Team MENu focuses on three pillars: highlighting positivity, reliability, and teamwork within the Concurrent Education Student Association (CESA).
Presidential candidate Neha Rawal, Vice-President (External) candidate Molly Fast, and Vice-President (Internal) candidate Erica He make up team MENu, all ConEd ’27.
The President oversees all CESA affairs, has monthly meetings with the Undergraduate Dean of Education, and advocates broadly for ConEd students. Vice-President (Internal) responsibilities include compiling weekly updates to the Year Representatives and determining recipients of a variety of ConEd awards. The Vice-President (External) sits on the Bursary Committee and acts as a resource for a variety of CESA Coordinators.
All three members of the team have been involved with CESA since their first years at Queen’s, starting as interns at CESA. Rawal and He were both involved with the Queen’s Conference on Education (QCE) in their second years as the Conference Chair and Director of Finance, respectively, while Fast was the Social Affairs Coordinator for CESA. This year Rawal is the Third-Year Representative for CESA and He is the Treasurer.
The Journal sat down with Rawal and He to discuss their platform but was unable to speak with Fast as she’s on exchange. In the interview, Rawal spoke on the importance of getting to know everyone and having fun within CESA, adding he believes that “a big thing about CESA is making sure everyone feels connected on the team, not just that they’re here to do a role or a job.”
Foundational to their platform are their three core pillars, intended to guide them as they lead.
The first pillar is positivity. While not outlining specifics, they discussed how this pillar was their “biggest one,” allowing them to focus on creating a space where everyone feels welcome and excited to be a part of CESA.
Their teamwork pillar aims to create community within CESA, emphasizing collaboration and valuing everyone’s individual efforts. They plan on strengthening connections across years, streams, and experiences as a way to make sure all voices in ConEd are heard.
“We’re big believers that this team can’t work without each and every single person,” Rawal stated.
Lastly, team MENu wants to be ‘reliable’ the candidates stated that they want the rest of the team to be able to rely on them to be accountable for everything they do, promising clear communication, dependable follow through with events, and meaningful academic and community support.
“When we say something is going to happen, we’ll do everything in our power to make it happen.” Rawal said.
Through their “direct affiliation” with the Practicum Office, He spoke on working alongside them to ensure there is transparency and effective communication between the office and students when it comes to placements. She mentioned helping students understand the lengthy application process, and ensuring everyone in ConEd “knows what the process is about.”
For team MENu, equity is one of the biggest things in ConEd. They both stated that ConEd strives to be as inclusive as possible and allow people to feel like they belong there, mentioning QCE and workshops offered by CESA as ways to foster equity within the program.
“We just think one of the most rewarding things about ConEd is getting to know everyone, having fun, being kind, and just doing a bunch of ConEd stuff,” Rawal said.
CESA will host an open forum on Feb. 1 at 6:30 p.m. in Mackintosh-Corry Hall B201. Voting is open from Feb. 5 to Feb. 6, with results announced on Feb. 7.
Tags
CESA, CESA elections, CESA executive, Elections 2026
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