Developing Interest in Student Government

Kelly Hook explains how she developed an interest in NC State's Student Government and why she ran for student body president.

Interview on 2012-05-02 00:00:00 -0400

Transcript

00:00:00.000 When I was in high school I was our class president

00:00:03.966 and I knew that that kind of thing interested me.

00:00:07.635 I like to advocate and communicate the things that I'm passionate about,

00:00:12.583 which may just be a fancy way to say I like to talk a lot.

00:00:15.562 But when I first came to NC State I met a guy who was involved with student government

00:00:21.039 and I knew that I wanted to be a part of that organization. I went to see a student senate meeting and they were an engaged body,

00:00:28.974 they stayed up late, and they worked hard for something they believed in, which was that NC State could be the best

00:00:34.687 student experience campus in the country.

00:00:37.467 That was kind of their mantra when I first started, so I wanted to be a part of that.

00:00:42.409 Certainly in hindsight my ego probably was at play there.

00:00:45.513 I wanted to be seen on campus, 'cause thirty-four thousand students, you know, I wanted to do something that later I could say

00:00:54.938 well I did network a lot with my peers in a big way and that would help me with future jobs.

00:01:02.082 But later it became more and more about I just love this university

00:01:07.021 and I was not happy with some things, like transportation or the way x-y-z was working-

00:01:13.019 you know, the cafeteria, like I mentioned before-and student government provided an opportunity to effect some change,

00:01:20.464 if the student body supported it. I mean nobody in that organization has any type of power,

00:01:26.397 I guess you could say, but we had influence if the student body was behind us, and I really bought into that and believed it,

00:01:31.937 specially by the time I was a junior/senior, which is why I ran for student body president.

00:01:36.843 I wanted to believe that we could really change minds of the administrators through being a unified thirty-four-thousand-student body.