Rachel Harper
Senior, Political Science
Candidate for SGA president
(Running mate Cal Colangelo)
Harper enrolled at State two years ago after receiving an Associate in Applied Science from BridgeValley CTC. She is a commuter and a non-traditional student. A mother of three. Here’s why she wishes to be SGA President.
Qualifications and Experience
I feel that I am highly qualified to be your SGA President seeing how I was the SGA President for BridgeValley CTC in 2015-2016. During my presidency I sat on the Board of Governors, three different standing committees, and was the first student from a two-year institution to serve as Chair of the WV State Advisory Council of Students.
While at BVCTC, I had the honor of representing the student body on the hiring committee for the new college president. I was an SGA Senator, an active member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (Alpha Tau Lambda Chapter), and president and founder of the first National English Honor Society for 2-year institutions in West Virginia, Sigma Kappa Delta.
I am currently the President of the WVSU Political Science Society Last year I was the Public Relations Director for both the WVSU Political Science Society and the Pre-Law Association.
Platform or Goals
Something that Cal and I want to see is a stronger and more diverse student body voice at WVSU. We see and feel a strong disconnect between on-campus and off-campus students, and feel that our great university would be better if we worked to reconnect the two.
Having strong representatives listening to student concerns and ideas then advocating in their favor with the administration during committee meetings is also something we believe is very much needed here.
Something else that is important to us and we would like to see more of is our community presence. We are the University of the Kanawha Valley. We should be the ones local towns root for when we play a game and we should be the ones everyone cheers for in holiday parades.
Of course, those are some lofty goals but you have to start somewhere, and I believe a vote for Cal and I is a vote for that start. We have a ton of other ideas but we’d also like to listen to you guys and your ideas, because after all if we are elected we will be representing aka working for you guys.
And remember that no matter who you vote for make sure you check your email on March 12-13 and vote.
Cal Colangelo
Junior, political science and history
Candidate for vice president
Cal Colangelo is a commuter student from Elkview and the Vice President of the WVSU Political Science Society.
Rachel and I have made the focus of our campaign improving student engagement on campus, especially among the commuter students. We hope to accomplish this by focusing our administration on enhancing participation among clubs and student organizations. Also, we want to increase student participation in the local community and expand the area that we consider to be the local community. We want to reach out to more of the rural parts of Kanawha County and get our students from those areas more involved.
Additionally, Rachel & I want to improve and expand State’s image in the area. We want to work with our cabinet and members of the royal court to make us visible in the capital region. We especially want to make it known that WVSU is the capital’s school and we plan to flood the State Legislature next year at WVSU day.
I hope that you will actively consider our campaign and platform come Election Day.
