funding on campus. I’ve also managed the budget for the sailing team for the past three years now. When I started working with them, they had a 0% collections rating and their budget was only a few hundred dollars. We’ve now grown that budget to over $20,000 a semester through fundraising, SGA funding, crowdfunding, and a bunch of different sources. Besides that, I’ve also managed budgets for different businesses over the summer. For my summer jobs, I’ve managed a sailing program with a budget of over $50,000, so I have a lot of different budget experience... TA: What do you as a leader bring to this position that will help to promote growth in the students around you? JR: I think one of my strongest points is that I understand every single aspect of the funding process in SGA, and I’ve been through so many different unique experiences... from crowd funding to the annual fund to capital expenditure; I can share that experience with my peers on the Student Treasury, and explain different processes that they might not know about or ways to help RSOs. There’s a lot of unique RSOs on campus that the regular budget and capital expenditure process just doesn’t quite work for. So, it takes a deep understanding of the overall SGA processes to help out those RSOs. One of my strongest points is communication with the RSOs and communication with other people. I feel like this year, the Student Treasury board were always communicating with each other and always working together...and I think that’s a strong quality that makes the board successful.
SGA Student Treasury Jordan Thomas
TA: Tell us about yourself?
JT: Hello everyone, my name is Jordan Thomas, I am a master student in Business Administration here at the school and I previously completed my undergrad an Aerospace Engineering, on campus I have been involved in many different organizations including being a previous captain of the orientation team and currently I work as manager of the volunteer network and president of the ERAU Acafellas. TA: What is a current process of the student treasury that you would like to change or improve? JT: I would like to improve the accountability of where students money goes to more specifically I would like for students to be able to see specifically where their money goes to, so I just want to make it more public so students are not stuck wondering like why do I pay this SGA fee for I want to be just like no it went towards this, it went towards this, like these all the things that your money towards and it helped. TA: What do you as a leader bring to this position that will help to promote growth in the students around you? JT: I bring a plethora of leadership experience. I have done emerging leaders program as I said before I was a captain of the orientation team, I work as a manager of volunteer network just all of these experiences will be able to help me not only add more to the student treasury but to also help build up like our budding leaders because not everyone is going to be a masters student, some people are still their undergrad and some people are still in their first or second year. I want to be that mentor and that leader who can help build them up so that they can also become better leaders here on campus.
SGA Student Treasury Dinushika Pinto TA: Tell us about yourself. DP: My name is Dinushika Pinto. I am a junior doing Aeronautics. I have business and finance minors. I was born in Italy, but I am from Sri Lanka and currently I am the International Student Senator. Also, I am involved in Catholic Student Union. I am one of the service board members.
Gayathrie Kathiravan TA: What do you believe the purpose of the SGA Student Treasury is? GK: So, as a Student Treasury member, I feel that I would be responsible in organizing and planning funds, request as well as like planning and just budgeting in general for all the clubs on campus.
TA: What previous experience in finances do you have that qualifies you for this position?
TA: What previous experience do you have in finances that qualifies you for this position?
DP: I have two minors, Business and Finance, so I don’t really have treasury experience but my knowledge in business and finance will help towards that and also even I haven’t been a treasurer myself as a senator I have request funding for forums and our tabling events and also I am campus life progress committee colead so that gives me when I do the project I will have a good understanding of funding so that gives me an idea of what treasury is about so even though i haven’t been a treasurer I have an idea on how to do things with the knowledge I have.
GK: Okay, so here’s the thing: I actually haven’t had any finance experience because all my roles that I have had in clubs and positions that I’ve had in high school have nothing to do with finance management and I’m taking this opportunity for a learning curve for me as I just got into finance this year.
Left: Dinushika
Right: Gayathrie
TA: What is a current process of the Student Treasury that you would like to change or improve? GK: I’m not really that involved in regards to the SGA, but what I have noticed is that a lot of smaller clubs and organizations on campus always say that the school is not giving them enough budget or the budgeting process just takes way too long and it delays their projects and activities for a really long time, so that is something that I would like to improve and I would like to help them reach their goals in a shorter period of time and improve guidelines processes as well.
SGA Student Treasury Ananth Srinivas Nayak
Harley Valdez
TA: What is a current process in the Student Treasury that you would like to change or improve?
TA: What is a current process of the Student Treasury that you would like to change or improve?
