I am a senior Political Science major, Latin American Studies and Spanish minor, graduating from Southwestern University in May of 2013 with a 3.85 GPA.
My interests and experience lie in International Affairs, Technology, and Higher Education Administration, and I am actively seeking challenging internships that will allow me to continue developing and contributing my skills in those fields.
I have held multiple peer leadership positions in organizations ranging from 5 to 1400 people, where I have been responsible for working with others to help create, act on and accomplish our shared goals in a timely fashion. I have used these opportunities to improve my skills relating with constituents, managing groups, conducting independent research, mentoring and teaching others, and synthesizing information to effectively and efficiently share it with a broad audience.
I am a passionate learner and listener who enjoys making connections, between both people and ideas, and using good design and concise, relevant communication to increase understanding and help others accomplish their goals.
• Analyze and track submitted legislation to determine its effects and recommend a stance to the representative.
• Meet with constituents, interest groups, and other office visitors on behalf of the representative.
• Manage and respond to constituent correspondence to ensure they receive timely and accurate responses.
• Research legislation on behalf of constituents to address their questions and concerns.
• Primary liaison between Student Congress and groups external to Southwestern University, such as the Georgetown Community and other Student Government Associations.
• Represent Student Congress on councils and committees external to the University's governance structure.
• Develop and lead events to bring the Southwestern and Georgetown communities closer together.
• Assist Public Relations Chair in promotion of Southwestern events off-campus and off-campus events on-campus.
• Mentor over 80 first-year students on academics through meetings, academic counseling, and personalized, original workshops
• Guide academically at-risk students one-on-one by building their strengths to overcome their academic difficulties
• Developed an original workshop for first-year students on time management skills that attracted over 50 attendees
• Promoted to Lead Mentor after one year.
•Served as only representative of the student body in search for Southwestern’s fifteenth president
•Reviewed over 60 applications for the position and conducted reference calls on candidates
•Interviewed candidates for the position in person along with members of the board of trustees, faculty, and staff
•Helped coordinate and promote campus visits for the finalists in the search
• Prepare and manage $30,000 semesterly budget for the chapter and all chapter committees.
• Cut chapter costs, creating a $5000 surplus that allowed for critical house improvements without alumni or parent support.
• Improved chapter collection rate to 99.6%.
• Maintain chapter financial and membership records.
• Collect dues and other payments from members of the chapter to ensure all debts are paid on time.
• Conducted economic and statistical research, gathering data from over 75 foreign posts and auditing the results to determine adequate and financially responsible reimbursement rates under Department of State Regulations for Education and Per Diem Allowances.
• Conducted comparative analysis of service providers (for example, schools, hotels, and restaurants) at posts and summarized findings in concise reports and memos for approval in biweekly cables.
• Independently revised office standard operating procedures to save time and increase efficiency in analyzing reports, resulting in office-wide adoption.
• Regularly communicated with Department of State posts and service providers, both foreign and domestic, in English and Spanish.
• Helped teach classes on Department of State allowances regulations to government employees at the Foreign Service Institute.
• Held and maintained a Secret Security Clearance.
• Researched and developed multiple reports for Southwestern's Senior Staff on town-gown relations between the University and the City of Georgetown.
• Collaborated with local government officials on initiatives to expand the University’s relationship with Georgetown.
• Sponsored and led a forum where local dignitaries, campus officials, and students could meet and discuss ways the City and the University could work better together.
• Reviewed and revised University reaccreditation documents for accuracy, coherency and completeness.
•President of the 1,372 member Southwestern University Student Body.
•Recognized as Overall Leader of the Year by peers for efforts during term.
•Preside over Student Congress, Executive Council, and Student Body Forums.
•Act as a liaison between the Student Congress and the University administration and faculty, as well as other University organizations.
•Lead discussion in setting Student Body Forum agendas, coordinates scheduling and agendas of regular Student Congress and Executive Council meetings.
•Representative of the student body to General Faculty meetings and meetings of the Alumni Association.
• Manage and coordinate a committee system of 16 officers and 45 members and chair two weekly meetings
• Mentor and develop members by delegating leadership roles and organizing continuing education opportunities
• Manage membership records and meeting minutes for the chapter.
• Researched and transitioned chapter to a more effective online chapter management solution.
• Communicate with Pi Kappa Alpha HQ to keep them up-to-date on chapter events.
Created the first website for Student Congress and managed a team of two other students to facilitate relations with the university newspaper (The Megaphone) as well as campus faculty and staff.
