The future leads.

When I first applied to be a SPOP Coordinator during the Fall of 2008, my main reason was guided by leadership. At that time, it was a recent ambition of mine to set myself onto the career path of student affairs. Looking back even further, this striving began from my involvements and interactions that made me truly love working with college students, my now foregoing peers. One of my first experiences with this was when I was a statistics tutor for the UC Irvine Learning and Academic Resource Center back in the Spring of 2008. Although I was a tutor for only a quarter, the relationships and bridges of education I made during that short time with my students had been so fulfilling. It was always nice to see familiar faces of my former students around campus. Onto my fourth year, I quickly began to love the collectivity, influence, and dedication of student organizations. I saw this with APSA and the other organizations that surrounded us that were comprised of many incredible student leaders. Whether you believe it or not, if you are a board member of a campus organization, you are a student leader. Never forget the influence you have in the position you hold. While working at the UCI Cross-Cultural Center, I full-heartedly admired the work that Sherwynn Umali and Floyd Lai did there. They were the ones who really pushed my thoughts about getting into student affairs into an actualization. In fact, Papa Floyd was the one who suggested me to apply for SPOP Coordinator in the first place.

Before and during my time as a SPOP Coordinator, I always spoke about how big I was on leadership development. Prior to applying for SPOP, I had heard the program invoked a lot of development for both the student staffers and the incoming students as well. It was also something I had seen. It really warmed my heart whenever I heard people's stories of how they became more involved on campus because of the encouragement they received during their incoming SPOP experience. Just yesterday, as I was walking through the Cross-Cultural Center, I walked into the APSA room just to see how much it had changed. As I opened the door, I stood there with two girls staring back at me. One was an intern for APSA after just transferring to UC Irvine, and the other was a board member of AISA, the American Indian Student Association. When I mentioned I had just been a SPOP Coordinator for this past summer, the girl from AISA exclaimed her excitement as she had just went through it the previous summer. It's such a lovely feeling to meet young student leaders.

As a person studying at a university, you are the future. I've come to think this is something people do not realize until they are set into a position of leadership; it definitely comes with experience. That is the reason why I get excited whenever I see first and second years getting really involved with their campus so soon. It gives them that much more time to continue great things while they are still here at a university. Time really passes quicker than you may realize. Especially, when it is finally time to step forth and apply your experiences, skills, and steady mindset you have accumulated from the past few years. Personally, I regretted not getting as involved until my third year. I used to wish I had more time here. There was still so much more I wanted to do. However, I've realized it truly is my time to go and let the new generation of future leaders carry on.

I have faith that SPOP this summer has directed these new students to become more motivated and confidant in leading their own lives, and potentially the lives of future others.