By Ari Massefski, Class of 2015
After weeks of campaigning and two cycles of voting, the Student Association has elected new leadership for the 2012-13 academic year. Ashwin Narla, a junior studying criminal justice in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, will serve as the president of the student body. Abby Bergren, a junior studying political science in Columbian College, will serve as executive vice president, making her the first female EVP in eight years. Ms. Bergren, of Georgetown, Ohio, won 45 percent of the vote, and Mr. Narla, of Richmond, Va., won 53 percent of the vote in the presidential runoff last week.
George Washington Today caught up with the newly elected leaders to discuss their plans, goals and what inspires them.
George Washington Today: Why did you choose to run for office?
Ashwin Narla: The reason I ran was directly correlated to my experiences over last summer with Colonial Inauguration and Hallmark Programs. When you do programs sponsored by this university, you see a lot of great things. You see the ins and outs. You get to meet a lot of administrators, and you see a lot of the pros that this university has to offer. So on one side, I want to show other people what GW has to offer because there’s a lot GW offers. On the other side, I want to make sure that we address the issues that came up during the campaign. But we have to make sure that we have a forum to address these things. That’s why I wanted to run, and that’s what I want to succeed with.
Abby Bergren: Two reasons. First, I think I have good ideas. I’ve been here for the last three years so I’ve been able to digest what’s going on from a student perspective. I’ve gotten a feel for the administration and the university’s position, and I think we can do some really good things here. Also, there is an underrepresentation of women. There hasn’t been a female EVP for the last eight years, and generally the representation of women is very low. I definitely want to be a role model for young women to get more involved in student government.
George Washington Today: What prior knowledge and experience do you bring to your position?
Ashwin Narla: The experience I bring is working with students. I’ve been a student leader in Community Building Community, Colonial Cabinet, Freshman Day of Service and as the athletic director of my fraternity. I’ve led a number of small groups, and I think that’s my strongest suit — building teams and making sure that we’re all on the same page going forward. That’s what I can bring to the table. There’s stuff I need to learn, I’ll admit it to you. I’ll be honest. But I’m a hard worker, and I’m very passionate about this. This is my responsibility going forward. I’m not going to take the title too seriously, but I’m going to take my job seriously.
Abby Bergren: I haven’t been in the SA before, but one of my platform issues is to increase communication between the SA and student organizations on campus. I think I have a pretty good idea of that system and the processes that those groups go through. I can easily integrate that into how the SA treats those groups. I also have leadership experience in general and experience advocating for different programs and talking to different administrators. I’ve done a lot of that with my experiences here so I can definitely bring that to the role of EVP.
George Washington Today: What are some things you hope you accomplish during your tenure?
Ashwin Narla: There’s a lot of work to be done. During the campaign, a number of issues came up—including accessibility to and transparency within the Student Association, maintaining and expanding student space and creating a campus-wide calendar for all student organizations to publicize their events—and everybody is concentrating on them. We need to continue that coverage going into next year and make sure that we’re really tackling the issues. I want to be held accountable — that’s something I’ve been saying since day one. I’m not just going to say I’m putting up a student organization calendar and then not follow through on it.
I don’t think I can change the whole school, but I want to make the small changes where I can make a difference. I really mean what I say, and I know talk is cheap and that a campaign is one thing, but actually coming up with results is another. I’m cognizant of that, and I hope I can follow through with what I say. I know Abby is fantastic, and I think that working with her, we’re going to get a lot done.
Abby Bergren: Definitely continuing the work of creating more transparency about student fees and working with Ashwin to pinpoint a few fees. Personally, I want to tackle the transfer fee. But we’ll try to pinpoint a few and see what kind of work can be done on that. I also want to create a better structure for senators to implement ideas, pass more resolutions, hear more feedback and just make it a smoother process.
George Washington Today: Why do you think your campaign was successful?
Ashwin Narla: You’re only as good as your team. I can’t emphasize that enough. I worked, but my team worked so hard. It’s the team that you have, the people you surround yourself with, that have helped me out so far. And I can’t thank them enough.
Abby Bergren: It [running for office] had never crossed my mind before, so it’s been an interesting road from just being an idea – just something I said in passing a few months ago – to now, actually being the EVP-elect. One thing I was really proud of is that my team put together a very legitimate campaign in a very short amount of time. Literally, I started running for EVP when I was collecting signatures to be placed on the ballot. So the fact that we could see it through to the end and that we could be happy with the work we put out — it was a very fulfilling experience.
George Washington Today: Why did you choose to attend GW?
Ashwin Narla: When I set foot on campus, I realized I made a great decision. I think one of the biggest reasons is the people you meet here. They come from all over the United States and from all over the world, and they are fantastic. The academics are great obviously, but you learn a lot more from social interactions. I’ve learned so much from my friends, and GW has offered a lot of opportunity for me.
Abby Bergren: I had applied to only four schools, and it actually came down to a financial aid situation for me. I knew I wanted to get involved with politics and government, and an urban environment is definitely something that I considered. And for some lucky reason it worked out. I love the school, the environment, the opportunities that I’ve had here, and I would not change it. So I ended up making the right choice.
George Washington Today: Who has been your favorite GW professor?
Ashwin Narla: John Sides for Introduction to American Politics. I only had him for one class, but he was fantastic. He would play a song before every class, and he engaged you. It’s definitely stuck with me.
Abby Bergren: Good question. I’m a political science major, and I’m looking to go to graduate school in Middle Eastern studies so I really enjoyed the classes taught by Sarah Yerkes. She teaches Government and Politics in the Middle East, which I’m taking now, and I took her Arab-Israeli Conflict course last semester. I really enjoyed those.
George Washington Today: Who is somebody you consider a role model?
Ashwin Narla: My parents. I know that’s super-cliché, but they’ve instilled in me so many values: hard work, responsibility, honor, respect, the way you carry yourself around others and the way you treat others. They came over here from India. They’re American citizens, and they’ve worked so hard to give me this opportunity to come to this school and to even run for this position. I’ll be lucky if I’m half as successful as the two of them. I have an older sister in medical school, and she’s always looked after me too.
Abby Bergren: I guess this is the tried-and-true answer, but my parents. They worked really hard to get me to where I am today, and I could not have gotten here alone.
George Washington Today: If you could spend 10 minutes with George Washington himself, what would the two of you discuss?
Ashwin Narla: Just how he did it. If you look at George Washington’s history, they wanted to offer him a more powerful position, and he said no. Also, they were asking him to be president for longer, and he said, “No, I’m just going to go back to Mount Vernon and chill.” It would be awesome to get to talk to a founding father (I almost said founding farmer), I’d ask, “How do you do it? How did you do it?”
Abby Bergren: We’d probably talk about all the legends and lore. I’d see if he actually wanted to have a bonfire on his birthday.
George Washington Today: Any final thoughts?
Ashwin Narla: This is going to be my summer. I don’t have an internship. I don’t plan to have a job. Being SA president is my priority. This is my responsibility. It’s something I signed up for. I hope I can make everybody who voted for me and the GW community proud. I’m just so excited right now.
Abby Bergren: I’m absolutely thrilled to be here, and I’m very excited to get started. I’ve been in contact with a lot of past EVPs in terms of mentoring. And I’ve started talking with the administration and am beginning to move forward with the transition. I’m definitely ready to hit the ground running and get some good things done next year.