My friend Alisha McNeil is a homeschooler and Running Start student who is Vice President for the Associated Students of Yakima Valley College (ASYVC) this year.  

I asked Alisha about her role in this position:

Q. What does ASYVC do?

A. ASYVC stands for the Associated Students of Yakima Valley College and refers to any student enrolled at YVC campus…Our job is to make sure the students are accurately represented to the administrators of the campus, as well as doing our best to meet their desires and interests in the events we orchestrate and plan.

Q. What are your responsibilities as vice-president?

A. As Vice President of ASYVC, my job primarily consists of working with clubs to help them understand the rules, regulations and policies of the Yakima Valley College.  I attend their meetings spontaneously throughout the quarter, plan informational meetings for the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the clubs, and keep clubs informed through Senate of the going-on’s around campus.

Some other notable duties include contacting businesses in the community and requesting discounts for the students, as well as maintaining an updated list of which business’s offer what discounts. Vice President also plans and coordinates elections for the next school year’s ASYVC Student Government Board. 

The Vice President also serves as acting President when the President is unavailable. This includes but is not limited to running Executive Board and Senate meetings, attending Board of Trustee’s meetings, and planning commencement.

Q. Do you know if the job of vice-president differs for other colleges?  How?

A. Well, I know that all the Vice Presidents of community colleges serve as acting President, but beyond that I’m not certain.

Q. What is the hardest part of your job? 

A. Bearing the weight/consequences of others poor decisions.

Q. What is the easiest?

A. Sitting at the computer deleting spam emails.

Q. What have you learned so far?

A. I’ve learned a lot about the people on the campus, the rules and policies of our college, and how to come up with activities which utilize both of these things.

Q. What is your least favorite part of your job?

A. Working with people who want nothing more than to cause problems (but that doesn’t happen very often).

Q. What is your favorite part of your job?

A. Bringing people together to accomplish something great. 

Q. How have you grown in skill with your job?

A. I have been able to cultivate head knowledge into experience, and actually do what I had learned previously through stories. I work with a wide variety of people and get to help them succeed.

Q. How do you balance work from homeschool, homework from college assignments, and your responsibilities as vice president?

A. To be perfectly honest, I basically give up my social life in order to balance everything going on. The things I used to love doing, going to dances, attending youth group, hanging out with friends, have all needed to be put on the back burner as I spend several hours a week on campus and the remainder of my time is most typically spent doing assignments.

Q. What would you say to students who are considering getting involved in student body government?

A. Do it! Definitely do it!! It’s not always easy and it might be a significant amount of work from time to time, but the satisfaction one gets from seeing another’s joy is totally worth it! To see the anxiety and stress of school work mitigated by what you are doing for them, is always worth it…. Always.