New Student Alliance directors introduced at final meeting of semester

The final meeting of Grand Rapids Community College Student Alliance last week was centered around closure of the school year and passing off duties to incoming executive board members.

The four Student Alliance Executive Board members gave their final remarks about the year and expressed their gratitude for being members of Student Alliance.

All four of the current Student Alliance Executive Board members (President Jose Garcia, Director of External Affairs Maleny Crespo, Director of Communication Denis Martinez and Operations Director Kyezie Bwanangela) are winding down their terms as student leaders.

GRCC freshman Cale Merdzinski is the president-elect for the 2017-2018 school year and freshman Kaitlynn Karl is the incoming director of communication. The other two positions are currently open to applicants and the deadline for submitting the application is set for April 28, according to Director of Student Life and Conduct Lina Blair.

There was the second annual passing of the shoe, where the outgoing Student Alliance president gives the incoming president a shoe that signifies them “taking a step in the right direction,” according to Garcia.

“It’s literally a right shoe,” Garcia said. “And this is the second time (doing this). The shoe used to belong to Evan Macklin, which he graciously donated. He was a previous advisor of Student Alliance.”

The idea is to have the current president write a letter to the incoming president and to start a collection of letters from the former presidents to show what they were learning and thinking about during their time as president. The ritual started last year with former Student Alliance president Brandon Sinclair.

“Brandon handed it off to me for the first time, in which he left a letter/note in the shoe as an advice letter, but more of a ‘good luck’ letter to me,” Garcia said. “ “So then this year, my note’s in there as well as the previous letter, with the goal being … to get a glimpse of what people were thinking throughout the years.”