Ali Tomashek - President
What progress have you made on your Cabinet duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
I have chaired three Cabinet meetings and our first Governing Council meeting. Completed a Trauma Awareness Training with the Peacebuilder Institute. Helped hire on a new communications coordinator - Kayla! The whole LeadMN team pitched in to help landscape outside the front of the office, it was a hot one! I volunteered for two Twins Games at Target Field, to help fundraise money for our Emergency Grant Program. (https://www.leadmn.org/leadmn-emergency-grant) Civic engagement has been on our radar at LeadMN, from sending a message to college presidents about students taking an active role in our democracy, to actively registering hundreds of students to vote. I worked as an Election Judge at the polls for the primary elections, and will do so for the main election as well, to set an example for how important civic engagement is for everyone - especially students! Students are at the heart of everything we do, and I have already visited TEN CAMPUSES since the semester began! I can barely catch my breath, but these visits bring nothing but joy and excitement! I cannot wait to get back out there for more GOTV work, class wraps, and promoting our scholarships, emergency grants, and intern positions.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
We had an amazing turnout for Incoming Leader! We had the chance to meet so many new student leaders and hear their stories, gauge their interests, and build relationships. I'm hoping, and expecting nothing less, from our upcoming virtual September Conference (https://www.leadmn.org/september-conference) and Heart of the Leader Training in the office. I'd like to mention again that I visited TEN CAMPUSES and am just as excited to continue visiting campuses in September and getting to know these leaders more. My September will include lots of GOTV work, campus visits, scholarship promotion, one more Governing Council meeting, Minnesota State Committee and Council Appointments, recruiting for Vikings Games volunteering (an extension of the Emergency Grant fundraising), actually going to my campus to do school work and see my fellow campus friends :) and preparing for an amazing fall semester and incoming October GA!
Outline your biggest achievement this month?
My biggest achievement was introducing myself at incoming leader, not only as the President and an introduction to this upcoming year, but an introduction to my story. The story telling workshop with Jocelyn was compelling, challenging, yet inspiring. Being vulnerable and sharing my life journey and the experiences that lead me onto this path was extremely empowering. Especially when students shouted out things that resonated with them, like: Happiness, Purpose, Community, Leadership, and "A voice for the voiceless." My heart will forever be moved and I am even more incredibly passionate to do the work I do.
Amona Rite Donald - Vice President
What progress have you made on your Cabinet duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
I joined the equity campaign and helped decide what the campaign would be for the year, I also had the opportunity to share the overview on the Equity campaign. I also have sent out emails to set up our first PC meeting, I have read and studied on legislature, the platform document and Get Out The Vote.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
As Vice President, I was able to visit Normandale and Minneapolis College to table for Voter Registrations and talk about LeadMN. I have also been connecting with the multicultural groups at Minneapolis College to connect and work with them on Equity and Inclusion.
Outline your biggest achievement this month?
My biggest achievement this month would be deciding on the Equity and Inclusion Campaign with Mameneh, confirming a tagline, and finding ways to connect with Equity 2030.
Henri Mingo - Public Relations Coordinator
What progress have you made on your Cabinet duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
I have taken minutes for all Cabinet meetings and the GC meeting this previous month. I finished the edits for Star Campus which include more accessible wording, more flexibility, and a prize that students who help their campus achieve Star Campus status will get to keep. I have begun editing my letters to Senates and their President's about our scholarships as well, and we are about to finalize our theme for this year! I have begun setting up the framework for a new program we plan to begin this year at LeadMN called the Career Closet where we will provide business professional clothing for students at upcoming conferences. This past few weeks Biden announced a historic student loan relief of up to $20,000 for borrowers. I had the honor of speaking to my experience with debt and what this means for students on Minnesota Public Radio.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
Throughout the past couple of months I have continued my work on the designs for our upcoming digital badge offerings as well as work on other design materials LeadMN will use at campus visits to inform students about who we are. At Incoming Leader I presented about Star campus, Whova, Digital Badging, and Discord so students know how to stay connected in between conferences. I visited several campuses over welcome week including St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Normandale with the goal of getting students registered to vote and to let students know about our scholarships, conferences, and our advocacy campaigns.
Outline your biggest achievement this month?
My greatest achievement this month was getting to connect so many students to our scholarships during campus visits!
Caledon Johnston - Treasurer
What progress have you made on your Cabinet duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
As Treasurer this past month, I have been very active in participating in the events we had available to cabinet.
I started the month off by attending the STAR-Lite Trauma Awareness Training, which I felt gave me a much better understanding on how to notice, and to respond to trauma. This especially helps when it comes to facilitating conferences in the future, and I also was interested in learning how exactly trauma begins, and the cycles it can create if not taken care of in a humane way. From there, we had our first GC Meeting of the year and I was able to connect and learn about my fellow GC Representatives, as well as appoint two of them to the Fiscal Committee.
The next day, we had our first conference of this term at Incoming Leader, and I was able to meet many of our wonderful Representatives, and connect with the staff and my fellow cabinet members much more. It was a great experience being able to really learn about the leaders that we are working with this year, and I feel very confident that we will be doing big things this year as a whole team. During this as well, we were able to share about the campaigns that we will be running this year and came up with some goals and expectations of the teams that will be working on each campaign. Overall, Incoming Leader felt like a very productive, welcoming, and socially active event.
