1. How do you envision serving in the role of Student Trustee in representing
three campuses but being hosted by one individual campus (in this case, Diablo Valley College)? If there were a conflict of
needs between individual campuses, how would you, in your role as Student Trustee, effectively address and resolve the conflict?
From my perspective, District Student Trustee is someone who serves the three campuses in the district despite being hosted by one individual campus. Therefore, I believe that apart from chairing the District board meeting and listening to the representative from each campus regarding the needs that their colleges have, the Student Trustee should also reach out to all students in the district by making his or her presence known through occasionally visiting all the student government meetings that the three campuses hold. This is an essential step that the Student Trustee should take since he or she is the chosen one to represent all the three campuses in solving the problems the students face. By visiting all the three campuses often, the Student Trustee will personally witness the concerns that the students have, thus is more aware of what the students need.
Even though the District Student Trustee only represents one campus, I would not side my own college, in this case Diablo Valley College, when conflict occurs simply because of this reason. As the District Student Trustee, I would not just try to satisfy a college's need, but effectively address and resolve any conflicts the campuses have by coming up with a win-win situation. I would brainstorm and implement a compromise that would benefit all the three colleges in the Contra Costa District.
2. Give an example of a project or issue that was addressed by a club, committee, or
group that you represented and/or led. Describe the goal, the number of people involved and affected, and the outcome.
I have done many projects that have changes my organization and community ever since I am a leader. Such projects comprise of creating a cheer committee to bond the students in my high school, as well as founding a Thai Club in Diablo Valley College (DVC) to promote my country's culture and bringing a few international clubs together to organize the DVC annual International Education Week. The most recent project that I have done was forming a Budget Oversight Committee in DVC Inter-Club Council (ICC). The committee is later named "Ways and Means Committee (WMC)" by one of the ICC commissioners.
After I got elected as the ICC Commissioner of Finance in the Fall 2007, I handle the financial transaction of the organization and make a financial report to the council every week. During that period, clubs were very active and requested a lot of funds from ICC until the Fall 2007 account went negative. This incident made me realized that ICC was too dependent on the Student Government, ASDVC, for funds. Apart from the limited funds ICC had, I also witnessed another problem the ICC had, which was that the council always spent too much time discussing a single fund request; thus limiting the time ICC can spend to discuss about other issues that were related to the clubs. To solve these two problems, I formed the Ways and Means Committee, with finding alternative fund resource for the council and making the fund requests more efficient as its two main missions. With the eagerness to form this committee, as it would bring a lot of benefits to ICC, I quickly came up with the WMC constitution, found the members, and worked on the day, time, and location of the meeting.
With all the necessary documents well prepared, WMC kicked off at the beginning of the Spring 2008 with 7 members involve. I chair the meeting weekly and make sure the agendas are posted on time. Fund requests and investments on campus are the two major issues that WMC members often discuss. Because the fund requests are being discussed in WMC, ICC soon found that the time it takes to discuss the fund requests is shorten. Furthermore, together with the passion that my WMC members have, two investments are going to be implemented, namely the ICC Button Maker and Popcorn Machine, to allow the council to have additional income apart from the budget given to ICC by ASDVC. My committee not only accomplish the two missions that have brought the members together, it also came up with the 1-week fund request, instead of the usual 2-weeks fund request, and ICC Fundraising Carnival, which is an event to promote fundraising among the clubs.
Leadership and organizing projects are my passion. I am a man of action and would work hard to make my projects happen. WMC is a great example of my enthusiasm in bringing my organization to a greater height. I am very proud of the project that I have done for ICC, as it has proven my ability to lead and organize, since it lives up to its missions and make ICC meeting more efficient, therefore benefiting as much as 55 ICC board members. I am looking forward to be the next District Student Trustee and make changes to all the community colleges in my district.
