With the Student Association of George Brown College’s elections on this week, the race for director of student experience position is heating up. The three candidates, Bharavi Desai, Rohan Khullar, and Urdhva Shukla, are all newcomers to SA politics and, with the current director of student experience running for the position of director of education and equity, the winner will be a fresh face in the SA board.

Bharavi Desai 

Desai says she is passionate about leadership as she has served as a student leader in her previous academic careers in both her undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Desai is studying in George Brown’s wireless networking program. 

She says that the process of campaigning for the elections has been difficult at first, but she is glad of the connections she made. 

“I found myself very new to the cultural process when I was starting the elections,” said Desai. “But when I stepped forward, I realized that it is not that hard which I was thinking, because people are so kind and some of them are very aware about the elections.”

Throughout the election, she says that she hopes to offer students more networking and career-related opportunities, as she believes that students lack guidance in terms of career trajectory and job readiness. 

“According to me, direction of the career should be the main part,” said Desai. “Students might have a lack of guidance so I want to make sure that they know that an [good] attitude can lead them towards the right direction, and I will help them with that.” 

In order to do this, Desai says she will collaborate with the board of directors and the respecting faculty members to sort out the needs for program-specific events. However, Desai also prioritizes mental health awareness for students as well. 

“I will host some events in mental health awareness since students have faced a lot of mental health issues during this pandemic,” said Desai. 

Desai cites that the diversity of students and their experiences are an important part of the campus community. However, she also says that unity is important for students to achieve their desired goals. 

“I believe that every student has different flairs and we should respect all of them,” said Desai. “We can say it like if we have unity, we have different abilities, we can go to different stages.” 

Rohan Khullar 

Khullar is a second-year programming student at GBC and is running for a position in the election in order to improve student’s lives within the college community. 

“I want to give students the best college experience,” said Khullar. “I am a people’s person and I like to help people with their problems.” 

Some of these mentioned problems include mental health, difficulty adjusting to a new environment as an international student, and promoting more events on and off-campus. 

“I want to solve issues and add more events like coaching events, especially during this time of the pandemic,” said Khullar. “So many international students are facing so many issues, whether it is through academics or being connected with family.” 

Khullar says that feedback from students is important in order to plan events. At the end, he aims to engage with students and help them interact with culture and the overarching school community. 

“We have so many people around the world and many of them are looking for social events or cultural events,” said Khullar. 

In order to promote resources which GBC offers to students, Khullar is planning to use social media to connect students with college events, as he believes that networking is important. 

“As at this time of COVID, networking is really important and I believe that regularly giving information about multi-events is really important so that students will socialize with each other and have more connections,” said Khullar in his candidate statement. 

Urdhva Shukla 

Shukla is a second-year Computer System Technology student. He believes that fostering a collaborative and social environment is important for students within GBC. 

“I will aim to create synergy amongst the members of the sphere, encourage them and develop them along with bringing attention to conduction of multiple events where you can exhibit your talents,” said Shukla in his candidate statement. 

Previously, Shukla has experience in non-profit organizations in India such as YUVA UNSTOPPABLE, which is a movement that works to eliminate barriers of social inequality and break stereotypes. 

Throughout his experience in this organization, Shukla says that he has learned to support students for growth and uplift them to achieve their full potential. 

“I assure you my availability and constant support in all spheres,” said Shukla. “I aim to bring positive energy to this institution.”

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The SAGBC’s elections run until April 9 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Students can cast their vote at sagbc.simplyvoting.com.