ESA 2023-24 Executive Team Candidates

Please read the candidate bios below. You may vote on our Campus Base, a link has been sent to registered ESA members via email.

President

Jhemma Kooner (1st choice: President, 2nd choice: VP Social Programming)

Hi Everyone! My name is Jhemma, and I am a fourth-year English Literature major and the ESA’s previous VP of Social Programming. Throughout my degree, I have been very involved all over campus via different work learn jobs, volunteer positions and executive positions in various AMS clubs, including being the Director of Service Events and Sponsorship Director for UBC’s service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. Through my involvement in the UBC community over the years, I have gained experiences and a skillset that I believe would make me a great candidate for the role of the next ESA president. I am so grateful to have found myself at home within the ESA community, and I would love to help continue to build the English Student Association into a space for everyone interested in English to come together, meet new friends, share their stories and find a community. I would also love to share my past experiences and the work I have done already with the ESA, my passion for English and my love for bringing people together in the role of president of UBC’s English Student Association.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Exec?

If nominated as the next president of UBC’s English Student Association, one of my main goals will be to further the work accomplished by the ESA over the years and continue to build an inclusive space and sense of community for UBC students to connect with new people, make new friends and share their passion for English. In doing so, I would love to expand our club, collaborating with community organizations and other AMS clubs on different events and campaigns. I also plan to bring more exposure to the ESA and expand our presence on campus and within the community, giving a bigger platform to all UBC English Students. I would love to hear from ESA members and directly implement your ideas while also offering non-executive members the opportunity to become more involved within the ESA. Specifically, to accomplish these goals, I would love to introduce regular, casual, drop-in events and implement a community service program where we host a fundraiser or a volunteering event during the year to benefit a local issue relative to English, impairing our community, chosen by our members.

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Treasurer

Sloane Madden (1st choice: Treasurer, 2nd choice: VP Marketing)

Hi! My name is Sloane, and I’m a second-year English honours student. When I’m not reading Madeline Miller, Pride and Prejudice, or Six of Crows, I love baking, playing with my dog, and working out. I am running for the VP Marketing position because being in Honours gave me so many wonderful experiences (both social and academic), and I would love to be able to provide those experiences to other people by advertising the ESA’s events! The sense of community in Honours is so strong, and I want to do everything I can to help grow that community.

I have the experience necessary to be an excellent VP of Marketing and Treasurer, as my work with UBC’s Geering Up Engineering Outreach has given me the experience necessary to create graphics, balance a budget, apply for grants, and collaborate with UBC departments. Furthermore, I have lead the Instagram account for the Dunbar Community Centre for the past four months, and have worked to improve the social media presence of several other non-profits. Whether I am selected for the VP of Marketing or the Treasurer position, it would be an honour to help with the ESA.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Exec?

As an ESA Executive, I hope to be able to bring more attention to the ESA events, as I feel they sometimes pass under the radar because people don’t know about them. I would also like to look into running an event circulating around being an English major in the time of ChatGPT and other writing software, as that is an important and interesting topic that has been ignored until recently. As for Outreach, I would like to set up a software where senior students can recommend courses or teachers for various aspects of the English Degree (for instance, a senior could make a post saying “If you want to get into autobiographical studies, take a course with Laurie McNeill”). Also a screening of Pride and Prejudice with period accurate costumes would be a phenomenal way to bring attention to the ESA at UBC.

Additionally, I would be thrilled to help the other executives plan conferences or events, as I am always looking for new experiences.

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Juliette Hardy (1st choice: VP Operations, 2nd choice: treasurer)

Hi, I’m Juliette Hardy and I’m a second year English honours student planning on doing political science as well. I love reading and writing poetry, going for walks in the forest, and knitting. I’m interested in running for the role of treasurer because I’d like to get more involved in the ESA. I’d be a great fit for the role because I’m organized, use spreadsheets, am responsible and would keep track of the finances. I also have experience on the Arts One Council in my first year. I’d be excited to get involved and learn about the financial side of the ESA and share my passion for literature with the exec and wider English department community.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Exec?

please refer to VP Operations for the rest of Juliette’s profile.

