UMKC’s Student Government Association (SGA) unanimously elected Logan Pearson as their chief of staff on Sept. 9.
Majoring in business administration, Pearson has held various roles. He was director of marketing at UMKC Enactus and an SGA Bloch senator. Pearson resigned from the latter position in order to secure his position as chief of staff.
“He took a risk resigning his senator position,” said Shewit Abai, a senator and chemistry major, during words of affirmation. “He’s prepared to do this and wants to do this position.”
Pearson’s original nervousness around his resignation turned to determination.
“I was confident, it showed I was determined to be chief of staff,” said Pearson.
He said the first order of business is to get started on Roo Refresh, which involves collecting data on the student body in order to make improvements on campus.
The SGA also had guest speaker Adriana Paez, a former SGA senator, and founder of the Civic Action Alliance (CAA).
Paez spoke on the lack of civic engagement on campus and her hopes to increase it. The CAA’s main goal is to “create a stronger civic culture across the KC metro through education, community building and creative collaboration, ” according to the CAA’s Instagram page.
Paez had SGA members participate in an activity where they talked to someone they hadn’t spoken to before. Paez believes hesitation to speak to strangers is the biggest hurdle to becoming civically engaged. Once the activity was finished Paez encouraged students to register to vote.
“The easiest thing a student can do to become more civically engaged is to join a student organization they find interesting or about something they care about,” said Paez.
For more information about the SGA, check out its Instagram and RooGroups.
