By Steven van de Graaf
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Lara Hofmann and I am 21 years old. I am currently in my second semester and I am majoring in Law, Politics, and Economics.
What position are you running for?
I am running for AAC Student advisor!
Why are you running for this position?
Because I think it is the best position for me to give back to our community. Since I started studying at UCR the experience has been super great; the people here are so nice and they will help you in any way they can. So I want to give back to these people and I feel like the Student advisor is the best position for me to do that.
Why do you think the Student advisor position specifically suits you best?
I feel like I have a good knowledge of academics, which is what connects all of us at UCR. Additionally, I want to get the most out of my time at UCR and I think that my knowledge of our academics or the student handbook for example allow me to help others do so as well. I am also a very organized person, which I think would help a lot. Finally, I like interacting with other people and I feel like I am good at representing the student body with UCR council meetings, for example.
Do you already have any changes or improvements in mind?
No, to be fair I really like the job Marije is doing currently. What I would like to improve on is approachability. What I see is that a lot of people pose their academics related questions in the Welcome to UCR facebook group, which is fine, but they can as easily send an e-mail to the AAC and receive a well-informed response quickly.
As the student advisor, you have to be the mediator whenever there is a dispute between a student and a professor, for example, how would you go about this?
First of all, I would talk to each person individually and get their side of the story, as it might be hard to talk to the other person directly. Furthermore, I would get together with them and talk constructively about the issue at hand, focusing on what was discussed in the individual conversations I have had with them.
To conclude, a silly question; would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?
One horse-sized duck.
Steven van de Graaf, Class of 2017, is a Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science major from Barendrecht, The Netherlands.
