Mel Vazquez

POSSE Scholar || The Posse Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that identifies, recruits, and trains student leaders from high schools to form multicultural teams called "Posses" of 10 Posse Scholars. These teams are then prepared, through an intensive eight-month Pre-Collegiate Training Program, for enrollment at top-tier universities nationwide to pursue their academics, help promote cross-cultural communication and become leaders on college campuses. Each Posse Scholar is awarded a full-tuition scholarship.

First year representative

The primary goal of Define American is to collect and amplify the voices of immigrant and undocumented community members at Carleton in order to create more engagement and activism in the campus as a whole. Instead of focusing on the experience (which is sometimes traumatizing to recall and verbalize), the hope is to highlight the intersection of experiences, their differences and similarities, by incorporating the input and perspectives of many groups on campus. Ultimately, sharing these stories (through panels, Facebook groups, and other events) will help promote greater awareness of how these issues of anti-immigration and xenophobia directly affect everyone on campus; that they are more than just abstract political concepts as many people in the majority view them. Furthermore, because Define American is a national organization with over 50 chapters, these stories could eventually be amplified and make a difference on a nationwide scale. As the Vice President, it is my duty to oversee the committees and keep the committee chairs updated on our upcoming projects.

As a student representative of the Education and Curriculum Committee, it is my responsibility to notify the Carleton student of any education and curriculum updates. Whether it be a few changes to major requirements, a newly available minor or a revised registration process, these are all important pieces of information to relay to students given that it affects our academic careers.