By Aidan Hinckle | The Broadside (Contact: [email protected])
Makenzie Hice: President of ASCOCC (Contact: [email protected])
Aidan Hinckle: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your background?
Makenzie Hice: I was born in Gilroy, California. I moved to Bend when I was six and have lived here ever since. I graduated from Summit High School in 2016 and I am currently in my second year of college. I am pursuing a degree in film, and will continue my education at Portland State University next fall. I’ve been very involved in the local film community since I was 15, including producing films and volunteering for film festivals.
AH: What council position do you hold? What are your responsibilities?
MH: I am the President of ASCOCC. My job is to make sure that everything is going accordingly within the student government. I do this by running council meetings and filling in with help for the other council members when needed. I am also the designated spokesperson for student government and work to ensure students that they have a voice and that we are allocating their student fees in ways that benefit them academically, socially, and mentally.
AH: What do you hope to accomplish with this position? What do you hope to change at COCC?
MH: I hope to create a positive and safe campus life for students by providing fun events, useful resources, and opportunities for students. I specifically want to focus on providing information on mental health resources that are available to students and start a conversation about the importance of mental health awareness.
AH: How do you plan on involving and hearing out the student body in carrying out your future plans?
MH: I plan to be as accessible as possible to the students and carefully make decisions with their wants and needs in mind. I hope to get more student volunteers involved in student government to give input, which would allow us to gain new perspectives. With fresh views, we can get more creative and make COCC a school students are happy to be a part of.
AH: Where do you see yourself in two years?
MH: In two years, I hope to be studying film at PSU, and interning at a production company to strengthen my craft. While I will not be pursuing anything in the field of political science, I will take the skills and experiences that I gain from student government and channel them into being a leader in the world of film.
Robert Nathanson: Public Relations and Events Coordinator (Contact: [email protected])
AH: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your background?
Robert Nathanson: I am from Agoura Hills, Calif., just outside the Malibu canyons.
AH: What council position do you hold? What are your responsibilities?
RN: I am the Public Relations and Events Coordinator. I organize events on and off campus, I help to advertise student clubs and activities/events, and I’m a member of the school’s Diversity Committee Board currently working on creating a COCC chapter of a not-for-profit organization.
AH: What first prompted you to apply for this position?
RN: I met Makenzie Hice, our president, in a business where she notified me of the available position. I applied that afternoon.
AH: What do you hope to accomplish with this position? What do you hope to change at COCC?
RN: I look forward to continuing my work setting up our chapter of the non-profit Eye to Eye. I feel it will bring an already close community closer and help educate students on their learning disabilities creating less stress and stigma towards learning. By pairing older, more experienced students that have learning disabilities with younger students struggling with learning disabilities important lessons can be taught/learned like implementing self-advocation, teaching the importance of understating your own learning style, and ending the stigma around learning disabilities.
AH: How do you plan on involving and hearing out the student body in carrying out your future plans?
RN: Our weekly public council meetings are a great platform for any student interested in getting involved, or finding a project or event they could be interested in. Also, I see The Broadside as a great resource that I plan on taking advantage of in the future, I feel it is an awesome way to reach the majority of the student population.
AH: Where do you see yourself in two years?
RN: I always struggle with this question because my plans always change. I love dreaming so I guess the most recent plan would be to have attained my BA in liberal arts, ideally from OSU, and to be working diligently towards my law degree at a law school close to home. Maybe some traveling in-between OSU and law school.
Angel Ortiz-Espin: Legislative Affairs Coordinator (Contact: [email protected])
AH: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your background?
Angel Ortiz-Espin: I am originally from San Bernardino, Calif., and moved to central Oregon in the third grade. I have lived here ever since. I graduated from Ridgeview high school in Redmond in 2016, and last winter I moved back to Bend. Both are my parents are from Morelos, Mexico. I started my second year here at COCC this fall and hope to finish this year with my business transfer degree. I plan to transfer to Portland State University next fall. Most of my spare time outside of class or the office is usually spent doing something soccer related or spending time with my friends.
AH: What council position do you hold? What are your responsibilities?
AOE: I am the Legislative Affairs Coordinator. My responsibilities include voting on council matters, work with students to identify campus wide issues, sit on the board of directors of the Oregon Student Association, advocate on behalf of the students on a state and national levels, and oversee voter registration and education. I think my most important duty is being the legislative connection between COCC students and local, state, and national legislatures.
AH: What first prompted you to apply for this position?
AOE: The thought of being able to be more involved and have an impact on COCC and its students was the reason I first decided to run for my position.
AH: What do you hope to accomplish with this position? What do you hope to change at COCC?
AOE: I would like to be able to work alongside OSA to keep tuition as low as possible and hopefully get more students from COCC involved in the capital for things like lobbying and writing testimonies. I would like to see COCC use 100 percent clean and renewable energy one day. I do feel like we are on the right track with the current efforts of the sustainability committee and I can only hope to be as much help to them as possible.
AH: How do you plan on involving and hearing out the student body in carrying out your future plans?
AOE: At the beginning of term I was running our survey campaigns and on those surveys some students filled out the ‘get involved’ section. I do plan to reach out to those students. As the year progresses I will reach out to students by doing class raps, tabling, our social media page, our bulletin boards, and clip boarding. As I start to build a stronger core team of student volunteers the easier it will be to reach out to more students.
AH: Where do you see yourself in two years?
AOE: In two years I see myself close to obtaining a business degree of some sort from Portland state. Probably still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. ■