Andrew Berg and Amelie Barrios presenting at the OMSB forum. MISHA JABAL-ABADI/ THE QUADRANGLE
Misha Jabal-Abadi, Contributor
On Thursday, Oct. 24, two elected students from the O’Malley School of Business (OMSB) held their semesterly meeting to give students the opportunity to learn about what the Student Government Association (SGA) does, how they connect with the other clubs on campus and how students can voice current thoughts on the school year.
The presentation was held by two OMSB representatives, Andrew Berg and Amelie Barrios. Berg and Barrios kicked off the event with an icebreaker activity at the start of the presentation, which allowed students to feel comfortable asking questions, bringing up current issues and more. During the activity, Berg, a senior finance and accounting double major, and Barrios, a junior management major, shared their insight into their majors, acknowledging that the majority of their audience was studying in either the same or similar fields.
After the icebreaker, Berg and Barrios spoke about their current goals, with one being to bring more student engagement to campus. They explained how each class – freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors – elect two individuals to represent their class in SGA, alongside two other representatives from the other schools at MU. While Berg and Barrios serve as the representatives for the OMSB, there are also representatives for the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering.
Attendees were also made aware of other types of representative roles in student government, such as those who represent students who are commuting as well as resident students. It was emphasized that there is always someone to go to for future reference, whether it’s for financial aid or anything club-related.
“In the future, if you are a club leader and you’re responsible for managing your club budget, the vice president of finance is someone that you may want to be in contact with,” Berg said. “If you have any concerns over the budget, or even if you want to request additional funds. And just know they are open to all students, so you don’t have to be a member of the student government to attend those meetings. Anyone in the school, any student, is allowed to attend them.”
Throughout the presentation, Berg also emphasized other important concepts, such as how open student government is, how they want students to learn more about what they do and the process that goes on behind-the-scenes, whenever they have to make any decisions.
After the presentation concluded, The Quadrangle spoke with Keira Muller, a sophomore accounting major. Muller commented on how she enjoyed the interactive aspect of the forum, and appreciated how students were able to partake in a discussion-based environment rather than just a lecture.
“I love how interactive this was, and I hope we have more really interactive stuff going forward. It was a lot better than a lot of the lecture-style club events that we often have here.”
Katie Reidy, another sophomore accounting major also made a comment to The Quadrangle about how she found the event to be insightful and engaging. She emphasized that she is looking forward to future meetings and mentioned how she feels more educated about student government following the event.
“I definitely know more about what the student government does and everything they’re able to accomplish,” Reidy said.