Student Full Speech 05: Benny Di Chiara, SGA Presidential Candidate Address

Faculty, students, family, friends, and members of the greater New Rochelle community, I'd like to welcome you all today, a day of great importance, to give a final address to the study body as a candidate for the office of Student Government President. This is not a position to be taken lightly and definitely not one to be wasted or abused. I came to this school knowing very few people. I'll admit I didn't have many friends. However, that 18-year-old boy is not the same man that's standing in front of you today. Today, I am an aspiring leader within the Student Government Association. In my first year, I was apathetic. I rarely got involved on campus, and I failed to seek help or ideas in joining a club or organization. My philosophy was to keep to myself. I assume, for some of you, I exhibited the same characteristics that are natural to a first-time student. But I challenge that notion today. Because of my past, I know exactly how to get students involved in our campus. If I were voted as SGA President, I would make it my main goal to diminish any inhibition for involvement felt by a freshman student. Under my term, the line between SGA and the general population would be blurred, therefore we would create a more personal community and a student government that prides itself in student input. In short, SGA would be for the students and by the students. No longer would the ideas of creative students be ignored. No longer would the complaints be brushed aside. No longer would we remain an isolated community. No longer would SGA be a separate entity from the student body. Instead, we would personify SGA for our peers and for our contemporaries. Our institution is suffering socially, economically, and culturally. Socially, because our current leadership and general membership are separated and require an unprecedented reform in the way we connect students to enhance our college experience. Economically, we are deprived of knowing all the resources on campus that can help stimulate better financial options and competitive sources of income. Finally, we are in need of more self sufficiency in the way we use cultural norms to create our college environment. I submit myself as a leader who will help elevate these aspects of our college experience. It's not going to be easy. We're going to have to make sacrifices, and the results won't be instantaneous. We're going to need as many advocates as we can gather. Moreover, we're going to build a confidence within these elections that defines who we are and what we want over the competition. But that's fine. The bigger the leap, the more impressive the landing. Failure is not an option. That's how winning is done. With your help, we can make this one of the greatest years of our lives. We can initiate efforts to make parking more available on campus. We can propose more course options to the class registration process. We could provide increased safety measures and space conducive to physically challenged students. We could promote more programs that appeal to a greater student population. We can make the electronic students account program more user-friendly. We can make visiting the Health Service Center more convenient and comfortable. We can work to enhance on- and off-campus employment opportunities. Finally, we can offer live broadcasts of SGA meetings throughout the residence halls. Some may consider these goals to be less than realistic, but I believe that we can strive to make this more of the ideal. The realization must first come from you, the voting body. In closing, I recognize that each of us as candidates believe that we have the desire, the motivation, and the drive to serve you. But only one of us can accept both the challenges and the successes with unabashed solidarity to reach beyond the limits of the past. Choose me, choose yourselves, choose the future. Thank you, and vote for Benny.