Once a month we will be showcasing a student that has done excellent work with our Groots initiative. The Groots initiative is a grass roots campaign to get students involved in building support for an issue by showing legislators how many people a certain problem effects. This month MSCSA is highlighting Asha Hurreh, a student senator at Normandale Community College.
If you’ve ever been stopped on Normandale Community College campus and asked to sign a letter to your legislator requesting them to support a 1% tuition cut, you may have been stopped by Asha Hurreh, and she doesn’t even have to pay tuition yet.
Asha is an 11th grade PSEO (Postsecondary Enrollment Options) student who is in her second semester at Normandale Community College. She joined student senate last semester when MSCSA Treasurer Isaac Jahraus convinced her to go to a meeting to see what it was about. Asha realized that by joining she would have a voice on campus and she could represent a group of the many minorities that attend Normandale Community College.
Last fall, Asha became a GOTV intern at MSCSA and asked students to pledge to vote. She really enjoyed the work and found that tabling is a successful way to talk with a lot of students. “The hardest part of tabling is initially approaching students, but once you get going, students usually agree with what you are saying, and if not that’s okay.” Since last fall, Asha has taken what she learned about tabling and is now using that method to grow support for the Groots campaign.
From the beginning of the campaign, Asha has been working hard to get signatures to show support for a 1% tuition cut. “For many students as soon as I say ‘cut tuition’ they ask where they should sign. They agree that tuition is too high.” Asha has been supporting the Groots campaign not only on campus, but she also spent her spring break gathering signatures from around her community. She went back to her high school during parent-teacher conferences, and her and a friend went to their different places of worship to ask people for their support.
“There are so many people that have to pay tuition and also have other responsibilities like full-time jobs and taking care of family. By helping now to make change, I hope that when I get into their shoes I won’t have these same worries.”
Do you want to get involved? Sign our petition to tell your legislators to decrease tuition
by 1 percent!