A Kennesaw State student was sworn into the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) for the first time on March 16 as a Student Member on the Board of Trustees.
Dana London is the first international student as well as the first student from KSU to be sworn into the ACUI. She is a sophomore accounting major originally from Guyana who lived in the Bahamas before attending KSU.
The ACUI is a nonprofit organization that connects student activity directors and employees across hundreds of universities and seven countries. The organization works with these staff members to improve their student activity centers for students who are looking for involvement and connection with their peers.
Their national conference held this year in Chicago allowed for London’s historical event to take place and for London to receive, as she described it, “a roadmap forward on how we can change and make progress” on KSU’s Student Centers.
She was able to spend the week meeting her future colleagues and sitting in on sessions geared towards this process. She recalled that the resources given in these sessions and states will help to “create a more inclusive space or to create fun programs for students to become involved.”
London spoke of her colleagues she met at the ACUI conference as “some of the most encouraging, affirming, caring people.”
London was nominated for the Student Member position after attending a conference at Emory University, one of the many universities whose faculty members belong to the ACUI. Her boss in the Student Center, Jennifer Tesch invited her to gain perspective on the similarities and differences in the two student centers as Tesch is a member of the ACUI as well.
According to London, she was made aware of her nomination just hours before the application deadline. Getting an unexpected video call in place of what she was told would be a phone interview seemingly did not cloud her preparedness for the position.
In her current position at KSU London creates safety signs, oversees campus event spaces that have been rented and makes sure her associates are completing their respective tasks to the best of their abilities. She stated that she is making sure the Student Center provides renters with any assistance so that “they can have their event go off without a hitch.”
She will be juggling a lot next year serving within the finance committee of the ACUI along with taking accounting courses and working as a Lead Facility Manager at the Carmichael Student Center. According to London, she will be working alongside two other individuals within the financial pillar overseeing the institution’s budget to “keep the organization in a healthy financial position.”
