Jessica Nguyen
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Profiles on the other two ASI presidential election candidates: (Kyle Jordan, Owen Schwaegerle)
Originally from Bakersfield, California, a town seven times larger than San Luis Obispo, civil engineering senior Lance Collins describes his hometown as being its own isolated bubble with a unique culture.
However, upon coming to Cal Poly, he embraced the new town’s community-like atmosphere.
His desire to connect students with the campus and San Luis Obispo community has made him more involved with Poly Reps for the past four years. He was also selected last May to be on the Orientation Board, a group responsible for putting on transition programs such as Week of Welcome (WOW) and Soar.
Collins’ campaign slogan is “Connect with Collins.” Find out more below.
“Having the opportunity to work with him the past two years on Orientation Team, I have been able to watch him commit to countless tasks and complete each of them with ease,” sociology senior Allison Stoner said. “Lance is able to gauge a group and alter his leadership style (to) truly inspire growth of those around him.”
Collins’ current campus involvement stems widely from introducing prospective students to campus in addition to connecting alumni with the Cal Poly community — all from being a part of the Campus and Community Life Committee where he dedicates a lot of his time each week.
“I want the opportunity to finally represent the students that I have introduced to Cal Poly,” Collins said. “Everything I do is based on ‘What can we do to make students the most successful?’ (on) day one. I now want to take that (and) really apply it to what we can do for you for the next four years.”
His community involvement work around campus has given him a well-rounded perspective of the various groups at Cal Poly. Collins said his exposure to the campus community as a whole will allow him to implement changes within the campus to benefit all organizations.
If elected Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) president, Collins wants to have his executive cabinet involved closely with other groups on campus, such as Cal Poly Athletics and University Housing. Bringing together each organization with their respective strengths will improve the university collectively, he said.
With ASI working side by side with various Cal Poly groups, an open channel of constant communication will develop between each organization to work together as a community to achieve each desired goal, Collins said.
Concerns have been raised due to Collins’ lack of involvement in ASI, specifically. However, Collins does not feel his inexperience with student government will set him back.
“My biggest response to that is I’ve learned and developed as a leader these past four years I’ve been involved with orientation (and) Poly Reps. I see it as me having a different perspective, an outside perspective. I’ve watched and seen this campus change and grow.”
Being ASI president would give Collins the chance to represent the current students of Cal Poly, a rewarding and exciting opportunity after working diligently for years to connect prospective students and alumni to the university.
“Lance genuinely cares about the ideas of the people and does an exceptional job representing and implementing those ideas,” Stoner said. “He works constantly until he is confident the task meets his standard and gives 100 percent to everything he cares about.”
His core campaign team includes child development sophomore Anna Black-Hogins, graphic communication senior Jillian Ray and political science sophomore Andrew Robinson.