With the runoff election for the next student body president and vice president taking place on Thursday, Technician talked to current Student Body President Jackie Gonzalez, a fourth-year studying political science, about her time and accomplishments in office and what advice she would give future students that hold her position.

What have been some of the highlights during your term as student body president?

One of my goals going into the presidency was making sure I was sharing the information that I knew with students. Whether it be in board of trustee meetings or some policies going on in the Board of Governors, that is always information I try to share with the student body. Some of the highlights of that have been random students coming up to me and talking about it and asking me questions. One day, I was getting into the elevator and someone was talking to me about it. It’s just those moments where people are being receptive to it but care because they know that these policies impact them also.

Before I even started talking about Board of Governor’s diversity audit, people were coming up to me and asking me about that too, before I even got the chance to share that information. That means that students are doing their own research, and that is just important to me. To know that even if someone wasn’t doing the things that I was doing after I leave, there are still students on campus that would take it upon themselves to fight for student rights.

What were you able to accomplish in your time in this office?

Something that is really important coming into this office is that you will not always be able to crank out tangible initiatives. That was something that I accepted coming into it. Something that I am really proud of is our transportation task force. They have been working very hard all year long working with transportation to figure out what are the same questions that we are getting every year. They put out a survey, and I understood that while in my year here [as student body president] the transportation task force might not crank out all these policies, but they have this wealth of information that will be used for future sessions.

Another thing that I am really proud of as well is how hard my cabinet has worked. I know each department has had difficulties with their initiatives and getting stuff through, but their collaboration with senate has been absolutely astounding. I have never seen, in my time in Student Government, the executive branch works as well with the Senate before. Even with judicial, all of that has made me really proud. I’m not taking credit for that, but it is just something that I am really proud that I got to witness and support.

What have you learned about NC State during your time as student body president?

A lot of times, students and administrators will be disconnected from each other. Especially last year, there was a lot of criticism with administrators, and that is absolutely warranted, and you should hold these people accountable. But getting to know the administrators and know that they actually care. Before this, I didn’t know these people. They were strangers. Getting to interact with them and learn more about how they fit into the NC State puzzle and how I and students fit in was probably the most exciting thing that I learned to appreciate and try to stress to students. Talk to your administrators. They care also and will respond to you.

With your term winding down, what advice would you give to future student body presidents at NC State?

My transition document is going to be huge. I’m going to have so much in it. I am really excited to share that with not just the next successor, but also with the ones following that. The piece of advice I would give is twofold. One, prioritize your mental health. I tell this not only to the student body presidents, but also to students and student leaders on campus. If you don’t eat well, sleep well and make sure you are keeping yourself well, it’s going to be hard to work in stressful situations, and it’s going to be hard to have difficult conversations with people. Making sure that you’re at the best of your game will be to your benefit, and you will succeed. The second part is to learn to trust other people. I know I am the kind of person that wants to do everything by myself. When my department does things in cabinet, I’m like, ‘Man. I wish I could do that.’ or, ‘I wish I could spend the time doing that.’ But the reason why I have these people is so they can fulfill their initiatives under my administration’s goals. I learned to trust them and guide them. I learned to trust the people that I interact with every day to do their jobs. That doesn’t mean you can’t be critical, but trust they are doing their jobs the best that can.