By With upcoming student government debates and elections happening this March, the current Associated Students Inc. executives give their thoughts on their experiences throughout the year and their hopes for the rest of the semester.
Matt Melendrez, who first came to the Long Beach State campus as a nine-year-old for piano lessons, is now the executive vice president as a junior.
Throughout his position and time at CSULB, he emphasized that having a real passion for community and advocating for them is what makes a difference.
According to Melendrez, one quality that is crucial to being in that position is the ability to listen and then do the work to make change.
Melendrez highlighted that the friendship and the willingness to be communicative advocates for students is what made collaboration between the executives, centers and organizations so effective.
Vice President of Finance Andre Achacon was the first freshman to be elected into an executive position in student government. Now a sophomore, his proudest moments so far in his position have been leading policy revisions that got students and student organizations more funding, and the making of the Financial Empowerment Conference.
As vice president of finance, his role is to push for financial literacy initiatives. The Financial Empowerment Conference, with its numerous partnerships, was the first of its kind last semester at CSULB and it doubled student engagement with financial literacy workshops.
He trained about 660 student organization officers throughout 14 training sessions to become more aware of grant funding to help fund their needs and wants.
“Every single day is something new, everything is moving so quickly; literally yesterday felt like the day I won my election,” Achacon said. “It’s incredibly fast paced and there’s so many moving pieces, you’re meeting so many different people across campus.”
He said age, experience and major are not the most important qualities to have to succeed in the role of vice president of finance but having grit, relentless curiosity and remembering your story, are.
Achacon hopes that the next vice president of finance takes on the initiative to provide tailored financial literacy resources for working class students and continues to work with Basic Needs and Student Affairs to get this information out to students.
Current ASI President Nikki Majidi, works as a liaison for students, administration and ASI. She bridges the gaps and brings the right people to the table.
“With my role as president, I essentially fit as kind of as a bird’s eye view on many different boards– I think I attend like 12 to 15 meetings a week, it’s crazy but I love it,” Majidi said.
Her proudest moment as ASI president was when they won Secretary State Ballot Bowl for the highest number of students registered to vote, which was 2100 students at CSULB.
“I’m proud to say that we’ve touched on most of our promises, if not all; we’ve created plans for the future, either addressed them or are looking into them right now,” she said.
In the year, she kick started the Menstrual Products Committee again and will increase menstrual products and advertising throughout campus. She also started the first Housing Coalition, which partnered with local housing resources to help with access to housing for students.
Something she said she wants to put more focus on is getting drug-testing kits on campus so that students can check their drinks for roofies or date rape drugs when they go out.
It is something she has been working toward even before she was elected. She hopes to complete this goal or at least get some groundwork done so it can be passed onto the next president.
“Not everything happens overnight, there’s a long process for everything,” Majidi said about what she learned during her term.
All three executives emphasized that strong passion for this type of work and position is needed in order to successfully bring about good change and good work for students.
“I hope the next executive officers take on a fierce style of leadership that will not stop advocating for what’s best for students,” Achacon said. “It’s important that we are electing people with good intentions to [these] roles to make tangible impact on students”
