Every year, FIU’s Student Government Association holds elections to appoint various positions including senatorial ones that represent each college on campus. The 2020-2021 senator elected to represent the Honors College is Amelia Raudales. I spoke to Amelia and she gave me insight on herself and her plans with SGA:
Q: Firstly, what is your major & grade level?
A: I am currently a second-year student studying International Relations.
Q: What are you involved in on and off campus?
A: My involvements include being the president of Student Ambassadors, team captain for the LEAD team, and the director for the Panther Community Action Board.
Q: Why did you decide to run for Honors College Senator?
A: For the past two years that I have been at FIU, the Honors College has given me countless of opportunities to have a platform. I am in the Honors College Leadership Council & a Dean’s Scholar. I want to expand my platform beyond that and help students with their concerns, working with the dean to make those changes. I feel like SGA is that larger platform to do just that.
Q: How did this election differ from others due to the quarantine?
A: I was able to campaign a week or two at GC Pit. When we switch to quarantine and elections board allowed us to campaign again, we [her political party, The Future is You] increased our social media presence on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Twitter primarily. We did Future is You Bingo, wore yellow shirts, and by doing that, we were making sure our logo was everywhere and that we were present on people’s feeds. We were all working as a team since we had the same goals & values, since our party as whole prioritize the same issues that we feel can be improved.
Q: What are your initiatives as a senator?
A: My initiatives as a senator include more diverse mentorship for Honors College students, catering more events for Honors College alumni to meet current students and advise them on their careers/majors. Also, I would like to increase awareness of the resources the Honors College has to offer, like the Edge Lab, so all FIU students know that they have the resources available to them, no matter if they are a part of Honors or not. Lastly, I would like to increase the relationship Honors College has with other departments and give the entire school more awareness about Honors.
Q: How do you think you can achieve those initiatives when you start as an SGA senator?
A: When I start in the summer, I can’t be as liberal with my initiatives as I would want because of the quarantine but I do want to start with increasing awareness and developing that relationship with other departments. I would achieve this by working with Honors College Leadership Council (HCLC) on a survey on student concerns to get an idea of what to do to accommodate with the students’ problems.
Q: What changes do you plan to make for the Honors College?
A: I would like to make many changes for the Honors College. Firstly, I would like to increase the times for Honors Hours and make them the entire day, instead of all of them at a specific time, so more people can have the opportunity to attend if they are in class for one of the events. I would also like to increase mentorship opportunities as I said before. The Honors College does a great job with the events they produce, but there are a lot of students who don’t know what to do with their major, so we can make more events for alumni to guide them through their path by giving advice.
Q: What are you looking forward to the most by being in SGA?
A: I am looking forward to working with the Honors College students and administration. I wanted this position so badly because I wanted to help improve students’ lives as much as I can and help make a positive impact on FIU.