Vice President of Student Life

About Yourself:

Hi Banana Slugs,

My name is Jimmy Gomez, and I am ecstatic to serve as your Vice President of Student Life and Advocate for the 2021-2022 school year. I am a first-generation low-income Latinx undergraduate student from Inglewood, California, in Los Angeles County, with career aspirations in immunology and public health. The main reasons I ran for this office were to showcase the intersectionalities between coalition building, student advocacy, scientific inquiry, equity, and wonders of student life.

With the current social uncertainty, the Office of Student Life will advertise and expand resources from the Student Advocate's Office and SUA Food Pantry. The goal will be to promote health awareness as it reflects a crucial initiative that the office will carry forward. Furthermore, I want to create new campus-wide events that uplifts the student body as they transition back to in-person instruction. Our office will always be open for any advice and we highly encourage students to reach out about how they can be involved with event programming!

The Office of Student Life is also an office that functions as an extension of student needs. My office and I hope to continually improve the student-campus experience. For example, learning ways we can remove systemic barriers that have impacted our students for far too long. I am optimistic that by reducing student anxieties about reaching out for basic needs support, and elevating event programming in our current hybrid model, we can forge an inclusive unforgettable UCSC community.

Past Involvement:

Third Year (2020 - 2021):

• Student Union Assembly Vision Committee
• Sigma Phi Zeta Fraternity
• MEDLIFE at UC Santa Cruz
• Peer Review Conduct Board
• Hermanos Unidos de Santa Cruz
• Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning
• Colleges Nine and Ten Practical Activism Committee 
• Colleges Against Cancer at UC Santa Cruz
• SACNAS: Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos & Native Americans in Science at UC Santa Cruz

Second Year (2019 - 2020):

• College Ten Senate
• Student Union Assembly College Ten Elected Representative 
• Educational Opportunity Program Peer Advising Leader (PALs)

Freshmen Year (2018 - 2019):

• HACER Alternative Spring Break (ASB)
• HACER Program Summer Field Research Intern
• MESA-MEP Engineering Program Cohort
• Educational Opportunity Program Bridge Academy Cohort
• Educational Opportunity Program Men of Color Community Development Intern
• California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) Residential Assistant at UC Santa Cruz

Office Initiatives:

The Office of Student Life’s platforms are based around three main ideas — increasing accessibility for basic needs, uplifting student engagement, and advocating for mental health resources. Under the Student Advocate’s Office (SAO) and specialized branches, our team aims to provide services such as the following. First, we will provide student assistance with the enrollment process for CalFresh. Next, our team will distribute a newly acquired $50,000 relief grant for emergency housing rent relief. Another focus will be to aid students with housing searches, safe rental guidance, and offer referrals to campus resources to alleviate student crises. To meet student organizations’ missions, I will be advocating for greater funding from the Student Union’s Student Organizing Funding source (SOFA). Mental health will be a priority for the Office of Student Life where we envision building a relationship with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). This partnership will increase the amount of comprehensive workshops on mental wellness and self-development available to our student body. With the ongoing pandemic, mental health still poses a significant burden for many students. To ease the impacts of behavioral health on students’ academic performances, the Office of Student Life will continue to advocate for the destigmatization of mental health. With that, our office will support students with any academic grievances at the highest capacity that we can.  

Fun Facts about yourself:

• My favorite candy is Sour Patch Kids! 
• I enjoy kayaking with sea otters at Elkhorn Slough at Moss Landing and Santa Cruz Wharf, CA!
• On occasions, I do rock climbing and rappelling across mountain cliffs at Yosemite National Park or the Sierra Nevadas Mountains!

Thank you for visiting the Office of Student Life page! If you haven’t already, feel free to follow our Instagram page: @suavpsl.ucsc, Like our Facebook Page @ucscsuasl, or send an email anytime! Additionally, I can share resources, scholarships, internships, and amazing personal experiences if interested in getting involved with any of the organizations mentioned above. The Office of Student Life updates all our social media platforms to inform students about campus events happening on-campus, off-campus, and remotely!

Sincerely,

Jimmy Gomez