CREDIT: ANGELA MCINNES
Keren Nanneti is ready to dive in to her new role as the Fanshawe Student Union's (FSU) 2019/2020 president.

When Keren Nanneti came to Fanshawe from India in 2018, she hoped to complete her studies on software and information systems testing and find a job.

Switching over to the business analysis program and being elected the 2019/2020 Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) president was not a part of the plan.

However, Nanneti said she’s glad things have worked out the way they did.

“Dreams come true,” she told Interrobang a week after her win in this fall’s by-election. “Being an international student, I would never think that people would accept me and vote for me, that they would even recognize that I would so something good for the students. But then I just gave it a shot, and people did trust me.”

Although she did not expect to enter the FSU’s exec team during her time at Fanshawe, Nanneti is no stranger to campus politics. As a college student in India, she was president of her class from 2014 to 2016. It was in this role that Nanneti developed her passion for helping others — something she knew she would take with her wherever she went going forward.

Nanneti admitted she was hesitant to run for the FSU exec during her first year at Fanshawe. It would take transitioning to her current program and meeting a diverse range of peers to realize she could no longer ignore her desire to lead.

With the support of her classmates, Nanneti decided to take a chance and throw her hat in the ring for the FSU’s 2019/2020 presidential election. She ended up winning against three opponents, with a total of 1,028 votes.

Nanneti has risen to meet a particularly noteworthy challenge.

In July, former FSU president Abdullah Qassab was formally deemed to have abandoned his position by the Student Administrative Council (SAC), leaving the FSU to appoint finance coordinator Julia Brown as interim president until a new one could be elected in a by-election.

Now, Nanneti is the first FSU president in the College’s history to balance the presidential role, which entails representing the voice of over 40,000 students, with full-time studies. Additionally, while most presidents have the summer months to train for the position, she has no choice but to hit the ground running.

It will take rigorous scheduling and multi-tasking, but Nanneti is determined to make the most of the next six months until she graduates in April 2020.

“Because I do not have too much time, the first thing I’d like to focus on is reaching out to the students,” she said.

To achieve that goal, Nanneti has created a platform based on connectivity. Some of her initiatives include surveying students to better understand how the FSU can serve them better, improving outreach to students in smaller campuses, as well as increasing awareness of FSU events on social media.

She also looks forward to facilitating appreciation weeks for volunteers and professors, along with multicultural events.

“A president can be the mediator between the students and the council [or administration] and can create an impact,” Nanneti said. “The student’s voice, through the president, is more impactful and it does make a change, so I do want to bridge that gap — and break those barriers.”