Alma is victorious as ASG elect

 

Alma Pacheco and Cristian Urzua were pleased to be named winners of the 2014 MHCC election for ASG president and vice president, the announcement coming at the school’s Spring Dinner Dance held Saturday at Persimon Country Club.

“It was really nerve-wracking. We tried to keep it calm — Cristian and myself, but we couldn’t sit down and watch the performance, the magician,” said Pacheco about the moments leading up to the news.

“It was five minutes beforehand, we talked to the (current ASG) vice president, Eduardo (Ortiz), and he told us to calm down, that everything was going to be okay,” she said. “Everybody was acting really funny, Meadow (McWhorter, ASG adviser) was giggling ’cause we kept on walking, pacing back and forth.”

Pacheco will be ASG’s student body president of the 2014-2015 school year, with Urzua serving as vice president.

“I said, ‘Thank you, to everyone who supported us, especially the elections committee, and our marketing team,’ ” said Pacheco.

Urzua gave a short speech thanking all of the opposing candidates for running. He said he would take their different goals into consideration “and put them in our goals for next year because obviously things to work for at this school,” said Pacheco.

All of the candidates that ran for office agreed that prices of textbooks are too high, and that designated smoking areas on campus are a good idea.

Pacheco said Urzua was a little shaken by the campaign win. “At the end of the day, Cristian sat down and he analyzed everything, he tried to (let it) sink it in, but I guess it didn’t” right away, she said.

The two are not only political partners, but they are a couple as well.

“This year, we had been together 24/7. We actually started dating last year,” said Pacheco. They have been able to keep their relationship as professional as possible. “School is school; we’ve always separated school with personal life,” she said.

“Not a lot of people found out that we were dating,” said Pacheco about their situation during the campaign. “It’s a pretty good thing because we can actually observe when we’re professional and when we’re not,” she said about their work relationship.

“We forget sometimes that we’re dating.  He is very determined (with) his goals – to achieving his goals,” said Pacheco about Urzua. “I’m very focused — when I have something to achieve, I do it as well, but I do it (in) a more — very detailed way.”

After a two-week campaign, Pacheco is content to focus on the present. “I’m trying to put my feet on the ground for grades. My present right now involves classes, catching up with classes, and then for ASG — getting the word out for ASG (job openings) applications.”

Besides getting her own academics in order, Pacheco said it is important to make sure positions in ASG get filled for next year. “I feel like every year, every (candidate) ticket gets so excited about the new position, but then they don’t focus on the actual part of ‘I have to make a team.’ ”

The two hope to have members in ASG next year represent diversity in age. “This year’s ASG is very young. We want it to be a variety of ages and cultural and different perspectives from the community because our community is very diverse,” Pacheco said.

Pacheco and Urzua also want to get students to be more engaged with Mt. Hood.

“We already started communicating with faculty, a lot of them. We’re getting to know a lot of the teachers and they all have different ideas for their department, each department is different,” she said.

The couple wants to get the free speech area beneath the Library ADA-approved (federal disability laws) so that campus events can be held there during rainy days. “There are stairs (that) go underneath where the water fountain is. There’s no ramp there. So, it’s not approved to have any events,” Pacheco said.

She acknowledges the fact that there are challenges to getting Mt. Hood students more engaged.

“It’s a community college, it’s going to be hard. We all have other responsibilities other than just being in school, but there has to be a way to raise awareness,” she said.

Her team so far has been getting in touch with instructors, and brainstorming ideas for student engagement. “We already started communicating with faculty, a lot of them. We’re getting to know a lot of the teachers and they all have different ideas for their department,” she said.

Pacheco said she wants Mt. Hood students to know, above all else, “that it’s their school. They deserve to take advantage of every single bit of their school.”

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