IT’S MORE THAN A JOB. IT’S A PATH TO THE FUTURE. How the new UGA student government executive board got their start as housing student staff members
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n April, University of Georgia students elected the Believe ticket to the executive branch of the Student Government Association for the 2018-2019 academic year. The ticket consists of three housing student employees: President-elect Ammishaddai Grand-Jean, Vice President-elect Charlene Marsh and Treasurer-elect Destin Mizelle. Ammishaddai, a resident assistant (RA) in Myers Hall, is a third-year student from Jonesboro majoring in political science and economics. Charlene, an incoming fall 2018 Hill Community RA, is a third-year international affairs and sociology major from Norcross, and Destin, a C.L.A.S.S. advocate (CA) in Brumby Hall, is a third-year psychology major from Riverdale. Housing resident assistants are student staff members who live with residents and are selected for their skills, interests and campus activities, which enable them to help other students get the most from their UGA experience. RAs are trained to assist and/or refer students with academic and personal concerns and to help maintain an academically supportive environment in the halls. The housing Continuing the Legacy of African-American Student Success (C.L.A.S.S.) advocate program serves to support and enrich
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the university experience of all minority students and to facilitate communication between staff and students. CAs have many of the same responsibilities as RAs but also serve specifically to engage populations of residents who could potentially feel marginalized on campus. The Believe ticket’s campaign platform centered around three key issues: improving efficiency to make SGA simpler and more connected to students; cultivating transparency and discussion on issues like diversity, sexual assault and mental health; and fostering a spirit of cooperation to encourage connections among student organizations. This year, 8,006 students voted in the election, representing the largest number of votes in SGA’s history and more than 21 percent of the total student body. SGA works to enact positive change on behalf of the student body. Past initiatives have included a campus-wide tobacco ban, increased access to study spaces, managing the UGA mobile app and initiating the plus/minus grading system for UGA courses. We spoke to the Grand-Jean and Mizelle about how their experiences working for housing have positively influenced them as leaders.
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