by Emma Zellmer, State Chair
If you would have asked me in the summer of 2018, leading into my freshman year of college at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where I would be by my senior year; I might have told you that I would be finishing up my construction management degree. Little did I know at 18, I would change my major, be motivated by many people to get more involved in student leadership, and be ending my year as Vice-Chair and going into my year as State Chair of Students United. (Learn more about me in my Vice Chair introductory blog)
The 2020-2021 Academic year was an unusual experience for everyone, especially students. Coming into my term as Vice Chair, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Jumping into our year with under three months until the presidential election, even less time until the U.S. Census deadline, the Black Lives Matter movements spreading throughout the nation, and the COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the world and continuing to burden the lives of our students, we were sent into a year where student advocacy would be of utmost importance. In partnership with the IFO, we were able to successfully register students to vote, helped them show up at the polls, and ensured that we were prepared, and the policies were in place for the next election cycle ahead of time.
This past year was also a year of firsts for our organization and an opportunity to advance our journey of becoming more accessible and to better serve our students. With the help of our Director of Equity and Inclusion, Abeer Syedah, we were able to create our monthly senate connections events to help connect student leaders from our seven campuses to help share ideas and increase our advocacy efforts. We also moved all our programming to an online format and were able to successfully execute our advocacy conference and all our committee meetings.
I never pictured student leadership in my college journey, especially at this level. I would like to thank my first Community Advisor, Olivia Maldonado, for helping me get involved in RHA and encouraging me to run for student government. I would also like to thank three previous Mankato Student Body Presidents: Meme Cronin (2018-2019), for introducing me to Students United and encouraging me to set my sights on student leadership; AbdulRahmane Abdul-Aziz (2017-2018), for pushing me to someday run for State Chair of Students United; and Anisa Omar (2019-2020), for pushing me to run for Vice Chair and now State Chair. This past year would not have been as successful without our amazing staff, the leadership of our State Chair, Jonathan McNicholes, and the resilience and thoughtfulness of our Treasurer, Victor Ayemobuwa.
Being surrounded by the amazing and persistent student body presidents on our board this past year has given me hope for students of the future as we return to the new normal. With the strong groundwork laid by this past year’s board, our staff, and our officers, I am excited to continue my advocacy and higher education leadership journey as the State Chair this year!