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Henry Yong (1st choice: AUS Representative, 2nd choice: Treasurer)

Refer to AUS Representative Section for Henry’s profile.

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VP Operations

Shubhreet Dadrao (running for VP Operations and VP Marketing)

I’m Shubhreet Dadrao and I am running for VP Operations because to serve the ESA through my technical and event planning experience. As your VP Operations, I want to serve the association and the students through managing emails and event coordination to engage students while keeping my associates on track. I have technical experience during my time as a secretary for a travel agency where I took calls, wrote caller information, and communicated verbally and via email to my colleagues about flight tickets and caller requests. I can also type 60-75 wpm. I have event planning experience during my time as a student leader in high school where I led and served a team to plan, pitch, and coordinate pep rallies, Halloween events, Grade 8 welcoming events, and Concert Band performance set up and take down. These experiences highlight my organization, leadership, self-determination, and willingness to assist others in team settings, which I believe are assets in being VP Operations with the event organization and technical abilities. In terms of myself, I’m an adventurous nomad. I love being outdoors and exploring what the world has to offer. Otherwise, I’d be sitting at home reading a good book or figuring out what new recipes I can cook!

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Exec?

I hope to get publications, such as magazines or newspapers, involved with the poetry and short story collections so that the first place prize could be published on one of those publications. That way, students can have exposure to the media industry with editing and publishing experience and have their work on a media outlet, whether that be on-campus or off.

I would also like to pitch events like creative writing workshops in collaboration with the CRWR student association to have seminars or workshops discussing techniques to writing fiction, non-fiction, or whatever genre of interest. I think collaborating with a club will lead to a larger demographic that can include students who can partake in different hobbies or interests without feeling pressured to go to the individual events.

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Juliette Hardy (1st choice: VP Operations, 2nd choice: treasurer)

Hi, I’m Juliette Hardy and I’m a second year English honours student planning on doing political science as well. I love reading and writing poetry, going for walks in the forest, and knitting. I’m interested in running for the role of VP Operations because I’m passionate about getting more involved in the ESA community, and think I’d be a great fit for the role. I have relevant experience that would help me fulfill the role of VP Operations. I work for the UBC Farm and manage their email, as well as help to plan the weekly markets and organize vendors. This would help me manage the ESA email, and help with event planning. I’m also someone who loves to know what’s going on and is always taking notes on everything that happens in class. This would be useful in taking meeting notes. Moreover, I have prior experience being on a student council. In first year, I was on the Arts One Council and helped to plan social events, manage the email, and keep a Google Drive of all the documents we were using. Finally, I’m excited about the English department and have a passion for literature that I would love to share with my peers.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Exec?

As an ESA executive, I’d hope to make the ESA as useful, welcoming, and fun for all English majors as possible! I’d love to pitch new ideas such as essay writing workshops, trivia nights, board game nights, film adaptation screenings, and more. I think the essay writing workshops would provide a great opportunity for students to read each other’s work and feel like they are in a community, since writing papers can be quite isolating. Events such as board games would also provide good opportunities for the members to socialize.

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Nandita Menon (1st choice: VP Academic Programming, 2nd choice: VP Operations)

Refer to VP Academic Programming for Nandita’s profile.

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VP Academic Programming

Nandita Menon (1st choice: VP Academic Programming, 2nd choice: VP Operations)

Hi everyone, my name is Nandita Menon and I would love to be ESA’s VP academic planning! I am currently majoring in English Literature and Language with an intended minor in Commerce. As your VP Academic I will ensure to create events that will enrich your academic journey and aid you to develop career skills that will be vital after graduation. I know an Arts major, panning a career can be scary as an arts degree is so versatile. I want to help relieve any anxiety and stress you may have.Executing and planning events that aim to enhance scholarly performance is something I am familiar with as I am part of the Arts Undergrad Society in the Professional Development portfolio. My role is to create events that help refine career skills within the Arts community. I have executed resume and interview workshops, life after graduation workshops, and helped plan a panelist event comprised of successful UBC arts alumni.  Having success in this role, I am confident I can use these skills and transfer them to the ESA !

