2023 Class Presidents

Fiyona Berhe

I grew up in Houston, TX. I am the oldest of 3. My parents are from Eritrea which is located in East Africa. Knowing that, I grew up in a multicultural environment. It took some time to adjust. Trying to adapt to my parents’ cultural values and also as an African American. I say this to emphasize how much cultural diversity means to me in a community. In high school, I was National Honor Society and HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) President. I was HOSA President for four years and NHS for two. I was able to implement my values throughout my leadership roles by providing a safe environment for students to be able to express their concern and values and for them to be implemented. I believe the job of the Class President is to work for the students it serves. I have seen many cases of student governments act with little or no input from the student body. I feel that the class president should be able to understand the entire student body as a whole. That can be difficult at times due to the versality and unique interests of the students. That is why it is important to build a connection with the class as whole to hear from different point of views. I have learned that being a president is being approachable for any situations that come. I hope to uphold the vision of our class and to listen to new ideas that will improve the future of Bryn Mawr College.

Sofia Sabet & Queenie Jiang 

Hello everyone, we are Sofia Sabet and Queenie, class of 2023, and we are co-running for first year Class President.

We believe by joining SGA we will be able to make your first year at Bryn Mawr the best it can be. Both of us love the BMC community and want to help it reach its full potential.

Both of us know the difficulty of acclimating to a new environment. Queenie as an international student here, she knows the barriers between different culture that most international students face, and we know how hard for students, especially international students, to fit into a new community. BMC is like a big family; everyone here are ready to help others, so our duty is to make this family stronger, more connected and make everyone feel like their home.

Although not international, Sofia spent two years of high school in the Middle East. She was dropped into a foreign country and was forced to attend a school in a language she didn’t speak. That experience made Sofia understand the difficulty that international students face at Bryn Mawr regularly. Together, we have come to realize just how thankful we are to call Bryn Mawr our home for the next few years.

We plan on combining our efforts to help overcome the barriers between different cultures and make them feel more connected to the whole BMC community. To achieve this, we plan on connecting with student associations, like CSSA, KSA etc.

Additionally, we believe we should try to improve communication on campus. Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to keep up to date with all our emails. To counter this, we plan on using flyers and emailing only when necessary.

Another part of our plan is helping first years get full use of the resources in the Tri-Co. We believe it is vital that we work with Haverford to provide students clearer information about all the courses work with Haverford college. It is true that we get loads of suggestions from our deans, but they usually have more knowledge about courses at BMC. By working with Haverford’s representative, we hope to improve the course descriptions of Haverford courses.

Together, we believe we have ample experience to be your class Co Presidents! Queenie was in charge of the sports department for her high school’s SGA since 10th grade and really enjoyed her time there. Sofia was on the board of her SGA as secretary and she was president of a majority female robotics team for two years.

Feel free to contact us and share your thoughts!

Jingsia Hathorne & Hannah James

We are running for Freshman Class President(s) NOT ONLY because we are passionate, productive and positive but because we truly believe we have unique experiences that will help us to listen and improve all of our school experience as much as possible. Both of us have already attended the weekly SGA meetings each Sunday and participated in different clubs/extra-curriculars. Hannah is a part of the Knitting Club at Bryn Mawr and also holds a job at Uncommon Grounds and Jingsia is involved with Women’s Rowing as a coxswain, Bi-co College News, and works at New Dorm Dining. Being active in diverse pockets of the college allows us to see different concerns and evaluate what’s working and what is not. The root of our campaign is inclusivity. We want to help create a class which everyone feels a strong part of. To do this we will organize, fundraise, and run fun student activities. Some of our ideas follow as Santa’s Grotto. This is where we as a community would vote on a charity to donate money to, and in order to collect money we would host a holiday party during December. Hannah and I would set up a photo with Santa Claus and his little elf along with holiday pastries and each photo would cost a small fee. The total of what we collect would then be donated to the elected charity. Another idea we had hopes to organize is a Dorm Competition. This event would happen around the spring. The idea is that we would create relay games and the dorms would compete against each other and the winner would get a certain prize (aside from bragging rights). Other than these ideas we are willing to listen to everyone’s ideas! The most important thing we want others to know is that we want to be available and approachable to anyone with a concern. We want to echo our class’s voice and help everyone connect with the community and have fun! Below are small biographies of who we are!

Jingsia Hathorne

Pronouns: She/Her

Sun Sign: Capri-quarius (born the day it changes from Capricorn to Aquarius)

Jingsia Hathorne is a domestic student from Anchorage, Alaska. She decided to attend Bryn Mawr College because she wanted a strong feminist community and also enjoyed the vast course selection because of the bi-co/tri-co relationships. She’s planning on minoring in Chinese (and possibly Spanish). However, she’s still not sure what she wants to major in, but is aware she still has time to figure it all out! One fun fact about Jingsia is that she can vibrate her thumb and can fold her tongue.

Hannah James

Pronouns: She/Her

Sun Sign: Cancer

Hannah James is an international student from the United Kingdom. Hannah was a part of the US Sutton Trust programme which gives low income high achieving students the opportunity to apply to top US colleges. This is how she came across Bryn Maw and fell in love with it, which is why she applied ED. Hannah was also deputy head girl at her school meaning that she has experience in being a representative for people. She plans on majoring in physics and possibly a minor in math. One fun fact about Hannah is that she can wiggle her nostrils and ears at the same time.

