By Natalie Hamren
NKyTribune reporter
Part of an occasional series about the area’s college students.
Junior Northern Kentucky University international studies major Mia Derks is taking a step back from the Student Government Association (SGA) at the end of the school year.
Currently, Derks serves as the Vice President for SGA — an organization she’s been involved with since her freshman year of college.
But, for her senior year, Derks wants to relax and view SGA from the sidelines.
Mia Derks
“I really have never had the chance to be outside of the Senate or outside of the executive board,” Derks said. “I am going to appreciate it a lot more and [am] going to be able to look at it from the perspective of how every other student views SGA.”
Derks said she is excited to watch the next administration shine and be a resource if they need it. Although she won’t be in SGA anymore, she said she’s valued her time and experience in the organization.
Derks joined SGA her freshman year after the then-Chief Justice encouraged her to come to a meeting. In a pre-pandemic world, anybody could sit in on an SGA meeting and listen. So, Derks did just that.
“I thought it was so cool,” Derks said. “I didn’t realize that there was an actual student government body on campus that would be able to have actual influence with administrators and faculty, and the faculty and administration care.”
After that, she was hooked and joined SGA.
Throughout her time in the organization, Derks said she’s made many close friends — like President Lauren Goodwin. She’s also volunteered and championed many issues during her tenure.
Last year, Derks served as a Justice where she was responsible for overseeing the annual SGA elections.
“That was kind of cool to oversee that process to make sure that everybody was elected fairly, and that we were able to continue that,” Derks said.
Derks has many favorite memories of SGA including calling state senators to schedule appointments for students, raising money for charities, going to Frankfort for the Rally for Higher Education and more.
Currently, as Vice President, Derks handles a lot of internal affairs for SGA. Derks works closely with SGA’s committee chairs and senators to help them with their resolutions, voting and more. Derks also attends meetings—such as the Mental Health Advisory Board which is a group of students, staff and faculty from all areas of campus who convene to discuss the mental health needs on campus.
“I’m able to take what I hear from my committee chairs and senators and people like that and say, ‘Hey, like this is what I’m hearing there,’” Derks said.
Although this year has looked different due to the pandemic, Derks said SGA has still managed to thrive.
“This year, I have been really proud of the administration’s effort, as a whole, to continue to do things despite our pandemic,” Derks said.
Derks said the SGA Committee Chairs have all engaged with the student body and created events this year. Chairman of the University Improvements Committee Hanson Nguyen put on a safety walk that Derks said was “fantastic.” Chairwoman of Academic Excellence Committee Hannah Miller hosted Victor Talks. Chairman of Student Rights & Advocacy Committee Ronald Delgado hosted town halls.
“This year—despite the fact that everything’s virtual, despite COVID, despite all that—we’ve passed resolutions, we’ve had engaging virtual events, and people are still really trying to work hard to get resolutions on the floor to get these ideas that they’re hearing from students to actually make changes,” Derks said.
Overall, Derks said she’s proud of everyone involved in SGA and their commitment and dedication this year.
After Derks graduates from NKU, she plans to go to law school. She said her time in SGA will help her understand other peoples’ perspectives and ideas. Derks said she’s learned how to build meaningful relationships with people despite different viewpoints.
“I’ve learned a lot about perspectives over the past year, and I’ve learned about how people want the same angle, but they might be looking at it from different perspectives,” Derks said. “I think it’s really helped me become even more open-minded and able to look at things from all angles and see where different people are coming from. A lot of times, in SGA especially, everybody has a different idea, but everybody has the same common goal that they want to make things better.”
Derks hopes the next SGA administration will value their time in the organization and have fun. She said to take lots of pictures to remember all the events and people. She also wants to remind the next administration not to get so bogged down in the daily tasks.
“I think that a lot of times, and I’ve done this as Vice President, I get caught up in the ‘Oh, I need to go to this meeting, and I need to meet with this person and do this and do this and check out all of these tasks.’ My agenda is literally like to-do lists after to-do list,” Derks said. “Just stop and realize, it’s fun, you’re in college. And this is a fun time to get to do something really cool that you’re never going to get to do again.”
