Admissions | My.emich
Calendar | Forms | Contact Us
Vote for your International Student Association's executive board on Monday, September 24.
First, you need to become an ISA member. Only ISA members can vote online. Students who only sign up for membership on the day of election are not able to vote. To sign up, go to the Campus Life Student Portal (https://emu.collegiatelink.net), enter your emich account information, and search for ISA. Click on "Join Organization" on the right- that's it! You need to become a member by 8 p.m. on Sunday, September 23 to vote. Second, log onto the ISA Campus Life portal (see above) and choose your favorite candidates. You can only vote once. Voting will be on Monday, September 24, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. All voting is done online. Those candidates who win a majority of votes will be elected. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, September 25.
Candidates cannot distribute fliers or publically campaign on or off-campus (for example the Student Center, Halle library, computer labs). Candidates are able to create Facebook pages for the election and post their candidacy information on the OIS website. All and any issues of candidate ineligibility or rule-breaking behavior should be reported immediately to the OIS.
President
Name: Alper Mercan Studying: Bachelors in Accounting Why running for ISA office: Throughout my experience in ISA, I learned to be an open minded person and be a leader. I got exposed to many different cultures, and learned from them. I have held many leadership positions at Eastern Michigan University, and I know how to successfully run an organization. I want to be the President of International Student Association, because I believe I can improve the organization as well as the International community at EMU. I served as Vice President for Finance in ISA, where I carefully managed the budget. From this experience, I learned how the finance system works at EMU for student organizations. I worked with many great leaders, and I learned from them. I saw first hand, what went well and what went wrong in the events. I saw which approaches worked and which approaches didn't while working with International Students. As the Vice President for Finance, I did little bit of everything and I learned from them. I learned how International Student Association operates, and what needs to be done to make ISA even more successful. I formed my own organization, Turkish Cultural Student Association. From this experience, I learned how to start an organization from scratch and make it successful. Within a week, we rose from two members to twenty members. The interest for the organization was great. I helped plan the game night events, which were very popular. I played a big role in bringing Turkish Consulate of Chicago and Honorary Turkish Consulate of Detroit to EMU to speak about Turkey. I played a big role in TCSAs collaboration with ISA in International Food Festival. Currently, I serve in the Student Government as a senator. I have been serving the International Students as a senator since January 2012. As a senator, I have been on the Business and Finance Committee. In August, I was chosen as the Vice – Chair of Business and Finance Committee. As a senator, I learned how to the student body is governed. I also got a chance to attend Board of Regents Student Affairs committee meeting. I learned what they do and how they run the meetings. I want ISA to collaborate with Student Government so that International Students can have a bigger voice at EMU! If elected, I will make sure that this happens. Name: Himaja Ramayanam Studying: Bachelors in Criminology Why running for ISA office: I am a member of the ISA since last year and I really liked working with international students. The main reason I would like to be a part of the executive board of ISA is to meet a lot of people from diversified cultures and get to know about other cultures and traditions. Being a part of ISA last fall and winter semester was so exciting and it created a lot of interest in me to take part in various activities like karaoke and shows like Colors in harmony. Being a member of the board I think it gives more opportunities to work closely with people and successfully coordinate all the events. I moved in from India 3 years ago and once being an international student myself, I know getting to know how to do stuff around campus is how difficult. I like helping people which their difficulties and help them by answering their questions. Qualification and experiences: I could talk about my past experiences in High- school, I was the president of our school charity club and I was also the lead event planner of our cultural association. In EMU, I hosted the recent show Colors in harmony. I also participated in other events and knew a lot about other cultures. Being a Indian student I took part in a lot of Indian events and thus took interest in various other cultures and started associating with ISA. I see this as a great opportunity to meet new people and also learn more about being professional at a job. If given a chance i will make sure i would organize good events and i am sure we would make a great team. Name: Spandana Yerubandi Studying: Masters in Computer Information Systems Why running for ISA office: I want to actively affect the International Student Community at EMU and I believe becoming the ISA executive board member will help me accomplish this stupendous task, in the best way possible. This is the best platform for me to closely work with people from different cultures on culture related issues. Becoming the executive board member will give the exposure I need to become a 'truly global citizen' and make new friends. This will also give me an opportunity to learn and understand cultural sensitivities which otherwise cannot be understood in a typical professional setting. "Experience is not happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."Aldous Huxley (Text and Pretexts: An anthology with commentaries) I truly believe and practice the above quotation as our experiences are defined by the resultant actions. I will bring a plethora of experiences I have had and what I learnt from those experiences to the ISA executive board. This starts with my tryst with democracy nearly 11 years ago. I was nominated for the Asst. Head Girl Post by my teachers in 2001 and I contested the elections against another opponent (also nominated by my teachers). As a 13 year old this was huge for me. I campaigned for the elections, I even had a symbol ( In India, which is the largest democracy in the world along with US, political parties have symbols for their respective parties). I also gave an election manifesto and an extempore speech, nearly 4000 students, that is the whole school voted and I won the election with the majority! I became the Asst. Head Girl for the year 2001-2002 and later The Head Girl for the year 2002-2003. In 2003 I graduated from 10th grade (junior high school) with flying colors. This experience has taught me the importance of Team work in seeing any project through completion. This helped me improve my emotional intelligence and enabled me to stick to deadlines against all odds. I learnt time management as this is mission critical to balance academics and out of the class activities. I also learnt to face the opposites of life …success and failure, praise and criticism with equanimity, as when you are in a responsible position like Head Girl (or even President of United States!!) you are bound to be bombarded with these opposites of life in a cyclic manner. It is crucial to maintain mental equilibrium and not be elated by praise or depressed by criticism. This mental attitude enabled me to focus on my work, maintain my poise and deliver exceptional results even under a lot of stress. I have organized many events in junior high school, senior high and even at undergraduate level. These events include coordinating seminars, organizing contests for national tech fests etc. (See resume). Very recently, I am also elected as the 'Treasurer' of the Global IT Club of EMU. I would like to contest for the President of ISA and VP- Marketing positions. I believe that with all the experience I have had I will be able to add a lot of value to the Executive board of International Student Association.
Vice President of Marketing
Vice President of Event Planning
Be a part of ISA and make a difference!
