Hawks soar to St. Louis to attend 40th annual We Are SGA conference
The UHCL Student Government Association (SGA) is the student governing body and official student representative organization. It is composed of representatives from all recognized student organizations, the Executive Council, and the newly formed Student Senate. Elected by a majority vote, the SGA Executive Council (EC) is comprised of four officers who serve a one-year term of office.
On Thursday, Oct. 25, the SGA EC of UHCL traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the 40th annual National Leadership Conference on student government hosted by We Are SGA. The conference is specifically designed for committed student leaders and their advisors from two- and four-year colleges and universities. This working conference stresses small group discussions and the sharing of information between students and facilitators with solutions to concerns.
Tyler Baggerley, biology major and vice president of administration, was looking forward to growing and learning a lot from the out of state conference.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how the student government associations at different universities operate and represent their student body,” Baggerley said. “I’m really hoping the conference teaches us how to best represent all student demographics as the UHCL community continues to change and grow.”
Once the SGA EC arrived at the conference, we immediately began to go through one of the most educational and transformative weekends of our lives. The conference had various workshop sessions running at the same time so that you could pick and choose what topics you want to learn more about. Luckily, we had all four executive council members and Patrick Cardenas, the SGA advisor, to divide and conquer all the sessions so that we could bring back to UHCL as much information as possible.
Although there was a long schedule of programming, we also had plenty of time to go sightseeing and explore St. Louis. We visited some popular restaurants and even went all the way to the top of the Gateway Arch!
Jessica Kunzat, math major and vice president of outreach and communication for SGA, had a similarly enriching experience.
“The conference was a really amazing experience,” Kunzat said. “We’ve spent a lot of our time this year thinking about what changes we need to make in order to become a more effective student government, and now I feel like we have been given the tools and information needed for us to go back and start laying the groundwork for future executive councils to continue to excel and adapt to meet the needs of our ever-changing campus culture.”
Overall, the National Leadership Conference on student government was easily more than I ever imagined it to be. Having the opportunity to pick the brains of inspiring and influential presenters while learning and growing in a supportive community of like-minded student leaders energized my passion to bring about positive change for UHCL students through SGA.
Visit We Are SGA‘s website for more information on the annual National Leadership Conference on student government.
