The Associated Student Government “Meet the Candidates” was held on March 24 at the Student Center in SC-115 led by President Francis J. Seludo, and it included several candidates.

ASG is the student governing committee of San Jose City College. It includes students of SJCC who work as officers in diverse positions including president, student trustee, chief justice, director of communications, director of students resources, vice president of marketing and vice president of finance.

The upcoming elections will determine new members for ASG positions for the 2022 to 2023 term. ASG received multiple applications on several positions from 13 current students.

Candidate orientation was March 17 and 18, and “Met the Candidates” was March 21-25. Voting happens April 5 to 7.

Candidates were asked why they chose to apply for positions on the board.

Adrianne Belardes, psychology and social and behavioral sciences major, is running for director of students resources.

“I am currently a resource advocate at Maintenance for Moms who are a nonprofit that helps single mothers repair their cars so they can drive safely on the road with their children,” Belardes said. “I felt inclined to apply for the position since I have a lot of experience providing resources for the community, and I just really felt like I could do a good job like that.”

Xitlaly Martinez, business management major:

“I also applied for director of resources so it’s similar in a sense that you decide where the money is invested and where it’s most applicable. Ultimately, the people who will benefit from the resources are us, the students.”

Yang Lei,  business administration major student from China is running for president:

“I was the president when I was in my Senior High School in China. I think maybe if I were a president at SJCC, I’ll help students solve their problems. I hope I can start many activities so people at SJCC can all take part in the clubs, and I still want to build some clubs like sports, hiking, so people can exercise. It can improve our physical issues,” Lei said. “I want to challenge myself, I see I can build many skills I want to have in the future. I want to transfer to a university, and I see it can help me to be more competitive to transfer to a 4-year university.”

Fadia Zeid, dance major:

“I applied for president and vice-president of marketing because I have been a student here at this school for 11 years. I am a reporter for the City College Times, and I always see problems on campus that I want to fix,” Zeid said. “I also want to increase the visibility of clubs and activities on campus.”

Leif Benson, political science major:

“I’m applying for president because I want to get things done. I feel like there are things that students deserve on campus like joining clubs, joining student government and joining the newspaper. I want to have more opportunities like that for students who are interested in all kinds of things on the campus,” Benson said. “When I went to Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, I was a senator at large for the student government, and now I’m part of the SJCC student government. I have a marketing position (vice president of marketing) in that as well so those are my two student government experiences.”

Francis J. Seludo, political scientist major and current ASG president:

“I’ve been the president for almost a year now, and I did serve as the chief justice for last year’s board. It took me a while before I decided to run again because the chief justice of my former board did a lot of hard work,” Seludo said. “I worked very closely with the former president. I feel like it was a hard decision to make, but I decided to run because I still wanted to continue to make a change on campus and also directly help students if I could. Being aware of what students’ problems are and working very closely with them as well as connecting them with faculty and just having that good bond toward everyone is extremely important for the position.”

Mohammad Shaar, construction technology major student from Lebanon, who also speaks four languages (English, Arabic, French and Spanish) applied for Chief Justice and Director of Communications positions:

“I’ve been a student for the past 5 years. I know what it is to be a student, what are the challenges students face during their studies, so I had a hard experience when I wasn’t really involved when I was back in my country. I had to change my fate. I really feel like I know students can change, but they have to know where, where to reach out to,” Shaar said. “When I came here, I wanted to be this guy who’s going to be student a leader, who’s going to represent students. I want students to have a better experience in college. I don’t want anyone to be left out and feel like this college life is not for them. Every student has the right to educate themselves and reach wherever they want to reach. It was my motivation.”

Van Pham, accounting major, is running for director of communications:

“I want to help Vietnamese students because when I came to the college I helped a lot of people. Many of these students are very old, and they don’t speak English. That’s why I helped them. “When I applied for these positions, I wanted to help Vietnamese people,” Pham said. “I know if I apply to these positions, I have to communicate with a lot of people, and they come from everywhere, every race and every color, but I want to tell you the purpose. I know if I join the ASG team, I have to help the people and have to be fair, whether they are Vietnamese or Spanish, I don’t care.”