AS Elections 2016: Meet Director of Instructional Support candidate Stephanie Mendez

Stephanie Mendez is an 18 year old Political Science major who intends to transfer to UCLA. She is a member of the SMC Debate Team and won gold at the PSCFA Fall Debate Championships. Mendez is running for the position of Director of Instructional Support in the 2016 AS Elections. “What motivated me to run in the AS Elections this year is the desire to maintain a positive relationship within the community at SMC,” said Mendez. “I genuinely love being a part of the solution and I hope to provide valuable input within AS.”

“The primary goal that I hope to accomplish, aside from sticking to the ideas our current Director of Instructional Support has, is to effectively expand other institutional service in order to include help for at-risk youth, homeless youth, disabled students, and LGBTQA students,” said Mendez, who’s running with the Unity slate.

Her mission statement fits in well with that of her slate. According to Mendez: “Our overall message is to encourage diversity by supporting and representing the needs of undocumented, international, low-income, and other students at SMC.” Also adding, “I believe that the administration could do more to respect and listen to the student government. I believe we need to recognize the lack of perspectives the administration has in regards to representing all students equally.”

When asked to pitch herself to students in one sentence, Mendez said, “ My perspective and life experience as a low-income Latina woman have allowed me to truly empathize with many students and make their needs my utmost priority.”