Communicate with prospective students via phone, email, and Facebook, as well as face-to-face, to turn prospective applicants into enrolled students.
• Designed new website for chapter and worked to increase relations between chapter and both university community and Austin, Texas, area, with a focus on philanthropic and outreach events
• Communicate with other organizations on campus and in community regularly to keep them updated on chapter events and proceedings
• Developed chapter written program to clarify duties and responsibilities of the position for future chairs
Summer Position. Worked in multiple areas as a teaching assistant, camp counselor, and camp scheduler. As scheduler, reported directly to the head of day camp and coordinated daily activities for over 180 students and 36 employees. As teaching assistant, helped maintain a classroom kitchen while aiding in the instruction of over 40 students.
Assisted in promotional events including concerts, giveaways, meet-and-greets, and other public engagement opportunities.
I was talking with my roommate last night about the disappearance of “cinema” and his excitement for seeing Dark Knight Rises this weekend. He remarked that
cinema is dead. Studios spend millions of dollars on films that flop when they could be releasing classics on those same screens. The whole point of “cinema” is to sit down in front of a huge screen with a bunch of strangers and have a shared experience, reacting to a movie as you get lost in it and escape from reality for a couple of hours on a hot afternoon.
As we deal with the aftermath of the tragedy that happened earlier this morning in Aurora, I think part of the reason it’s so terrifying is because it took place in a theater. While something like this would be horrific regardless of location, we go to the movies to escape our realities for a brief moment and take a breath while the world goes on outside, but when the worst parts of the world come in it’s terrifying and unexpected. One eyewitness said that, “I kind of sat there, thought it was probably just really good special sound effects.” Others who weren’t there are reacting by avoiding the movies and canceling premieres. Those who do make it to the movies will probably find it hard to completely escape, their thoughts with the victims of this senseless tragedy and their families.
At least I know that’ll be the case for me. My thoughts are with the people of Aurora, and may the country come together and support them through this tragedy.
Meet Molly Range, the creator of the newest craze in Sweden:
“I was quite inspired by the old classic, ‘Fight Club’ movie,” she says. Among the 10 rules were the slightly reminiscent, “You don’t talk about your job at lunch beat,” and “If it’s your first dance at lunch beat, you have to dance.” Lunch Beat would have to be non-profit, she decided, with entrance fees only covering costs.
Partly she hoped a high-energy club experience would make people feel energized in the afternoon, instead of soporific from lunch. Partly she was irritated by the buzzwords proliferating her industry like “playfulness” and “community.” Why couldn’t someone put that jargon into practice?
These lunchtime dances are making their way across Europe and, soon, to the US. Seems like a good way to burn off some stress and calories while having fun at the same time.
Southwestern is a unique school. We have the pirate bikes, we are one of the smallest universities of our caliber in the nation and, up until now, we were the school without a football team.1 But now that that’s changing, I expect an understandable question many will ask is whether the personality of Southwestern will change. And we won’t avoid a change, but in the long run I feel Southwestern will change for the better.
One of the greatest criticisms many have for our student body is that, while as a whole we are involved and dedicated to our individual passions, we lack a passion for our school. Hints of more passion have been visible over the years,2 but overall Southwestern students are as likely to rally behind a broken soft serve machine as they are our #7 nationally ranked volleyball team. Maybe football will change this. I’m not saying that it will, or that I necessarily want it to, but from what I’ve observed in Texas and at colleges around the country football is an important sport for campus spirit. In many cases, regardless of how the team performs, it rallies support for other sports and increases the sense of school spirit around campus. If this happens at Southwestern, I think it can only be a good thing.
Football would become a new event for campus on the weekends, an added incentive for students that we want to attract, and an additional revenue stream for our school during a challenging economic time. The new team would bring in new tuition revenue, added support from football loving alumni, and perhaps even an increased application rate during the admissions process. The new students brought in, if they are football players, will likely arrive with the benefits that come with team membership, especially a higher retention and graduation rate.3 These benefits have the potential to fix many of the perceived problems plaguing Southwestern today, offering an additional revenue stream that can support our academic programs and other areas on campus. Whether they help solve these problems or create greater ones is dependent on how the new team is created.
