By Tara Subramaniam | The HOYA
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Georgetown University Student Association President-elect Kamar Mack (COL ’19) will be the first sophomore to serve as president since 2009 when he is inaugurated March 18. In addition, his running mate, GUSA Vice President-elect Jessica Andino (COL ’18) will be the third member of the Georgetown Scholarship Program to serve as an executive officer upon entering office next month.
Before Mack, the last sophomore president in GUSA history was Calen Angert (MSB ’11). Angert and his vice president, Jason Kluger (MSB ’11), who was also a sophomore when they were first elected, served two terms. Before Angert, there have been at least three other sophomore presidents.
Mack said the grade difference will not affect what GUSA can achieve.
“I really appreciate the student body for rallying around our vision and having faith in both me and Jessica. Knowing that with our passion and our excitement to work hand in hand with the student body, the fact that I am a sophomore would not inhibit the work that GUSA needs to do,” Mack said.
Andino follows former Vice President Adam Ramadan (SFS ’14) and current Vice President Chris Fisk (COL ’17) as the third GSP executive.
According to Andino, as a member of GSP, she understands the importance of making the Georgetown experience more affordable.
“That speaks to how much it doesn’t matter where students start, but it’s the journey they go through during their college experience and how much GSP students care about the university and making it a better place for future students,” Andino said.
Maura McDonough (COL ’18) said having someone from GSP in the executive is important for helping the organization better reflect the diversity of Georgetown’s student population.
“It shows that people want other input in the student body,” McDonough said. “It helps GUSA a lot, too. GUSA has an insular culture so it shows that there’s this need to address that.”
The candidates’ backgrounds translate to their initial policy initiatives. Mack and Andino want to focus on affordability.
“If you look at our affordability plan from the campaign, a lot of it was data-centered, so we have a plan for creating what, for lack of better words, will be GUSA’s R&D,” Mack said. “So doing cost-benefit analyses, engaging with groups like Office of Sustainability and fundamentally doing the grunt work of identifying ways we students can save the university money.”
Correction: An earlier version of this earlier stated that Mack would serve as the second sophomore president in GUSA history. He is the second since Calen Angert in 2009; there have been at least three other sophomore presidents since 1998.