2014 Fall Election Candidates’ Statements: Class of 2018 President(s)

Archivist note: Originally published on the Elections WordPress site. Sep 21, 2014 @ 23:03, “Class of 2018 President(s)”

Connie Lam & Ann Tran

We, Connie Lam (pronouns she/her) and Ann Tran (pronouns she/her), are honored to be nominated and co-running for Class President of 2018. We can be found at clam@brynmawr.edu and atran@brynmawr.edu, rooms Denbigh 115 and Rockefeller 245- feel free to stop by and talk anytime. When we applied ED to Bryn Mawr through Posse Foundation, a networking merit leadership scholarship that trains young leaders from urban high schools to empower some of the best college campuses, we both understood the responsibility we carried to surge life into the college.

While presidency requires a dedicated time commitment, we believe that it is a position that never fully leaves you. Let it be known that we are the type of people to fearlessly say “Hi!” first and embrace it when people don’t return it. Please expect this during the school year. While we have many traits in common (from a mutual love of science to publicly dancing and singing), we also diverge in some interests to be well rounded, something that this position needs. You need presidents who you find common ground with, who you can vibe with, and with our plethora of interests, we’ve got your back.

We both have leadership experience: Ann was president of her high school’s History Reading Group, a club that discussed hotly debated news articles, so she has experience mediating tense dialogues that would strain into debates. She was also a Leader in Freshmen Advisory and METCO Leadership, both high school mentoring programs. Ann is an avid volunteer, from the National Poetry Slam to several hospital internships. Already, Ann has been a member of Tri-Co and elected as a Green Ambassador for Rockefeller. She is also starting a college chapter of an organization called Unite for Sight, which provides eyecare to some of the world’s poorest communities. Hit her up if you’re interested! She is driven to make communities better places, including Bryn Mawr’s. She was also the girl who was sung to at the Songs Mistress/Mister/Mistx election – she’s always readily available for some public humiliation, especially when it comes to helping a friend out.

During high school, Connie was an active member of Key Club and was co-president of her school’s Latin Club. She was also a part of a program called Youth in Government and served as her state’s Speaker of the House, giving her the experience to make sure that everybody’s voice is heard. She was also elected to represent her home state (Go Mass!) at the Conference on National Affairs (which you will see her sporting many graphic tees of). One of her favorite parts of the program was meeting new people and getting to know their perspectives and ideas. That will definitely come in handy when she is trying to get to know all 354 of you better!

We love a lot of things that we hope you love too, because we would be proud to represent that piece of your spirit. With this in mind, we would love to also open an anonymous suggestion box to hear about a niche we may not be familiar with. Further, in hosting tea’s, we wish to improve our class comradery with new ideas such as hosting pilot show pow-wow’s, Cards Against Humanity games, pumpkin carvings, and cookie decorating.

We’ve only been here for about 21 days and have already fallen in love with Bryn Mawr. From Parade Night to simply lying down on one of the hammocks, it already feels like Bryn Mawr is the perfect college for us. And we don’t know about you, but whenever we are in love with something, we like to be involved with it as much as possible. That’s why we want to run as co-presidents; we want to represent to our utmost ability what we are both passionate about. Vote for us if you want stuff to happen, if you want conflicts to be talked about and resolved, if you want transparency and democracy. Please feel free to approach us with anything. Because whether we win or lose, both of us will still be devoted members of the SGA. We want to be Co-Presidents of the Class of 2018 because we will listen, befriend, and represent you. We wish to be your messenger, your voice, your wings.