If the team arrives on campus and brings with it a focus on football, our already strong athletics program will be in danger. While there are benefits associated with bringing in football, the mindset cannot be shifted away from The Pirates to Pirate Football. If that happens, our already strong athletic teams run the risk of falling by the wayside and, with the lapsed attention, losing the benefits that come with team membership. There’s also the financial concern of supporting a new team, but I find that least worrisome at all: the fact that the Board of Trustees, a board that has remained financially conservative during this economic crisis and limited the percentage we can draw from the endowment, would not have allowed this plan to go forward if it wasn’t in the best interests of the school.
The last major concern, and I feel for many might be the most troubling, has to do with how football might change our campus culture. Southwestern, if it prided itself on one thing above all, is its uniqueness. For many, as evidenced by years of APO shirts, this uniqueness comes in no small part from our lack of a football team. By introducing the dynamics of a football team, our campus social structure risks being upended and leaving us with a dynamic that could change the makeup of the student body that we all love. To avoid this, the players brought in have to brought in using the same mindset we have for our applicants already. What we look for in our athletics programs are student athletes. As cliché as it is, the student comes first in that statement just as it should for the players. We can make this happen with the right selection of a head coach, one who understands our philosophy, and an admissions department that does not bend to the demands of outside parties trying to push the All State running back with a less than stellar academic record over a student gifted in other areas that would fit the Southwestern mold. Bringing in students who do not fit would not only be unfair to the campus, but unfair to the students who are looking for a different experience than what they will find here. These are the players who expect to be the kings of campus and the center of campus life, both of which are roles that the players won’t be able to occupy here because the roles don’t exist.
If the pitfalls can be avoided, however, Southwestern stands to profit from the addition of football. As a track athlete, I’m excited about the possibility of finally having a track on campus and, as a student, the possibility of football intrigues me. It will have to be done right, something that will require dedication, obeservance, and careful personnel choices. Properly executed, I think football will set the stage for Southwestern to move forward through the 21st century and mark a defining moment in the history of our school.
Undefeated since 1950 and proud of it. ↩
Notably last year when our men’s soccer team lost to Trinity at home, and last week at the Power Up Pirate’s series of games under the lights. ↩
This is something typical of all teams, because when students have something other than classes keeping them on campus (namely teammates and an athletic atmosphere), they become invested in the school rather than just the idea of an education, making them more likely to stick around. ↩
Watching the Women’s World Cup Final this weekend 1, I found the number of statistics posted and referenced by the commentators fascinating, but not for the reasons ESPN was likely hoping for. What relevance does it have to the game that the US had yet to lose to Japan in an international match, or that the same held true recently across all matches played across multiple sports? That the majority of the goals scored by the US were during the first half during the tournament, but that the majority of the goals scored by any team during the tournament were in the second half?
In my mind, there seem to be two possibilities for the statistics:
While it’s probably a combination of the two, I’m inclined to believe the second option is the cause of the first and therefore the root cause of the inane figures that were always flickering at the top of the screen. And it turns out I’m not the first or only person to notice this.
Last fall, Rupert Cornwell wrote this article for The Independent that deals with this very obsession. Perhaps I came across it before, and this is why this thought wedged itself in my head. In short, he believes we rely on statistics because we want to predict everything, because with prediction comes control. Makes sense right? He even thinks it explains why soccer will never catch on over here:
Alas, soccer has proved impossible to reduce to numbers. Sure, the Americans are trying. This year’s World Cup drew a blizzard of statistics, from the number of assists to pass-completion rates and total passes by individual players. But to no avail. Soccer provides psychological truth. But there’s only so much number-crunching you can do with a 0-0 draw, followed by a penalty shoot-out.
Numbers make life seem controllable, predictable and therefore safe, so we take solace in them. Why else would we love baseball, a sport that at times seems excruciatingly slow? Because crunching the numbers makes you feel as though you can predict the future simply by reading the past. It may also relate into our numerical readings of the Bible, predicting Doomsday based off of numbers and references there awaiting decoding. Through numbers, we can bring order to an otherwise chaotic world. That order may not be exactly what the doctor ordered, or even what’s correct 2, but the fact is with numbers we’ll believe it.
As Cornwell said, “in America, numbers, even polluted numbers, are sacred.” So when ESPN tells me that the US wins over 60% of the matches in which they score first, even if it doesn’t matter in this particular match, I’ll have faith that we’ve still got a shot. Because every little bit of hope helps, right?
Tough break America, and congrats Japan… Can’t say I’m happy since the home team didn’t win, but everything happens for a reason. ↩
Think of the statistic that 69.3% of statistics are made up on the spot, or just look at gullible.info and admire the sheer believability of their completely invented statistics and facts. They seem like they could be true, don’t they? ↩