By Kim Nguyen is a third-year computer science major, a first-generation college student and an immigrant.
“I’m a Vietnamese American immigrant, so it’s important to represent my community,” she said.
Nguyen said her motivation behind wanting to become the Associated Students Inc. vice president of finance came from her own experience of being unaware of the scholarships and grants the Business Finance Committee offer until her second year at Long Beach State.
Nguyen felt she wasted a year when she could have taken advantage of those resources. Now, she wants to reach out to more students and let them know about the available finance options to use.
“That’s why I wanted to run for this role because I think it’s really important that students are able to have good access to financial literacy resources,” she said.
Nguyen said up to $21,000 in research grants were left unused, which will now be rolled over into the 2025-26 academic year.
She emphasized transparency during her campaign and plans to achieve that by following the current Vice President of Finance, Andre Achacon, in reporting to the Senate on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
One of Nguyen’s main goals as VP of finance is to promote financial literacy resources for students by continuing the university’s financial literacy conferences and workshops.
She also hopes to continue the Financial Empowerment Conference started by Achacon, whom she has been shadowing and learning from.
Besides financial literacy, Nguyen hopes to achieve every goal she promised in her campaign platform, including transparency in where funds are going, distribution of funds to the proper communities and the improvement of previous initiatives.
Regarding the University Student Union’s upcoming closure and reconstruction process, Nguyen said she was upset when she first heard about the plans.
However, as she learned more about the Future U project, she understood why it was necessary.
“I understand that students are angry they’re not going to experience this USU when it’s built,” Nguyen said. “But I’m going to try to table and outreach to students as much as possible through that because I wanna try to get the message across that this is for the legacy of the school.”
Nguyen added that the current student body will be making a sacrifice by supporting the Future U project’s reconstruction, similar to what previous generations have done in past USU renovation projects.
The ASI Fiscal Certification 101 training is something Nguyen plans to work on improving this year by implementing the changes necessary to help club officers utilize funds properly and be able to apply for funding on time.
She also plans to streamline scholarship applications because students might not fill them out appropriately, hindering their access to the funds they need for career development.
Although the incoming ASI executive cabinet has yet to take office, Nguyen expressed her desire to build a strong working relationship to ensure effective collaboration.
“We want to make it so that students feel included and know that they have a community on campus, that they know they have access to resources and all the help that they want or need,” she said. “Our executive team wants to put students first, and that’s the main goal.”
