Natalie Bress, a fourth-year studying electrical engineering, is the student body vice president at NC State. As vice president, Bress acts as the internal coordinator of the executive cabinet.

“The vice president serves more internally within student government,” Bress said. 

Essentially, Bress checks on the different departments in student government.

“We have eight departments, and I oversee all of those departments, and I meet with them regularly to make sure that they are trying to complete the initiatives that we have in our platform,” Bress said.

Along with overseeing these departments within student government, Bress serves on several university committees.

“I currently serve on the University Dining Committee, the Wellness and Recreation Advisory Board and the University Wellness Committee,” Bress said. “I learn more about what the faculty and staff are doing at NC State, specifically how we are trying to transition back to normalcy, and we help them by giving a student perspective.”

The vice president also is expected to plan retreats and act as an understudy for the president.

“I step in for McKenzy [Heavlin] when he can’t attend a meeting, and I plan the two student government retreats, one in the spring and one in the fall,” Bress said.

According to Bress, student government just had its fall retreat, which included campus partners.

“We bring in campus partners to talk about the resources we have on campus,” Bress said. “Two weeks ago we had someone from DASA come in to discuss tuition and fees, and why we have fees. We also had someone from Wellness and Recreation to discuss the importance of student wellness.”

Bress said student wellness is very important, and she is passionate about student health.

“I am very passionate about wellness as a whole, such as financial status, social status and physical status,” Bress said. “One of the things I really wanted to work on while acting as vice president is helping students implement wellness, whether it be mental, physical, financial or anything else.”

Bress wants to bring a supportive culture to wellness and campus in general, and said this is due to her growing up with parents who were passionate about nonprofit work.

“My parents do a lot of nonprofit work, so I was raised very aware of disparities in our community,” Bress said. “Because of this, I wanted to work on encouraging more students from low-income or rural counties to apply for NC State.”

In order to achieve this goal of recruiting more students from these communities, Bress must work very closely with admissions.

“I work with admissions to figure out ways that NC State can encourage more students to apply from these backgrounds, because we do not participate in free application week,” Bress said.

College Application Week is not only an opportunity for students to apply to college for free, but it is also an opportunity for students with less resources to find out information about the application and admissions process in various schools. 

“Free application has thousands of volunteers to help students write their essays, help get transcripts sent to colleges and teaches them about the transition from high school to college,” Bress said. “I think NC State is really missing out on this aspect of admissions.”

Bress is also passionate about engaging with the student body and understanding the general experience of different demographics at NC State.

“I love to talk to people, and I have always been a relationship builder,” Bress said. “I have been so happy with the level of engagement that I have seen from the student body, and it has been very helpful for student government to understand issues at NC State.”

She and Heavlin, a fourth-year studying electrical engineering and student body president, work together to understand different perspectives at the University and try to fix issues the student body might have. 

“I chose [Bress] to be my vice president because she brings a lot of good insight,” Heavlin said. “Our time at NC State has been very different, so if I miss something, she will bring it up, and vice versa.”

Bress describes herself as empathetic, social and a relationship-builder. She said it is important to be social as the vice president because she is not afraid to approach students with questions about their experience on campus.

“She is very good at interpersonal communication and works with directors very well,” Heavlin said. “Our personalities complement each other.”

Overall, Bress’ goal as student body vice president is to understand different perspectives of the NC State experience and use that information to help create a tight-knit community on campus.