Members anticipate life after USAC
By Bailey West
June 7, 2009 9:10 p.m.
This year’s term is complete for the undergraduate student government.
The members will leave Kerckhoff 417 ““ the office in which weekly Undergraduate Students Association Council meetings are held ““ for the last time.
USAC members lead hundreds of staff members, manage thousands of dollars and make decisions that affect undergraduates in tangible ways.
But now they prepare for the next juncture in their lives ““ life after USAC.
Next year, four councilmembers will disperse to the East and West Coasts for Coro, a nine-month fellowship where participants experience government, business, labor and not-for-profit community organizations for periods of three months each.
Only 68 Coro fellows are chosen each year in a highly competitive selection process; USAC alone will provide four fellows.
Former President Homaira Hosseini will return to her native Bay Area to work with former General Representative Monica Kohles in San Francisco; former External Vice President Jesse Melgar will travel 3,000 miles away to New York; former Finance Committee Chair Parsa Sobhani will stay local as he works for Coro in Los Angeles.
The Coro program is similar to USAC in that it provides multiple opportunities for fellows, evidenced by the fact that the former USAC councilmembers all have different plans upon the program’s completion.
While Hosseini works for Coro, she will apply for a Juris Doctor and Master of Public Policy degree in hopes of a career in changing and implementing legislation.
“Everyone says I’m going to get into politics, but I’d rather be the one advising the governor on how to fix the budget and education,” she said.
Melgar hopes to be an immigration lawyer with his own firm.
“I feel like I can go into Coro with preparedness. USAC has been an overwhelmingly positive experience, both personally and professionally,” he said.
Sobhani is excited to work for Coro; however, he is currently waitlisted at the UC Irvine School of Law and will drop his Coro plans if accepted.
Sobhani is not the only USAC alumnus with plans to continue his education.
Former Community Service Commissioner Valerie Sien also plans to attend graduate school after taking a year off to continue her office’s tradition of community service.
Next year, she will work for the Conway Agency for Children and Families with Special Needs, a program that serves autistic children and their families.
“I work with so many passionate people who have made sacrifices for their dreams, and I hope to apply that to my career as a teacher,” Sien said.
Like Sien, former Financial Supports Commissioner Elaine Reodica is one of the few former councilmembers who will immediately jump into the professional world.
The day after graduation, she will begin work as the Southern California regional representative for the Community College League of California, where she will represent close to 50 community colleges.
She was the only councilmember who transferred to UCLA and said she hopes this job will offer an opportunity to give back to community colleges.
While other former councilmembers may not have the same assurance about their future careers, they plan to pursue options they never considered before serving on USAC.
Administrative Representative Dr. Rick Tuttle inspired former General Representative Natalie Gonzalez to consider public policy or law as a career, a decision she is now seriously considering, she said.
While she narrows her focus, Gonzalez plans to take one to two years off to do research and prepare for graduate school.
But she said that the community service she has learned from USAC will follow her in whatever path she chooses.
Jonathan Tsai, former Student Welfare Commissioner, said he also plans to upkeep the USAC tradition of community service: He will travel to rural Taiwan this summer to teach English.
“I always thought I would have the typical career path, but after being in SWC, I have seen the global perspective. It’s important to experience having more of a cause for life after graduation,” he said.
During his last fall quarter at UCLA, he said he plans to advise the new Student Welfare Commission, while still encouraging the new commissioner, Lucy Wu, to take full control of one of USAC’s largest commissions.
