Dear Students,
It is with great excitement that I announce my candidacy for President of the Suffolk University Student Government Association (SGA). SGA is the organization that directly represents students here at Suffolk and acts as the voice, eyes and ears of the student body. For the past academic year, it has been an honor serving as your Vice President, but with the upcoming SGA elections, the time to elect the people who will represent you the next academic year is fast approaching, and it is very important that you all vote to make sure your voice is heard.
During my time at Suffolk I have had the pleasure of meeting people from many different places and backgrounds. I believe that something that makes our university so special is the people who comprise our vibrant and diverse community. I personally am an international student who was born and raised in Venezuela. My parents were both born to immigrant families in our country. My father’s side of the family emigrated from Italy shortly after the end of World War II, and my mother’s side of the family emigrated from Hungary shortly after the war as well.
I often get asked by my peers why I am in SGA: A big part of why I have such a passion for public service and for giving back to my community is because of the inspiration my family has been to me. Having Jewish-Hungarian grandparents who survived the Holocaust and built a life in a new country to provide for their family, and an Italian grandfather who at the time fought with the partisans against the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, taught me how important it is to fight for what you believe in.
My grandparents moved to Venezuela in search of a better life, which they had until a new dictatorship took over our country. When I applied to Suffolk, it was not only because of my admiration for American politics but also because my parents wanted to keep me safe, which is not possible in a country where crime, corruption, food shortages and political instability now form part of people’s everyday lives. They wanted to give me the opportunity to also look for a better life, which I will be eternally grateful for.
When I came to the United States, Suffolk University had become not only the place I go to school but also my new home. I always tell my friends that I came to this country thinking it was perfect but in my time here I have learned that this is far from true. There is a lot of work to be done and the place to start is right here on our campus. As Vice President I vowed to the students who elected me to be a voice for everyone. I noticed international students were not as actively involved in our school as other members of our diverse community; issues with class registration had started to become a problem for many students, and SGA, which is an amazing organization, lacked awareness itself.
My goal was to improve all of those things, and while SGA does not have the power to implement change, we sure can influence it. I have seen members of this organization work hard to achieve the same goals and I am happy to see how we have improved. However, we are still not done. In his inauguration speech in 1961, President Kennedy discussed all the goals he had set for his administration. He said, “All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”
In regards to these issues that affect student life here at Suffolk, I am proud to say that we have begun. Now, let us continue. There is still work to do with campus safety, overall student involvement, issues with the City of Boston, and our school’s administration. However, all these projects and goals that we set for ourselves cannot be accomplished alone, and this is why I need your help. I look forward to keep serving the students of my university for the remainder of this semester and ask you to allow me the honor of serving as your next Student Body President.
Sincerely,
Daniel Gazzani
Please contact me with any questions or comments at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you.
