The dust has settled, the posters are being taken down. NAIT students have voted and chosen their new student executives for 2015/2016.
These students will be the advocates, the leaders, the movers and the shakers, at the helm of NAITSA starting in May 2015. It would appear that NAIT students have picked a stacked team as well, as the executive lineup includes Justin Nand as president, Allannah Wrobel as VP External, Yang Yu as VP Academic and Michael McComb as VP Student Services. So what does each new executive offer to NAIT students?
Incoming NAITSA President Justin Nand has accumulated an impressive list of achievements while studying at NAIT. Not only has he been active in a number of student clubs prior to serving as VP External last year, he has also participated in a number of case competitions on the NAIT team, and served as the student representative on NAIT’s Board of Governors.
As incoming president, Nand has high hopes for the new team.
“I think the new team for this year, we have quite a dynamic background,” he said in a recent interview.
“We have someone who is not from the business program, one student who has been on Senate for two years, and one student who has been involved with NAITSA quite a bit. I think having those different perspectives will bring well-rounded ideas as well as solutions to problems that NAITSA is having.”
New VP Academic Yang Yu brings some experience to the table as well. Yang currently works for both NAIT and NAITSA, which has given her some unique insight on the inner workings of both organizations. Yang has already demonstrated her ability to assist students as a supplemental learning leader for statistics, and as a clubs initiator clerk with NAITSA’s Campus Clubs office. This experience should serve her well as the new VP Academic, which focuses heavily on academic grievances and disciplinary issues.
Allannah Wrobel is coming in as the new VP External to replace Nand. With some big shoes to fill, Allannah has a lot of work to do but it seems that she has spent the last two years preparing. With a failed executive bid, two Senate terms and a stint on NAIT’s Board of Governors as the student representative under her belt, she’s well prepared to take over the role.
A surprise candidate for NAITSA, Michael McComb wraps up the new executive team as VP Student Services. A Construction Engineering Technology student, Michael has served as president of the Construction Engineering Technology club. With a unique background in comparison to his new colleagues, Michael will surely bring an interesting perspective to the new executive team.
The next few months will be filled with training for the new group as they are guided through the transition period by the current executive team. Outgoing NAITSA President Hasib Baig has high hopes for the new team.
“I’m very excited to see the new team come in and take their positions starting May 1 and the two months that we have will give us time to do a proper transition so they are ready for the next year,” Baig said.
“It’s a strong team, it’s going to be another great year next year as well.”
With such a short turn-around every year, the transition period is extremely important to ensure the effectiveness of a new executive team. As for our new president, Baig has one piece of advice.
“It’s a challenging position,” he said. “It requires a lot of time commitment and there are times when you have to face different challenges from different perspectives but at the same time, the opportunity you get is amazing.”
By Nicolas Brown
Issues Editor
@bruchev
