By Huda Ayaz
Being a part of the Undergraduate Student Government of Brooklyn College for the past two years has been such an incredibly rewarding experience.
When I first walked onto campus, I could have never expected where my journey in college would lead me to. One thing for sure was that I wanted to be involved after a long period of time in quarantine. After exploring a lot of different clubs in my freshman year, I stumbled upon USG and was so inspired by everything they were doing that I got involved the very next year. As Club Director of the executive cabinet, I helped start and restart many clubs and arranged club training sessions for students with SAIL and Central Depository.
As I learned more about the processes and structure of USG and Brooklyn College, my desire to get involved only grew which led Carrie and I to run together in the election for USG President and Vice President.
As Carrie and I spent days on end campaigning during spring of last year, we realized just how important it was to be on campus, speaking directly to students and hearing out their concerns. This informed many of our initiatives this year, including monthly tablings, where we collected feedback from students about what change they wanted to see on campus. Many requests were what guided our own actions, like raising infrastructure and technological issues to administration and broadening our own scope for events to reach more students.
As my term comes to an end, I truly am honored to have been part of such a hardworking and intelligent team of people who care about making our campus a better place. That being said, I could not have gone through this without the support of so many people.
Firstly, thank you to Carrie Ebbin for being such a talented, dependable, and thoughtful leader. I have seen how tirelessly and honestly you have worked to truly make Brooklyn College a better place, and I am honored to have been there alongside you.
Thank you to our incredible executive cabinet for facing every task and hardship with bravery, teamwork, and integrity.
Thank you to members of the previous USG administrations for setting up the foundation for us to work on, especially Aharon Grama and Iqura Naheed. To Iqura: thank you for your endless support and patience. From introducing me to the concept of USG to being a constant source of assurance throughout my time being involved, I have learned so much from your leadership and wisdom.
Thank you to the USG senators for your tireless work this past year. I’m going to miss seeing you all every Tuesday and I am so proud of everyone’s hard work. From volunteering at our events to being a voice of the students, you have been an essential part of what kept us running throughout the year.
Thank you Royta Iftakher, my clerk of the senate, fellow programmer, and friend. With your random snacks and monthly fairy magic, you were always there to lighten the mood and provide thoughtful advice. Thanks for not getting sick of me going from meeting to meeting to class to meeting every Tuesday this semester in particular, I’m going to miss you after you graduate!
To my family: Mama, Baba, Sadaf, Zaid, Maliha, Marwa, and Musa. Thanks for bearing with all the late nights and early mornings and for being a constant source of support throughout all of it and beyond. I love you all 🙂
Last, but certainly not least, thank you to all the students who have been a part of my journey in USG, whether you had a position, were a volunteer, just hung out at the office, or stopped by once in a while to share feedback. You all are what make us able to do what we do, and I’m so glad I met all of you.