By Zac Spohn [he/him] | Advocacy Intern
Ever since COVID-19 washed ashore in the United States, the past ten months have been nothing short of tragic. All people have had to face challenges unbeknownst to them before. This fact reigns true for students like me. During the pandemic, students have faced a litany of challenges related to e-learning, financial aid, and mental health. I’m excited to join the team at Students United as an Advocacy Intern to help be a part of making higher education more equitable and accessible for all students.
Currently, I am a junior at Minnesota State University – Moorhead (MSUM), where I am majoring in Political Science and Business Administration with an emphasis in marketing. On campus, I am involved in student government. Also, I am a member of MSUM’s chapter of Movemeber and Colleges against Cancer.
Further, as I’m writing this, I am nearing the completion of my time in office as President of Minnesota Collegiate DECA. Collegiate DECA is a Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for their desired career fields. As state president I head the state officer team and am the student leader of the organization. I originally got involved in DECA in high school. It gave me a direction and purpose I didn’t have in my academic career beforehand and I have loved it ever since.
Additionally, towards the end of last year I co-founded a nonprofit called Change the Culture. Change the Culture was a tagline my co-founder and I dubbed when we were in high school to help make our community a better place for everyone. Organically, it became our mission to create a constructive and uplifting culture that did not exist in our community, in order to make our school a better place for all. Today, under the tagline Change the Culture, our nonprofit provides scholarships to graduating college-bound students from our alma-mater that have left their community’s culture better than they found it.
In my free time, I enjoy reading, spending time with friends, and watching my favorite Minnesota sports teams break my heart time and time again. I look forward to getting to know many of my new colleagues at Students United and can’t wait to get to work!