Two candidates are competing for the position of Junior Senator in the Engineering Society (EngSoc) for the 2020-21 year.
Shashank Ojha
Shashank Ojha, Sci ’24, is running on a platform of improving mental health and increasing student support.
He’s currently the First Year AMS Representative in EngSoc, a role in which he represents both EngSoc and the AMS as a voice for first-year students. He’s also the Mechanical Lead in the Queen’s VEX U Robotics Team.
“I want to create a community where students feel as involved and supported as possible,” Ojha told The Journal. “Queen’s Engineers are known for our interpersonal skills, as well as our academics. I want to open up as many opportunities as I can to safely socialize.”
Ojha addressed the isolation many students are feeling due to remote learning.
“COVID-19 has been hard on all of us, but I want to reinvoke students’ love for Queen’s.”
He’d like to open more collaborative study spaces and create more virtual group nights where students can work on projects together.
“I decided to run because I know Queen’s is a special university,” Ojha said. “We work with each other rather than against each other, and the Queen’s Senate upholds this same ideology.”
Luka Clancy
“I love my school and I love my program,” Luka Clancy, Sci ’23, told The Journal. “I want to be Junior Senator to represent the Queen’s engineering culture.”
Clancy was the Events Coordinator on the Physics and Engineering Student Council, where his main role was to plan events and game nights with professors to increase student engagement.
The main pillars of his platform are preserving engineering traditions, engaging international students, and integrating online students into the Queen’s engineering lifestyle.
He described the fear of losing traditions unique to Queen’s engineering.
“The traditions we do in frosh week builds so much camaraderie with our peers, and there’s a feeling that some of these traditions might get shut down,” Clancy said. “I will be working really hard to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
Clancy also said he’s passionate about expanding the community to bridge the divide between international and Canadian students.
“There’s a disconnect between international and Canadian students,” Clancy said. “I’d really like to work on making them feel more comfortable and getting them engaged in the community. This is an effort that will have to come from both sides.”
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Tags
elections 2021, Engineering Society, EngSoc
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