SGA and you
Meet your new top SGA officers, get involved
SGA President Allyyah Aali and Vice President Liam Brinton are joining forces to help you thrive at TU, and they hope you’ll come along for the ride.
As part of the 105th SGA administration, seniors Aali and Brinton seek to empower community and collaboration across all academic disciplines, programs and student organizations.
“I want SGA to be a pillar of advocacy at TU,” Aali says. “Our core mission is still the same: to make TU and its resources as accessible to our students as possible.”
Becoming advocates
An active member in student governments since high school, Aali recognizes the significant role the SGA plays in student advocacy, and she hopes her fellow Tigers will see that too.
Political discourse was a significant aspect of Aali’s dinner table chats growing up. She would frequently discuss the news and the impact of politics with her family – and found a profound passion in doing so.
When she first arrived at TU, Aali wanted to expand her horizons. Her political insight and love for advocacy helped her find her home in SGA – serving as the director of communications and now as the president.
“I was molded into an advocacy mindset. As I get older, the question remains the same. ‘How do you think this is going to affect your next generation?’ As I experienced the world, it was less about, ‘this is something that's happening,’ and more about this is something that could impact me and generations after me,” Aali says.
In their new roles within SGA, Aali and Brinton continuously reflect on what it means to be an advocate for the TU student body.
A key element of this is tackling misinformation among students surrounding what SGA does to support them.
“I want people to know who SGA is. I want them to know that if they have a problem, if they need a resource, if they want a resource created that we are here to help them in any way that we possibly can,” she says. “And if we can't help them, more importantly, we'll point them to the right campus resources that can.”
This past semester, the SGA invested substantial time into raising awareness about accessibility and sustainability initiatives across campus. This coming year, they’re seeking to further support those areas, create more tangible change and provide the best academic experience for all Tigers.
“There’s a lot of synergy in how we work together and figure out ideas. Our strengths and personalities really complement each other in terms of how we lead,” Brinton says.
SGA supports your personal growth
“The faculty here pushed me to really search for what I’m passionate about and to use the gifts I have,” Brinton says. “I got to know a lot of good people, expand my horizons and I learned how to be a better person and advocate for the community.”
A political science major, Brinton once considered himself to be an introvert. But the community at TU brought him out of his shell and encouraged him to join SGA. And now he’s ready to pay the support he received from faculty members forward to his fellow Tigers.
“Learning to realize that people do value my voice and I value my voice has been a big part of my journey here at TU,” Brinton says. “It’s been facilitated not just by the faculty but the students who clearly believed in us to put us here in this position. I just continue to evolve that voice, evolve my ability to listen and speak for and with the student body.
Get involved with SGA
You can help shape the change you want to see at TU and there’s no better time to get involved with SGA than now.
"Getting involved in SGA can be a transformative experience for a student," says Carolyn Harris, director of the Office of Student Activities. "SGA members learn about leadership development, influence and impact, civic engagement and social responsibility, empowerment and advocacy, and they are consistently creating positive sustainable change in the campus community."
One of the best ways to get to know the SGA, ask questions and voice your concerns is by attending one of the SGA's weekly meetings for their open segments.
Join the 105th administration in service and community by applying for one of their open positions, and follow them on Instagram for all updates.
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