Menna Nasser

What relevant experience would you bring to the position you are seeking?

I have past leadership experience from many different organizations. I have held roles such as: Vice President, Event Coordinator, Treasurer, and Secretary in the past and these different roles have made me well rounded and hopefully able to succeed as a Senator. For example, when previously in the position of Secretary, I was required to track meeting minutes and to write summaries of each meeting held. As current event coordinator of Muslim Student Association, I listen to new ideas and concerns of members while also working along side others to hold entertaining events within the club. Both of these tasks align with those of a SGA Senator as I plan to listen to student concerns on campus and hopefully implement change at UMBC. I was also an SGA Senator at UMBC during the 2019- 2020 academic year and have familiarity with the role. My prior experience as a Senator was very positive and I plan to finish incomplete initiatives I had, while also starting new ones.

How do you intend on fulfilling your role while working alongside other members of SGA? What strategies do you use to address conflict?

As a SGA Senator, working in teams and with others is very important. There's always an initiative that can use a fresh perspective or that could use an extra person working on it. I have worked on many collaborative initiatives in the past and I am already planning to work with a senator on some of her current initiatives.

I would say during my time in Senate in the past, there hasn't been many conflict issues. But, if conflict arises I will address it by finding the root of the problem and trying to defuse it verbally, with a compromise, or with a solution that seems best fit based on the situation. Finding a middle ground is usually the best way to make majority happy in these types of situations.

What is your vision for UMBC and the UMBC student body?

For the future, I visualize UMBC as a community where students are more involved on campus, feel as their opinion is heard, and can freely talk about campus issues that may arise. UMBC has students from many different backgrounds and their voices deserve to be heard so I hope I can contribute to UMBC becoming more inclusive of everyone. This can be accomplished by making the student body of UMBC feel as they can reach out to SGA officers with issues they may have about the campus and by encouraging more students to be involved with student government.

How do you plan to facilitate communications with your constituents?

I plan to facilitate discussions and reach out to my constituents through mediums that are most easily accessible. Such as, through social media, email, and my office hours. Social media is a big way to get people more involved and facilitate in conversations surrounding campus affairs, especially since in person events are very limited due to COVID.