AN: One of the things that I have observed is that most of the student organizations take a while to get started due to funding issues or registration issues. I would like to help new students to open new organizations and startups because I know that on campus, we have a lot of brilliant minds with a lot of ideas. Budget is important for their startups, too. They need to be guided in the right way and provided with the right resources.
HV: The allocation process for student organizations. So, when I was on the board and even now, I know there’s a lot of mysticism behind it and very many people, new treasurers, presidents, it’s either their first time doing this or they just have so many questions and they get blind sided by all these little things... Unfortunately, those mistakes do cost you sometimes if they are too big and that affects you for the next two years ... So, what I would like to do is create either a more efficient process or actual howto videos and interviews and information that comes from actual treasurers who are really good at it... so they can employ all the tactics I have and people who are experienced have to make sure that their organizations get the most funding possible.
What do you as a leader bring to this position that will promote growth in students around you? I have a great team spirit as a team leader. I want to work with people, listen to their ideas and grow with them. As we keep working towards projects and have new experiences, I want to develop a good team which can lead in the right way. As a leader, I feel that I need to be responsible and incorporate hard work into our success. We all need someone to guide us, and I want to be that person.
Left: Ananth
Right: Harley
TA: What do you as a leader bring to this position that will help to promote growth in the students around you? HV: ...When I was on the board, I actually made a few suggestions and worked with Audrey Hallam, which was the SGA treasurer at the time, to improve some of these processes already. So, when it came for the reimbursement process and everything, one of the things that was big was the advisor approvals on that, and so I directly worked with her ... we came to the conclusion that removing the advisor when it came to actual reimbursements and only keeping president and SGA treasurer on there was the most efficient way to do it and it skyrocketed reimbursements... which meant that more organizations were able to hit their allocation which meant more funding in the future.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION
April 1 2021 7:30 PM
EVENT CENTER A&B & LIVESTREAMED
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Outgoing SGA Exec Ticket Jim Myers
Cassandra Harrison
Skylar Mossop
AN: What advice would you give to your successor?
AN: What advice would you AN: What advice would you give to your successor? give to your successor?
JM: For the next SGA President I would recommend you do your best to show the student body that you represent all of them. Every type of student. One of my favorite things I feel like I can say is I am not a member of Athletics or Greek Life or ROTC or any RSO’s really so that has given me a truly unbiased perspective. I think students know that, and I have been able to make that known amongst the student body. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to be part of other groups. Actions will prove that you represent all students and I think that’s something that is really special.
CH: Please utilize the summer. I will give you a damn good turnover so you can know what youre supposed to do... Be super well organized, maybe lay out some days on your calendar in advance because there are going to be weeks where you get bogged down and you are like “I don’t even have time to check reports” and then you’re going to be like “Crap, I still need to read reports” so definitely make sure you time manage the heck out of your schedule because there’s so many little things going on you will forget. Your position, if it doesn’t apply to the president but it still needs to go to someone important, and it’s not finances, it’s going to go to you and that’s the most random thing ever. Good luck! It’s a lot of fun and a good character building experience but it can be kind of a lot.
SM: Don’t be afraid to make changes. I think what I did a lot of this year was making a lot of different changes: how divisions were funded, the budget packets changing, forms changing, processes, everything. Don’t be afraid to make changes where you see them fit. Also, make sure you are strong. If somebody comes into your office that is angry, be able to handle that situation. Don’t overwork yourself. Take time for yourself. There will be people that will email you at 8PM at night that will say “we need our money tonight”. You can wait until tomorrow to process that receipt. Make sure that you have boundaries for yourself and that they are clear.
Executive Board Editor-in-Chief Victoria Jordan
editor@theavion.com
Managing Editor Korbin Martin managing@theavion.com
News Editor Andrea Gamble
news@theavion.com
Interim Photo Editor Malik Turner photo@theavion.com
Business Manager Salim Roig business@theavion.com
Contributors
Interviewers Transcribers
Victoria Jordan Jordan Thomas Andrea Gamble Dylan Kowlessar Salim Roig Shrina Iyer Samir Khairi
Chirag Mehrota Taylor Berley Jordan Thomas Emily Parcell Salim Roig Victoria Jordan Korbin Martin
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Page Editors
Korbin Martin Victoria Jordan Aayush Shah Emily Parcell Jordan Thomas Taylor Berley Malik Turner Andrea Gamble Salim Roig Abigail Laveroni
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Director of Student Leadership and Engagement
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