CREDIT: SIMON DUNFORD
Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) president-elect, Jahmoyia Smith, sat down with the Interrobang to discuss how she developed a passion for politics and the changes and issues she plans to address as president.

Meet your next Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) president for the 2018/2019 term, Jahmoyia Smith.

Smith was born and raised in Jamaica before choosing to pursue her post-secondary education at Fanshawe College. Smith explained that she fell in love with the Fanshawe campus and community while touring the vicinity whilst pondering which post-secondary institution to attend.

A week before she even began her studies at Fanshawe, Smith said she started volunteering with the FSU's promotions team and helped inform new students of all the events happening on campus. She later became the Student Administrative Council (SAC) representative for the School of Community Studies and Public Safety. Afterwards, she became the VP of Finance before taking her current position as advocacy and communications co-ordinator for the FSU.

Smith shared some words about being elected as the next FSU president, “I want to thank all the students for all of their support. I will try my best not to let you down and to work my very hardest to meet every single person's needs that arrives at my door. I have an open-door policy. […] I cannot promise perfection, but I can promise that I will work diligently to use the resources that we have to make sure I get favourable outcomes for students.”

Smith said her interest in student politics began in grade 9 when she was elected to her high school's student council. She explained that throughout all the years she attended high school, she was either a member of the student council or a class representative.

Politics is a passion for Smith and she explained that she ran for FSU president to help represent each student and have their voices heard. Smith's number one platform point is to increase the number of mental health initiatives and resources available for students. She said she also wants to assist the newly established crisis support walk-in clinic and peer support program as well as provide more awareness surrounding the recourses available at the FSU such as the Good to Talk 24/7 phone hotline.

In addition to the mental health resources on campus, Smith said she wants to focus on advertising services available within the London community such as the Canadian Mental Health Association's (CMHA) services and programs. “A lot of students don't have access to [mental health] resources and they don't have access to a counsellor if they are part-time or co-op. We have partnered with CHMA, and [the organization] has a lot of resources available in the community like knitting circles, mediation circles, crisis centres [and more].”

Another platform point of Smith's campaign is to bring/host more international and cultural events on campus. She said she plans to look at each culture and see what the FSU can do for each group to provide diverse events and activities. “Fanshawe is such a diverse community with so many different cultures. […] whether we are [creating] a pub night, an event, a fair, a cultural dance or a food fest, we want to find a way to incorporate all the different cultures that we have on campus.”

Smith would also like to advocate to reduce the barriers surrounding scholarships and bursaries. Smith said that there are a variety of scholarships and bursaries available for students. However, she is noticing a lot of students are not applying for them. When applying for bursaries and scholarships, Smith explained that students must complete a general application, an essay of at least 250 words, answer supplementary questions for the essay and provide some sort of documentation such as a letter of recommendation. She said she wants to find a way to make this process easier for students.

An increase in wellness events, workshops and initiatives that focus on the four pillars of wellness (emotional, spiritual, physical and social) was also a primary platform point for Smith during her campaign. “[The Wellness Centre] has a meditation workshop, a nutrition workshop [and many other options] that are available to students for free, but it doesn't really get advertised or students don't really know about them.” She said that the FSU needs to get the word out about these workshops to students more through social media, more brochures on notice boards and talking to students one-on-one.

She is also wanting to increase drop-in hours at the gym. Smith explained that currently, there are three nights a week where students can use the gym facilities from 10 p.m. to 12 p.m. Smith's goal is to have these extended drop-in hours seven nights a week. In addition, Smith said she wants more advertising and support to go towards getting more students to attend varsity games.

She would also like more funding to go towards campus jobs. “A lot of students do not get accepted to work study because of their income or their parents' income being ‘too high',” Smith said.

She said that a student's parents' income shouldn't be a major deterrent when it comes to being approved for work study. “Getting more students approved for work study is one of the things I do want to work on.” More diverse food options is also on Smith's radar. She said that while Fanshawe currently has a lot of diverse food options, she finds that more work can be done. “We can definitely introduce more vegan, vegetarian, halal and gluten-free options for students,” Smith said.

When Smith is not in the office she shared that she really likes to cook and considers it a great de-stressor for herself. She said her favourite dish to prepare is her secret fried chicken recipe that was passed down to her from her aunt.

Another hobby of Smith's is rock climbing. She explained that she enjoys working at the rock wall at the Wellness Centre and teaching fellow students how to rock climb.

Smith's term will officially begin on May 1.