Gabby Anglin, a communication studies and political science double-major from Columbia City, Ind., discusses her role as Student Senate president and how she strives to represent her fellow Spartans.
“What are you involved with on campus?”
“I have been involved with Student Senate since I was a first-year and I ran for vice president after only four months in the club. I was vice president for two years, and now I’m the president my senior year. I am also involved in Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow, which is the student group that works with the Advancement Office. I have chaired the Stewardship Committee, which oversees all of the donor events on campus. I’m overseeing the Senior Class Gift Committee, so I was able to decide what the senior class gift would be this year and will soon be unrolling the campaign to start getting donations. I’ve been involved with Residential Life for three years − I was a resident assistant in Oakwood for two years, and now I am the apartment coordinator in East Street Apartments.”
“Wow! That’s a ton of involvement! Can you tell me more about your role as Student Senate president?”
“During my First-Year Orientation, I remember sitting in Cordier with my mom watching Opening Convocation. Jake Burns was Student Senate president at the time, and he stood behind the podium and said, ‘Hello, I’m the Student Senate president.’ And I said to myself, ‘I’m gonna do that.’ So when I got into Student Senate my first year, I watched Jake, I heard stories about past presidents and I realized that the position is different for everyone. For me, it is something that I take so seriously, knowing that I’m supposed to be the representative voice for the student body. Student Senate is a group that the Manchester administration go to when they need a student representative, which means the decisions that I make need to have the voices of all students behind me − not just mine, not just my friend group, not just the people I know, but all the different people on campus. This also means upholding Manchester’s values in everything I do, on and off campus. When I go different places and introduce myself as the Student Senate president, I know that by extension I am a representation of Manchester.”
“Why did you choose Manchester University?”
“I considered going to Purdue, but when I visited their campus it gave me a ton of anxiety because it was so big and there were so many people! Every email I received from Purdue was addressed to, ‘Applicant Number 40289,’ but when it came from Manchester, I was Gabby. Manchester even sent this little survey and one of the questions was, “What’s your favorite color?” I wrote down purple. After that, every letter I got from Manchester was handwritten in purple ink. Before I was even officially a Spartan, it was clear that they valued who I was as a person.”
“What is something most people don’t know about you?”
“I’m super into all the personality and typology tests! I know my Clifton’s Five Strengths; I know my enneagram type, which is a 4; I’m a rising Sagittarius with my moon in Virgo; my Myers-Briggs is an ISTJ −I am just obsessed! Self-awareness is one of my strengths and one of my downfalls, because it can be scary to know those things about yourself!”