The Student Government Mentorship Program (SGMP) introduces first and second year students to the responsibilities and impact of Student Government on campus. Accepted applicants are assigned a Mentor who currently serves on Student Government and begin forming significant connections.
I had the opportunity to have Logan Lindsay, the 2020-2021 student body President, as my mentor and we would meet every two weeks. Having him as my mentor allowed me to gain experience and knowledge on how to become an effective and influential member. We also met with some of the representatives of our university and discussed about some of the projects that we had, one of our projects consisted of some suggestions that we had for the UC COVID App.
Outside of the meetings with my mentor, we also had one-hour SGMP meetings every week with all the mentees and the two directors of the mentorship program to learn more about Student Government. During our meetings, the directors taught us about the program, the members, their roles, and their initiatives. We also had small projects that all the mentees worked on such as the promotion of 25live, the platform used to reserve rooms on campus. The SGMP also offers the Rotational Legislative Aid which is an opportunity to attend the meetings organized by the Student Government Cabinet even after March 31st when the mentorship program ends and we “graduate” from it.
After learning about the structure of Student Government, all the mentees were encouraged to find a position that would connect their personal passions to tangible action. I personally chose to apply for two positions: Tribunal senator for the college of business and executive director of career services. Luckily, I was accepted for both positions and I look forward to working on my initiatives throughout the school year!