student senate<\/a> at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, said.<\/p>\nOne 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cChange is so important,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted students to see the shirts and ask what they meant; I wanted students to know that if they don\u2019t like their college experience, they can change it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Johnson knows this to be true. He\u2019s seen some students take charge of their college experience starting with the first footsteps they take at ESU.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A year later, she was the public relations chair. Her responsibilities include managing the student senate\u2019s social media sites and marketing the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you make a decision to get involved on campus, it changes your whole experience,\u201d she said. \u201cI only had two years to make an impact \u2014 I\u2019ve met so many people and attended so many events that I feel like I was here for all four.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Watson came to campus with a strong voice and more ideas than he could count on his two hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to make a difference,\u201d he said. \u201cI needed a place where I could watch my ideas come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
After only a few months on campus, Watson found a second family in the senate chambers. \u201cSenate has become a part of me \u2014 and I\u2019m only a sophomore,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to work on increasing student engagement and student awareness of resources on campus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a family full of intellectual, outgoing, leaders,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson admits that students might not always feel like ESU is right for them.<\/p>\n
He came to ESU in the shadows of his brother \u2014 a star on the Warriors basketball team \u2014 instead of attending a Division I school, an ambition he\u2019d always dreamed of. Johnson just couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned if you don\u2019t like something, you should change it,\u201d he said. \u201cESU empowered me as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Johnson, Bruzgo, Watson and Ciment agree that the most important part of the college experience is getting involved, even if it\u2019s not within the senate chambers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPinpoint your passions,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIf you want to start a club here and it\u2019s something you really care about, we\u2019re going to support you.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is running ESU,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cStudents, faculty, staff \u2014 we are all making this place move forward \u2014 it\u2019s time for you to start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Student Senate Encourages Campus to RUN ESU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,22,58,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-esu-success-stories","category-facebook","category-slider","category-student-senate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12769,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12763\/revisions\/12769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/backup_insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}