As a student who currently attends the monthly ACC meetings as the Undergraduate chair representative for Animal Health I have had the chance to advocate for students regarding price changes, calendar changes, or potential program changes. Furthermore, I have also had the opportunity to vote on changes that may occur outside of the faculty, such as with changes to chemistry and biology at the 100 level. This was completed through discussing opportunities for learning or a lack thereof if the program changes too drastically.

Moreover, through monthly meetings with supporting staff, academic chairs representatives, and the dean chair I am aware of current and "in-the-making," program and scheduling changes, such as with HECOL and ANSC. I have also had the opportunity to add input from a student perspective with these course changes.

As such, I am very interested in becoming VP Academic to continue advocating for students at an academic level with regards to ACC meetings. Additionally, I could have the opportunity to share more student voices with the faculty staff in this position by sending out monthly or biweekly feedback forms, and gathering information from PR. Lastly, in the same manner I would send large emails to all students of ALES with academic resources and establishing study sessions.

I am interested in the VP Academic position because I value ensuring that students feel supported academically and that their concerns are meaningfully represented in conversations with faculty. Many academic resources exist within the university, but students are often unsure how to access them or may hesitate to raise concerns when they encounter challenges in their courses. I would like to help strengthen the connection between students, academic resources, and faculty leadership so that students feel supported throughout their program and confident that their feedback is heard.

My experience as a Residence Assistant gave me strong experience in many of the responsibilities outlined in this role. As an RA, I regularly helped connect residents with university resources related to academics, mental health, and student services. I often served as the first point of contact when students were struggling and helped guide them toward the appropriate supports. I also frequently brought forward concerns from residents to my supervisors and facilitated communication between students and residence leadership, which sometimes resulted in changes to policies or additional supports being implemented. Through this role, I developed experience advocating for students, facilitating communication, and ensuring concerns were addressed constructively and respectfully, while also facilitating 24 events over eight months focused on residents’ personal and developmental goals, overseeing a community of more than 50 residents, and completing over 90 hours of training in professional communication, workplace safety, and complex problem-solving.

One goal I would like to work toward during my term is establishing a faculty-specific peer tutoring program. While general tutoring services exist at the university, particularly for general sciences, many students benefit most from support provided by peers who have recently succeeded in the exact courses they are taking, such as ALES specific courses. I would like to recruit upper-year students who have performed well in challenging courses within the faculty to offer structured drop-in tutoring sessions. This initiative could help students navigate difficult material while also building stronger peer mentorship within the faculty.

Another goal would be creating a student academic feedback system that allows students to share concerns or suggestions throughout the semester. While formal course evaluations already exist and are important for maintaining teaching quality, they are typically directed only to professors and occur at the end of a course, when it is often too late to address issues affecting the current cohort of students. I would like to create a space where students can submit feedback or concerns that the faculty club can review and bring forward in meetings with academic staff when appropriate. This could also include short mid-semester check-ins or surveys to identify common challenges early and ensure student perspectives are consistently represented in discussions about academic improvement.

I also recognize that the faculty already participates in the University of Alberta’s broader quality assurance process, where programs undergo comprehensive reviews on a five-to-seven year cycle to ensure long-term academic quality. These reviews are an important part of maintaining strong academic programs and have led to meaningful improvements within the faculty. However, because these reviews operate on longer timelines, I believe there is also value in having more continuous student-driven feedback mechanisms that can address smaller academic concerns as they arise during the semester or academic year. A student-led feedback system such as the one proposed above, could help complement the existing quality assurance processes by providing insights into the day-to-day academic experience of students.

Overall, my goal as VP Academic would be to strengthen both academic support and communication within the faculty. By improving access to peer tutoring and creating clearer pathways for students to share academic feedback, I hope to help ensure that students feel supported in their coursework and that their perspectives are consistently represented in conversations about academic improvement.