ESU Backup Insider

They wanted every student to feel like they could RUN ESU.

“We wanted to create something that allows everyone to see themselves driving the university,” Drew Johnson, president of student senate at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, said.

One late night at the office in fall 2014, eight members of the student senate executive committee at ESU sat around thinking of an idea for a t-shirt design for their membership. Someone mentioned RUN ESU, and the rest is history.

Johnson wanted the Senate t-shirts to have a meaning that would symbolize more than just ink and a catchy design. He remembers talking with the other student senators about change more than anything else. He realized that change is what matters most to students and that RUN ESU could be symbolic of that ongoing dialogue with other students.

“Change is so important,” he said. “I wanted students to see the shirts and ask what they meant; I wanted students to know that if they don’t like their college experience, they can change it.”

To the seven students around that board room table that night, RUN ESU now meant standing up for their education, fighting for what is right, and using their voices to take charge of their college experience.

Johnson knows this to be true. He’s seen some students take charge of their college experience starting with the first footsteps they take at ESU.

It took Kelsey Bruzgo two weeks. A transfer student, she knew she only had two years to get involved. She investigated her options, attended her first Student Senate meeting and left in awe of their influence.

A year later, she was the public relations chair. Her responsibilities include managing the student senate’s social media sites and marketing the organization.

“When you make a decision to get involved on campus, it changes your whole experience,” she said. “I only had two years to make an impact — I’ve met so many people and attended so many events that I feel like I was here for all four.”

Daniel Watson came to campus with a strong voice and more ideas than he could count on his two hands.

“I wanted to make a difference,” he said. “I needed a place where I could watch my ideas come to life.”

After only a few months on campus, Watson found a second family in the senate chambers. “Senate has become a part of me — and I’m only a sophomore,” he said. He chose Senate because it gave him the platform and the peer support to succeed. This year Watson is serving as the Student Affairs Chairman.

“I want to work on increasing student engagement and student awareness of resources on campus,” he said.

Like Watson, Melissa Ciment entered the senate chambers during her first year on campus with a similar attitude: make a difference. Now entering her fifth year on senate, she can talk for hours about what the organization means to her.

“It is a family full of intellectual, outgoing, leaders,” she said. “Being a part of student senate means I get to voice my opinions and concerns, and convey the voice of every student at ESU that shares his/her concerns with me.”

Johnson admits that students might not always feel like ESU is right for them.

He came to ESU in the shadows of his brother — a star on the Warriors basketball team — instead of attending a Division I school, an ambition he’d always dreamed of. Johnson just couldn’t imagine where he could fit in at ESU, and for a while, he fell into a routine of going to class and keeping to himself. All that changed when he began to realize that only he had the power to change things. Before long, Johnson became an orientation leader, a tour guide, and a building manager. He began to understand that options were at his fingertips but only he could make them a reality. Soon he got involved with Student Senate and continued to elevate his personal ambitions.

“I learned if you don’t like something, you should change it,” he said. “ESU empowered me as a person.”

Like Johnson, Bruzgo, Watson and Ciment agree that the most important part of the college experience is getting involved, even if it’s not within the senate chambers.

“Pinpoint your passions,” Johnson said. “If you want to start a club here and it’s something you really care about, we’re going to support you.”

Students can visit the Student Senate office located on the second floor of the University Center. They say they are waiting on the next person who wants to RUN ESU.

“Everyone is running ESU,” Johnson said. “Students, faculty, staff — we are all making this place move forward — it’s time for you to start.”