Jamil Scott, the Student Government Association’s current Vice President of Academic Affairs, is running for the body’s president.
Jamil Scott knows how difficult it can be to make it through college.
After her single mother lost her job as a result of the economic recession, Scott wondered how her family would continue to pay the bills. Although she earned a scholarship that has allowed her to continue her education, Scott knows not all students are as fortunate.
She has fought for those students and has climbed through the ranks of the Student Government Association over the past three years, advocating for the needs that are too often overlooked. Now, she is running for SGA president on the For Party ticket, hoping to harness the full potential of the SGA to help ensure all students have a positive experience during their time at this university.
But Scott knows students often see the SGA as disconnected from the rest of the student body and its needs, and she said real progress can’t happen until SGA members and everyday students work as a cohesive unit.
“I love the Student Government Association, but everybody doesn’t, and I want to change that,” Scott said. “I see an organization that could do a lot more to reach out and could be more accessible in reaching out to students.”
With an uncertain budget cut looming, Scott said keeping college affordable and accessible would be her main priority should she be elected president.
“These should be some of the best four years of our lives,” Scott said. “Students should be able to enjoy the best of the educational experience and not have to worry about the cost or whether they have to take an extra loan.”
To help fight those cuts and keep college affordable, Scott said she plans to network and reach out to student groups, which is second nature to her. In addition to serving as SGA vice president of academic affairs this year, she is also president of the Black Honors Caucus, the director of events for the College Park Law Society, an Honors ambassador and a W.E.B. Du Bois Honors Society member.
“She makes everyone feel their opinion matters,” said junior physiology and neurobiology major Aaron Wiggins, vice president of the Black Honors Caucus. “When she sees an issue, she searches out who’s responsible and really works to try to fix it and go after it.”
Scott said she has always yearned to take the lead – a quality her single mother instilled in her at an early age. She served as SGA president at her high school and was an active member of the Spanish National Honor Society and National Honor Society, her class council and her school’s rotary club.
While Scott initially wanted to “take things slow” when she first came to the university, that quickly changed.
“I realized I was not really being myself at all,” Scott said. “To be me is to be super involved. I love working with other students. I love having an effect on the world.”
Scott first joined the SGA as a member of the Student Groups Committee. When she returned as the Denton Community legislator the following year, she realized how disconnected many members seemed to be from the students they represented.
“I learned it was harder to connect with students than I originally thought,” Scott said. “It’s a much better model to connect with other student groups and to create a network of people who can better assist students.”
It was a model Scott chose to exemplify during her tenure, staying in constant contact with resident assistants and her counterparts in the Residence Hall Association to stay attuned to the needs of her constituents.
When Scott won her seat as vice president of academic affairs this year, she took up a number of new initiatives to address what she saw as some of the most pressing needs of the student body. She took the lead in advocating for affordable textbook options, and she also formed a diversity coalition within the body to further tap into the needs of minority students on the campus.
Scott said her experience leading the diversity coalition opened her eyes to several new issues. She also recalled a time when she and other coalition members visited a local high school to address the perception among Prince George’s County students that this university was not accessible to them.
“She has undoubtedly been a strong advocate for students, especially for students who needed a stronger advocate,” SGA Director of Governmental Affairs Zach Cohen said. “She’s committed to not only working for students, but also to work to see what the pulse of the student body is.”
villanueva@umdbk.com
