Happy June everyone!
My name is Jessica Look, and I’m so excited to serve as OUSA President for the year! My home institution is Western University, where I serve as Vice-President External Affairs at the University Students’ Council (USC), . I’m happy to be joined by Stephanie Ye-Mowe, Vice-President Finance, and Ana Tremblay, Vice-President Administration & Human Resources, to form OUSA’s 2022-2023 executive team. I’ll be writing monthly presidential updates to keep you in the loop with all of OUSA’s exciting initiatives throughout the year!
As President, I can’t wait to get started with the incredible team we have on Steering Committee. My undergraduate experience was shaped by generations of student leaders’ advocacy, and I’m excited to pay that forward and advocate on your behalf for a more equitable, safe, and accessible post-secondary experience. During my term as President, I’m most excited to bring together student unions from all across Ontario and amplify each student union’s priorities, especially following the provincial election. I’m also looking forward to improving OUSA’s internal operations, especially in preparation for the review of OUSA’s Strategic Plan.
Since we’ve settled into our new roles, we’ve been busy! During the month of May, Steering Committee transitioned into both our positions at our student unions and at OUSA. We also held our annual Welcome Conference and executive elections. As you may have seen, we’re also running our Get Out The Vote campaign. With election day only a day away, be sure to get informed and have your voice heard!
In June, Steering Committee is holding our Strategic Planning Conference, where we will determine our advocacy priorities for our term! I’m personally very excited to meet everyone and to hear about the unique experiences of students from different universities. Looking ahead to the rest of the summer, we’re gearing up for the start of the academic term, which includes brainstorming for the policy papers that are up for review this year at OUSA. We will be hosting two General Assemblies (Fall and Spring) to determine the fate of these new policies – hopefully (fingers crossed) we’ll be able to do so in-person!
Being involved with OUSA has been a big aspiration of mine; I cannot overstate my excitement about being a member of the 2022-2023 Steering Committee, much less leading it as President! It’s a big year ahead, but we have an incredible team here at OUSA, and I can’t wait to get the ball rolling.