Before coming to college, I had wanted to be highly involved in campus life. I wanted to be a more outgoing person and my college counselors always talked about the benefits of being involved on campus.

To get involved, I went to many events on campus during my first semester here. It wasn’t until my second semester when I joined organizations.

The first organization I joined was the Residence Hall Association, here I met a bunch of new people. RHA allowed me to gain new experiences that enhanced my school experience, such as camping with the members.

Along with RHA, I later joined a multicultural Greek fraternity Omega Delta Phi. This fraternity allowed me to have my first leadership position as rush chairman. A year later, thanks to what I had learned while being rush chairman, I was able to become director of programming for RHA.

Since then, I have been involved in Catholic Mustangs, the Multicultural Greek Council, Order of Omega and the Bilingual Education Student Organization where I served as a co-student government association senator.

All of the organizations I have been a part of and all of the leadership positions I have held have helped me gain the confidence to take on a new position: the secretary for the Student Government Association for the academic year of 2018-2019.

I am excited to take on this position as it comes with high standards and expectations. It won’t be easy, but the opportunity to make a change on campus on such a large scale and to be able to serve the student body is what will make it all worth it.

As a person who never thought he would be elected to hold such a high position, I urge you all to be involved on campus because you never know how your involvement can change you and lead you to different paths.

Be involved in campus politics as well, because they affect all of us in some way. The best way to make a difference on campus is to be aware of the climate and the resources made available for students.

Jose Torres is a bilingual education junior.