Amanda Blatz

My name is Amanda Blatz and I am currently running as one of the candidates for Freshman Class President. I wanted to introduce myself to all of those who I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet! I am from Cleveland, Ohio and currently live in Brecon. I am interested in studying Russian and Economics but have a deep passion for politics! I am currently a first-year representative for Brecon with SGA. I am also an active member on the Bryn Mawr Democrats, as well as the Haverford Debate Society. I cannot wait to be able to get more involved with our community here at Bryn Mawr.

After much thought and reflection, I have decided to run for Class President for two main reasons.

First, I have developed a passion for using my voice to help represent others. During my time in high school, I had the privilege of being class president, as well as student body president. Being able to speak on behalf of my peers made me realize that I had the ability to help implement changes. As your Freshman Class President, I would be in a unique position as not only being a peer, and friend, but a resource to ensure your concerns and opinions are shared with school administration and SGA. My past experiences have taught me to value everyone’s ideas and opinions as equal, giving everyone an equal voice.

Second, I am in awe of this unique, diverse community. In my short time here at Bryn Mawr, I have had the opportunity to meet some of the most outgoing, strong, and independent people. This unique, fiery spirit drives and pushes me to want to grow and

learn every day. As your class president, I would help to further foster and build a community that values differences and chooses acceptance. I want to help build a community where all students are comfortable to pursue their passion-whatever that may be. I want to lead my class to be dreamers and believe that they are capable of whatever they want for their future.

With that being said, I want to focus my candidacy on your voice’s. As your president, my main priority would be to ensure that as a class, all of our concerns are addressed. As the newest members to campus, our views are just as relevant and should be represented in the same light.

Our perspectives being shared fully, will help build a community where we are all equal and where minorities are empowered. I promise as your president, I would always be willing to be bold and persistent on any and all necessary matters.

Thank you for your time and I hope you choose to vote for Amanda Blatz for Class of 2023 President.

 

Members at Large

Alyssa Nash ’23

Hi, my name is Alyssa Nash (she/her) and I am running to be a Member-At-Large in SGA. I am a first year representative from Brecon, and I have been attending SGA meetings every week. In my junior year of high school, I was the first vice president of my school’s Latin Honor Society (serving around 300 students), and last year I served as a “Proconsul”, a general member of the LHS executive board. These positions have given me experience working with a team, planning events, and making collective decisions.

I accepted the nomination to this position because I believe in the fundamental value of self-governance, and I want to be more involved in representing the wishes and needs of our community. The class of 2023 has been here for a whole month now, and I want to ensure that we have a strong presence within SGA. I am passionate, dedicated, and eager to do whatever I can to serve the Representative Council, and to further fortify the bonds between members of our community through collaboration and effective communication. If you have any questions, please contact me at arnash@brynmawr.edu.

 

Haverford Representative

Emily Britt ’21

Hi! I am Emily Britt (she/her) and I am running to be your Haverford College Representative for the 2019-2020 academic year. I am the class of 2021 and a Biology Major. I am interested in this position because I would like to use my connections on both campuses to facilitate change in the Bi-Co for the benefit of students present and future. The academic, social, and cultural connections between the colleges strengthen and enrich our communities. In order to maintain this unique relationship, we need people to facilitate and nurture it. I believe I can be that person for you. As a member at large last year I gained experience assisting various SGA initiatives as a whole. I would like the opportunity to direct my energy and passion to the Bi-Co. I hope to facilitate action and change between the campuses on shared issues by being an active listener and an advocate for our community. As a voting member of the Representative council I want to hear from you and fulfil the needs of our community! I will also keep the community up to date on Bi-Co issues and encourage feedback and input. I have loved my last two years at Bryn Mawr and in the Bi-Co and would love to opportunity to give back and to support our community. Email me with any questions: ebritt@brynmawr.edu

 

Representative to the Faculty

Sydney Kim ’20 and Ellie Lee ’20

Hello! Our names are Sydney Kim and Ellie Lee and we are both seniors in the class of 2020. Ellie is a math major and a math major representative. Through her position as a major representative, Ellie has gained a lot of experience working closely with both students and faculty and how to effectively communicate between the two, especially in areas where we have our differences. Sydney is a pre-med biology major and works as a tour guide in admissions. As a tour guide, she has gained plenty of background knowledge about Bryn Mawr and the SGA. She has the ability to work well in a team and represent the student body as a community. In our past three years here at Bryn Mawr, we have both become close with a multitude of professors and feel comfortable talking to them directly. Last year, we served as co-faculty representatives and learned first hand about the important decisions that get discussed and decided by faculty, many of which are not visible or transparent to the student body. As such, we want to be able to change this habit and the culture that has arisen out of major decisions being made behind closed doors, and we want to bring a voice to the student body and bring change to how we communicate between students and staff. We realize that this position is as much of a job as it is a platform, and we intend to continue to use it to change the culture and the gap that exists between our student body and the faculty. If re-elected, our mission is again one of transparency and advocacy, and we will work to this end with each other, the student government, our fellow students, and the faculty