I will talk more about the two Campus Visits I had this month in the next section, but I was able to have a campus visit hosted on my home campus Minnesota State College Southeast Winona, as well as Rochester Community & Technical College.
Other updates in regards to the work I've been doing more behind the scenes and over telework is that we had our first Fiscal Committee Meeting with our newly appointed members, Juan Canas and Deanna Sjolie. We had a productive meeting by approving all of the reimbursement requests and stipends for August, as well as making a couple decisions, one of the notable ones for GC Members is that GC Alts will now be able to receive $20 for attending the GC meetings ALONGSIDE their Representative. This gives the incentive to have both the Rep and Alts to continue to join meetings and stay engaged, and that there isn't any tension with one getting paid and the other not getting anything for attending and being engaged in the same meeting. From this, I was able to submit the request and stipends to our billing associate who was able to process the payments for our leaders. We have also approved two emergency grants this month.
Overall as treasurer, it's been a very productive month and has really set in stone that there is a lot of work to be done this year, and I feel confident that we are the team to get this work done together.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
I have been to two Campus Visits this month and was able to assist with Mike to get students registered to vote and to pledge with us they will be voting. It was a great experience being able to see so many students again on the two campuses I went to (MSCS-Winona, RCTC) and that students are willing to pledge to vote or register in person when they are given the opportunity to do so. This will really help our student body be heard when it comes to voting.
I have also been in contact with US Bank Stadium's Volunteering coordinator and they have now gotten the paperwork that they will be submitting and afterwards we will have our contract and be able to start at the Sept. 11th Vikings game. I have also made progress on recruiting volunteers for US Bank Stadium as well, and I am currently in contact with both my home campus and potentially reaching out to our PTK Chapter to include them in the volunteering as well.
I am planning to visit Minnesota Southwest State for a campus visit this month. I also will be attending the September Virtual Conference at the end of the month.
Outline your biggest achievement this month?
My biggest achievement this month would have to be having such a successful Incoming Leader event and being able to participate in it as a cabinet member. I felt also being able to appoint the FC Members at the first opportunity I was given was also a big plus since we had such a great meeting for FC this month, and it feels like everything is falling into place and settle in as we continue to progress in this year. I feel that we will make even more progress this September as that will be in the heat of the school year and everyone's fully engaged in college.
Sylvester Jah - Governing Council Representative
What progress have you made on your GC or PC duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
For the month of August, I attended an emerging leadership training workshop to improve in my role as Governing council representative.
I also attended the LeadMN Governing Council meeting of the month and voted as a representative of my region according to the bylaws.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
This month I reached out to all colleges a part of the Metro west to established a form of connection for GOTV, Mental Health Support, and other students related matters. I currently working on a plan for GOTV at North Hennepin.
What is happening on the campuses in your region?
Currently, Students in the Metro west area are just returning to school. Most activities are anticipated of starting within the following weeks.
Tyro Devolites - Governing Council Representative
What progress have you made on your GC or PC duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
I attended the most recent meeting, as well as attended the student leadership conference. I haven't been able to reach out to the other schools of my district yet. Within my own school I've been working on our PRIDE club, even got to help show President Ali our LGBTQ center.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
I will be working with my senate and likely leadMN for our get out to vote events. As well as help my PRIDE club know how to register to vote and helpful links. I'd really like to also reach out to the other schools in Metro North and help them get involved too.
What is happening on the campuses in your region?
I haven't been able to get in touch yet with the other campuses as I've been very focused on my own course work. I hope to get in touch soon. Century has been having a couple events, with LeadMN coming to have a table. This has been a good help since I could tell people were signing up on the forms and registering to vote thanks to the tables.
Chad Jacob - Governing Council Representative
What progress have you made on your GC or PC duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
Since campuses are on the early stages of filling student senate positions to their respective teams I haven't been able to reach more than one student president thus far who just had their first senate meeting yesterday. I am waiting for response via email/phone to two other advisors hoping to be put in touch with the president elects. I will continue to pursue lines of communication as elections are carried out and positions filled so that upcoming meetings can be effective.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
I have shared my experience and the opportunities available through LeadMN with a number of students who have expressed helpful opinions toward improving college experiences locally and statewide. I have also explained the general discussion from the last GC meeting to a couple fellow members of my exec team and in our first exec meeting Sep. 2nd I will go over a few more points related to online classes and textbooks especially.
What is happening on the campuses in your region?
I'll be able to answer this after the first SE MN regional meeting can be arranged as I'm able to get into contact with more area student presidents. As described in answer to a prior question I have been reaching out to every campus but getting replies and acquiring proper contact info is proving to be slow.
Noelle Bauer - Platform Committee Representative
What progress have you made on your GC or PC duties as outlined in the LeadMN bylaws?
I have recently been transitioned into the position. I have finished my Emerging Leader Training.
What have you done or what is your plan to get students more involved with LeadMN?
I hold a leadership position on campus and I will use my outreach to tell more students about the organization.
What is happening on the campuses in your region?
We are currently wrapping up Welcome Week on campus. It has been a very busy and fun time. Many clubs tabled at the Connections Fair, as I was there tabling for my club, Empowering Women in Technology. Many students were coming back onto campus for classes now, which is interesting and different to see. This factor will play a great part in spreading awareness with LeadMN to other students.