The Clackamas print., November 06, 2019, Page 3, Image 3

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NEWS
STORY BY JORDY VILLAGOMEZ
STAFF WRITER
Ashley Magaña is president of the college's
Associated Student Government. Magana
graduated from Wilsonville High School in 2017
before coming to Clackamas Community College in
the fall of 2018. We sat down with Magaña to find
out more about her and to learn about the work she
does as president.
The Clackamas Print: What is your role as ASG- _
president?
Ashley Magaña: It is my job to be the student voice.
Whenever we’re down in Salpm talking to legislators, I’m
usually advocating on behalf of the students. (Working
to) lower tuition and getting more support from the state,
things like that. For example, we have a breakfast next „
week at the college and we’ve invited some legislators to
just come and checkout the campus and I’m going to be
there and we’re just going to be talking about funding.
Within ASG, setting goal? for the year for student
government and the kind of things that we want to
accomplish and if there are any other resources that we
can provide for students — things like that.
TCP: Fbr;those interested in joining ASG, what are the
benefits of-joining? .
- ;
Magaña: It’s a really good way to develop yourself as,¿
a leader and to help you come out of your shelf and
learn more about the college and about the way internal
things work. Depending on what level you are in student
government, you get different kinds of tuition waivers or
book stipends and things like that. The biggest thing for
me joining ASG is the connections that you make with
people, the relationships 'and getting to meet different
people and have different perspectives.
TCP: What else have you enjoyed about being ASG
president?.
Magaña: Being able to help students more and advocate
and give people a different perspective. Right now the, ;
college is going with their DEI strategic planning and I’m
also a part of the DEI committee, which is the Divérsity .■
Equity Inclusion committee. Any policies that they’re
implementing; I’m giving an opinion as the student voice
on how can we make the college more inclusive, more
equitable. My first two terms here last year, I wasn’t part
of ASG, some things that I saw that were kind of like ,
Clackamas Print
“oh, we can change this,” then being in ASG and actually
being able to work on those things.
TCP: Have you made efforts to reach more students?
^accounting at the Dye Learning Center, so doing'that and
then meetings here. So just learning how to manage my
time, which, again, is like a really big skill to learn to do
because a lot of times people struggle with that, so having
to do that has impacted me, but in a good way.
Magaña: Yes. Right now one ofbür biggest things is
ASG outreach. There’s a lot of resources that we have,
like our grants, that we give out every term, our cheap
snacks, we rent calculators, textbooks, things like that.
The information doesn’t get out to everyone so that’s.,
something that we really want to. focus on this year.
Bping able to get that information out to different
students, specifically people who are but maybe .on the
Harmony Campus, out on Wilsonville campus making
sure thatthey're aware of our resources. One thing.that is
really great is that we aré going to be opening a student
resource center in Harmony. We’re also going to be
expanding the Cougar Cave to the Harmony Cainpus.
TCP: So, any othet.major changes?;
Magaña: One of the biggest things for this year iñ the
works would be the partnership with the Oregon Food
Bank in the Cougar Cave. It’s really amazing because
from my understanding of things, the food pantry was
just kind of like donation based. Since it’s been open,
it was whenever you can donate something you would
go and drop it off. But the partnership with the Oregon
Food bank is going to allow us to haye more food in
there, more resources for students. We took out the
clothes. We were noticing that there’s a higher need for
food. There are a lot of college students who go through
food insecurities. Even within ASGT’ve seen it.
TCP: What do you study, and Is working as ASG
president beneficial to what you’re studying?
Magaña: I’m currently studying business finance and I
think being president has kind of helped me come out of
my shell more. I’m not gonna go and be like a politician
or anything like that, but just learning to communicate
with people, Also, public speaking is really important, so
it’s helped me with that aspect as well.
TCP: Howhas yOur student life been affected since you
became president?
Magaña: I don't have enough free’ timé, that’s like the
number one thing. During my first two terms last year, '
when I wasn’t involved much in the college, I had a lot of
time to, work. Thad two jobs.> Getting involved in •student
government I had to leave one of my jobs and severely
cut down on hours for my other one. I also tutor for
theclackam asprint.com
Ashley Magaña speaks at a President’s Council
meeting on Nov. 5.
If you’re interested in learning more about how
ASG works, or how to become a member of ASG,
you can find their office in the Community Center
on Oregon City’s Campus, or contact them at
503-594-3040.
ASG meetings are open to students^ and they '
are held oh Wednesdays, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the
Community Center’s Fireside Lounge.
This interview has been edited for clarity and space.
November 6/2019