Every week, The Talon interviews a member of the Oklahoma Christian University community, a “Newsmaker,” to answer questions about their role on campus.
On March 4, The Talon interviewed Student Government Association President, Ashtyn Hutchison
What encouraged you to run for president?
“I started in high school. I joined my high school student council, and I was in that all of middle school and high school. Doing that, I was really able to build up leadership qualities with being involved on campus and doing fun things. In high school, we do Red Ribbon Week, which is a dress up week, and drug awareness type of stuff, but doing those things on campus and being proactive, and being involved in student life on campus was really fun. Then I got here and ran for freshman class president, which gets you in the senate in SGA, and I’ve been a part of it ever since. I have just always loved it. I’ve loved being involved and feeling like I have a say, and truly having a say, and creating fun events and planning things that all the students get to enjoy. That’s where my “want” to run stemmed from. Just the fact that it’s been a part of my life for so long, and it’s something that I truly care about and find so much joy in.”
What has this role taught you about leadership in general?
“It has taught me that leadership takes time, and that you can always be strong in it, but you are also always learning something from it. It’s not something you’re ever going to be content with. And because you’re always working with different people, and different people need different things, you learn a lot about those things, even if they may not be your strength. It is a lot of continuous learning and being flexible and being really personable with other people, because you can’t make things happen without having real relationships.”
What kind of impact do you want to leave on the school whenever you graduate?
“Leaving an impact is kind of hard to think about when you’re in this position, because there is turnover so often, and SGA changes the cabinet every single year. So having an impact on the whole student body is almost unrealistic, just because it’s just the nature of the job. And having turnover every year. But something that I really tried to do this year is to go back and look in our constitution and to make sure everything we do in it is followed. Also to set it up to be the most successful for future cabinets to come into and read. Which will make it easier to follow, exceptionally. In years past, there were a lot of things in our constitution that were not followed. And I was like, “We don’t do it, so why is it still in here?” This will affect everything that the student body experiences, just in the fact that it will be routine and it will be mapped out according to what we do and what we experience. Like our food trucks that we get, and philanthropy, things we do for homecoming and spring sing. Now, they’re all set in a way, where it can be followed easily and consistently.”
What are your plans for expanding SGA?
“One thing we really wanted to push this year is having more students run for positions and so having multiple people running for each executive office, as well as for each committee chair within the senate vote. Then, also having somebody to run for each class officer position, it is really exciting, because it looks like that’s going to pan off this year. So our main goal of having people running for positions is happening. Last year, secretary and president were the only ones opposed.”
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