I am seeking your vote for Vice President Academic of the Athabasca University Graduate Student Union.

I understand the challenges that graduate students are facing such as the rising cost of tuition, our careers, and family obligations. I want to leverage my own experiences to help ease some of the burdens to help ensure your academic success.

History

Over the past 2 years I have been fortunate enough to pursue my MBA at Athabasca University. Over this time I have have switched my cohorts a couple of times to accommodate some of the challenges I have faced as a graduate student. This has afforded me the opportunity to speak to many other students who have faced similar issues. These conversations, alongside my own experiences, motivated me to join the Athabasca University Graduate Student’s Association (AUGSA) last year.

Over the past year as a member of AUGSA I have been a part of the strategic planning committee ran by our current president, Mehgan Sullivan. As a member of the committee, we've worked hard to build a long term strategic plan for AUGSA, with a focus on sustainability, while also improving access to AUGSA’s services. We sent out a questionnaire to all graduate students to find out what mattered most to them and carefully considered this feedback when devising the strategic plan.

I am also a member of the awards committee, ran by current VP Academic David Thomson. Over the course of the year we embarked on some of the most ambitious changes AUGSA has seen. We saw many changes to help improve the process, the accessibility, and the visibility of the awards and bursaries that AUGSA offers graduate students. As the fiscal year nears and end we continue to work to bring valuable changes to graduate students.