Student Leadership Initiative

Energizing Students to Get Involved

Brian Lamar Nixon discusses that he was most proud of energizing students to get involved with student government when he was NC State student body president.

Interview on 2011-09-09 00:00:00 -0400

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Transcript

00:00:00.000 Actually what I would say I was most proud of is not any individual program but is the energizing of students about getting involved with what's going on,
00:00:14.754 on campus in student government in general, not saying that they weren't-. You always had student senators, but what I really wanted to be about was hey;
00:00:26.133 student government's a cool thing. Here I am, a guy who walked into this campus who knew nothing about the student senate and the treasury,
00:00:33.838 and I said, but you know what, there are issues that impact all of our lives and if we can get everybody's input
00:00:40.174 we can actually have influence over what's going on and have the opportunity for everybody to interact with student leaders,
00:00:49.150 to interact with faculty, to do programs like handicap accessibility that's going to help everybody, programs that say we care about our environment, Project Re-leaf,
00:01:00.568 we care about our humanity abroad with Project Togo, we care about those who are disenfranchised like our Make a Wish. That's what we're about,
00:01:15.514 and if we can get anybody to now get interested in student government then that's the win, because now they're not impacted to the point
00:01:23.024 where I don't have a say-so about what happens in my life, right now. So hopefully you take that dedication as a responsible citizen out into the real world.
00:01:35.503 When you leave the confines of NC State, now you're a card carrying whatever you are, Republican, Democrat, Independent, but you are now going to have a voice,
00:01:47.174 and if we've sparked your interest or exercised your muscle of being an advocate that's what I'm most happy with.

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