Allegheny Student Government has selected Camila Gomez, ’19, as its new chief of staff. The position opened when Stella Pratt, the previous chief of staff, graduated in the fall of 2017.

Gomez had served on ASG as a proxy senator and a full time senator. As a member of ASG, Gomez sat on the Public Events Committee and the College Committees Council. She also served as the president of the 2019 class during the 2016 – 17 academic year.

“I started my career in ASG when I was a freshman, and I kind of started coming just to get a feel for what was going on in the college,” Gomez said. “And then, as I got to know the organization, I started becoming really interested in its internal structures.”

Valerie Hurst, ’18, vice president of ASG, said Gomez was a good candidate for the position because she had experience working with the administration, both in ASG and in other roles.

Mark MacStudy, ’18, president of ASG, said the organization was looking either for someone who had extensive experience serving in ASG, or someone who would be able to bring an outside perspective. Gomez was studying in Seville, Spain, during a semester abroad when she submitted her application.

“Camila actually was able to fill both of those perspectives,” MacStudy said. He cited both her ASG experience and her semester abroad as factors determining her acceptance.

The application process included an eight-question form, consisting of both short-answer and long-form questions about each candidate’s ASG experience and qualifications. ASG distributed the application through the class Facebook pages and the biweekly ASG newsletter, as well as through a post on MyAllegheny. Four applicants responded to the form, including Gomez. MacStudy, Hurst and Pratt conducted interviews with the applicants.

When Gomez was nominated as the new chief of staff at the end of the fall 2017 semester, the senate voted to withhold her formal confirmation until she arrived on campus. She was officially confirmed Jan. 16.

Gomez said she views her job as connecting the higher offices in ASG, such as the cabinet, to the general senate and, ultimately, the student body.

“It’s definitely the people aspect of ASG,” Gomez said.

Hurst said because Gomez has had experience working with the administration before, she could help ASG rewrite its constitution.

“Every couple of years, it’s very healthy to redo a constitution,” Hurst said. She said the constitutional rewrite will fix discrepancies such as uneven term limits across committees.

Gomez said she was excited about working with ASG, especially MacStudy and Hurst. She also said she wanted to help increase transparency with the College Committees Council.

“I’d like to just kind of make sure more students were aware of all the wealth of information they had available to them through ASG — and through me — if they had any questions,” Gomez said.