Megan Grenier
Equinox Staff
Jackie Efraimson, a junior at Keene State College was elected Student Body Vice President on April 22, 2013.
Efraimson said she is excited to make changes at KSC during the 2013-2014 school year once she returns from being abroad in Spain this spring. Efraimson came to KSC from Plaistow, New Hampshire in 2010. Ever since her freshman year, Efraimson has been the president for the class of 2014.
“I want to finish out my senior year representing my school, I want to voice students opinions and concerns and make sure they are heard,” Efraimson said.
Efraimson is currently studying abroad in Seville, Spain, but this did not stop her from winning the election for Student Body Vice President.
She said she is very proud of being on her way to becoming a Spanish teacher and making an impact in some sort of way on the KSC campus and community.
Additional accomplishments of Efraimson’s include being a Team Leader in the Night Owl Cafe and the Game Room and being a part of student government since her freshman year.
According to the junior, some goals and changes that Efraimson hopes to bring to KSC in the 2013-2014 academic year are to try to fix the wireless internet issues on campus, to ensure student safety on campus, to improve the owl cards so that they can access vending machines and laundry machines, and to make sure that all the students at KSC are having a great year.
Junior, Brittney Rando, said that she works with Efraimson in the Night Owl Café.
“She is one of the most genuine people I have ever met in my life,” Rando said.
Rando and Efraimson have been best friends ever since they met.
Rando went on to say how Efraimson is hard working, organized, friendly, and easy to talk to.
“She has done so much for our grade as it is during the past three years as our class president and she wants nothing more than for our senior year to be fun for everyone,” Rando said.
Efraimson said that she thinks her biggest challenge as Student Government Vice President will be trying to make sure that she helps as many students as possible and to make sure that if they have concerns, that those concerns are voiced.
She also hopes that after the 2013-2014 academic year is over that everyone is happy with whatever changes, activates, and improvements they make as Student Government.
“I hope to leave a legacy for the school, not just for me. A legacy that showed we made change, we had an incredible year, “ Efraimson said.
Residence Director, Casey Wilson, is the advisor of the Class of 2014 and worked with Efraimson when she was the President of the Class of 2014.
“Jackie has a love for all things at Keene State,” Wilson said. Wilson continued to say that Efraimson has been heavily involved with student government throughout her years at KSC and that her experience will benefit her as Student Body Vice President. “She is dedicated to the students that she represents and wants to be an advocate for them,” Wilson said.
“I am looking forward to this opportunity so much, I think it will be a lot of hard work and dedication, but I cannot wait,” Efraimson said. Efraimson is a Spanish and Secondary Education major at KSC, and she hopes to start teaching Spanish right out of college.
She said that she is also thinking about going to graduate school or going to a Spanish speaking country and teaching for a year. “She is absolutely perfect for the position and I couldn’t be more happy for her that she got it, because if anyone deserves it, it’s here,” Rando said.
Eric Grady, Junior at Keene State College, was elected Student Body President on Monday April 22, 2013.
Grady has a long list of hopes and ambitions that he wants to accomplish in the 2013-2014 school year.
Grady came to KSC in 2010 from Auburn, Massachusetts and has been on student government ever since his freshman year. This year, Grady said that he is on the University System Board of Representatives and already shares an office with the Student Body President and Vice President.
“I originally was going to run for student trustee, which is like what I do now just higher up,” Grady continued, “the person who is president now wasn’t running for re-election and she said ‘oh, you really should run for president.’”
This year’s Student Body President, Kelly Welch, said that she encouraged Grady to run because she felt that he would make a great student body president. “He is dedicated to this organization and is always willing to listen to what the students have to say and what the students want,” Welch said. Welch went on to say that Grady is already thinking about ideas for next year.
Welch said that because Grady has been on Student Government since his freshman year, that he knows what needs to be done and how to use the resources to get it done.
Grady thinks that students voted for him as Student Body President because they knew him from the various organizations he is involved with on campus. Grady is also a part of the Social Activities Council executive board, he was an orientation leader, and he works in academic career advising. Grady was elected to the SAC executive board as a freshman, he said very few people get that opportunity and he is proud of it. Grady also lead a Alternative Spring break this past year to Baltimore, Maryland and is leading another this year to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Junior Amanda Smith said that she’s known Grady since their sophomore year because he was on the SAC executive board. “I think Eric will make a good president because he looks out for other people. He has a lot of new ideas and wants to implement them as soon as he can,” Smith said.
Smith added that Grady is a very sociable and friendly person. Grady is proud of being the chair of the technology committee at KSC. Grady said he is on the committee with Provost Melinda Treadwel to refine the technology in classrooms because some of the professors at KSC will not allow laptops during their lectures.
Grady said that he is hopefully going to hold a workshop at a professor training event where he’ll be talking about how students like to use technology.
“Nothing is set in stone yet for that but it’s something Provost Treadwel mentioned,” Grady said.
Grady said that one of his goals for Student Government is to have it be more open.
“We want people to come to our meetings and voice their opinions,” said Grady. Grady said that if more students voice their opinions, that they are likely to see the changes that they want. Grady also hopes to improve the wireless Internet on campus, to have a mobile application for MyKSC, and to make MyKSC faster.
“I have a really long list of hopes and ambitions and I think that will be the hard thing- to try to prioritize them and see what we can get done and what we can’t,” Grady said.
Grady is a Political Science major and an Economics minor. After graduation in May 2014, he plans to go to graduate school for Brand Management at Bentley University.
Megan Grenier can be contacted at
mgrenier@keene-equinox.com