SGA has hired a new adviser, Noelle San Souci, who will guide students in SGA and create a stronger link between the student body and the student government.
San Souci, a UCCS alumnus, spoke about her new position and what she is looking forward to this year.
Where are you from and what is your education?
I’m originally from Oakland, California. I got my master’s here at UCCS. For the last several years, I’ve been working at CSU Pueblo as the adviser to their ASG [student government] as well as their student organizations and fraternity and sorority life.
After I got my master’s degree here, I left and worked at CSU Pueblo. This job [at UCCS] came up and it aligned with what I was doing at CSU Pueblo. I actually live up here with my family, so it just ended up aligning really well.
I’ve always loved the UCCS campus, I’ve wanted to come back here and I’ve wanted for a long time to work here. It all happened to line up.
What prompted you to take this position? Is there anything you like about advising?
What I love about my position is that I have so much interaction with students. The reason why I wanted to stay in the advising role is because I take a lot of pride in working with students.
I love seeing their journey from when they are first starting out in leadership roles to seeing them through different phases of that. [I love] seeing them upon when they leave the university, how much they’ve changed over time and playing a role in that.
That’s something that I knew I wanted to continue with, in that developmental process with students and seeing their growth. Like I said, when I saw this position came up, I already loved what I did at CSU Pueblo in working with students in that adviser role. And so this lined up perfectly with what I already love to do.
What would you like to see in SGA moving forward?
With my experience in CSU Pueblo, it is a smaller university, and our student government was really focused on bringing programs or traditions to campus. I’d love to work with the student government here to bring new programs to campus. … I’d love to see SGA here help to develop other students into leadership roles.
Maybe they can also have a face in the community and the Colorado Springs community and [see] what that service looks like on campus and off campus. I think that’s something that I would love to see, student government being more visible on campus.
I know this semester they’re talking about doing a dance and partnering with Student Life. Not getting so much into event planning, but different programs that SGA can bring to campus to be more visible.
And to let the student body know that they’re here and what they’re doing. Different ways to keep the student body informed of things that are happening. Those are different things I’d like to see happening.
Like I said, I’m brand-new to campus so I’m still learning what they have done in the past and what they are doing. Those are some initial thoughts on my first couple weeks here.
What are you most excited for this year in terms of being an adviser?
This year, what I’m most excited about is working with the different SGA students in their different roles and learning about their ideas for this year and what they want to get accomplished.
I’d love to hear about different issues that they ran on when they were running for their position; what does that look like? What are they looking forward to?
I’m excited to see how I can help them accomplish that. I’m just excited right now to get to know the different students and how they see their role playing out over the next year.
I’m still getting to learn everybody and what they’ve been up to so that’s probably the most exciting part. Just reimagining how SGA’s role can affect campus.
Students can read more about SGA and their upcoming events on their website.