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

It can be nerve wracking and stressful to think about your life after graduation. As a student in Arts I know it can be difficult to envision a straightforward career plan. As an ESA exec I want to minimize this anxiety as much as I can. This will include providing resources and planning events that specialize in academic and career planning. This will include more events like meeting past UBC English majors and also providing students with spaces to discuss with Professors and education professionals. I want create inclusive and equitable events to all UBC English majors and help them in any way possible!

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VP Social Programming

Asina Mitha (1st choice: VP Social Programming, 2nd choice: n/a)

Hi! I’m Asina, and I’m in the second year of my English Literature major, with an eventual specialization in post-colonial literature. I’m running for the role of Social Programmer because of my experience and love for hosting events that unite the community. I would love to bring my experience from residence councils (and hosting events like tote bag painting there) as well as experience planning, proposing, and running week-long events with mental health-focused initiatives in the past. I would love to bring this experience to the role – whether that’s through leading activity-themed nights (like book blind dates, painting, and knitting) or even week-long events!

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

I would love to bring extended events to the ESA! Whether that’s week-long events that cover a certain theme or ongoing movie nights to encourage the english literature community to come together. In the past, events I’ve hosted like totebag painting and other hands-on activities have been a great success, so I would love to bring that angle!

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Heather Sham (1st choice: VP Social Programming, 2nd choice: Honours Representative)

Note: Heather’s first choice has changed to VP Social Programming from Honours Representative.

Hi! My name is Heather, and I will be entering my third year at UBC this fall as an (honours) English Literature major! I really enjoyed my time in ENGL 210 (Introduction to English Honours) this year and would love to get more involved with the English honours community. I recognize that there occasionally exists a disconnect between junior and senior English honours students, when we’re really all part of the same community. I want to contribute to the English honours community by helping to create opportunities where honours students can hang out and meet each other (outside of their seminars, of course) and get to know students in upper and lower year levels. I have met some of my closest friends in the UBC English community through my upper-year classes, which, needless to say, I likely wouldn’t have met if I didn’t take those 300-level courses in my second year. I’ve also learned so much from my upper-year friends, and hope that, by becoming the Honours Representative, that I can partake in creating social events for all Honours students that will allow lower-level Honours students to learn more about the English Honours program, what it looks like in later years, and how to prepare themselves for success (I’m an English tutor with UBC, and am absolutely dying to help anyone that I can)! We’re a big family—let’s start looking and acting like one! 💗🫶 Outside of school, I’m really passionate about spin class, playing video games, and napping. If I’m not in the Ridington Room frantically highlighting every second line in my book, you can probably find me at YVR Cycle, where I occasionally volunteer, or at lululemon ❤️

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

As an ESA executive, I want to accomplish three primary things: hosting more events that will bring the English community together throughout the year, connecting faculty to students (by hosting more events that will allow faculty and students to interact outside of a strictly academic setting), and create a larger sense of solidarity in our community.

1. I want to help host more events! These might look like: movie nights, group study sessions (especially near finals!), and maybe even group spin classes! Anything that will bring the hardworking community of UBC English students together sounds like a great idea to me 🙂

2. I want to help contribute to host more events that will allow students and faculty to mingle and interact outside of a strict academic setting. This might look like Q&A sessions, “Meet the Prof,” or themed gatherings that might help introduce new areas of research to curious students (and inspire some brilliant honours theses!)

3. I want to be a driving force that will help make our big family look like a big family. By being an ESA executive, I would be able to help contribute to our community by planning events and reaching out to other students at UBC. Let’s be friends outside of the lecture hall, and make the UBC English community a place where everyone feels welcome and can make new friends 🙂 Considering the role of Honours representative, I specifically want to help connect lower-level Honours students (or those entering the 2nd year honours program) to upper-level Honours students to foster a sense of community and mentorship. I genuinely do not know where I would be without my friends that I met in my upper-year classes, who have endlessly supported me and provided me with guidance, much like mentors. I want to help next year’s cohort of 2nd year Honours students (and any new 3rd year Honours students!) feel included in this new community which they have joined by creating opportunities for ALL honours students, regardless of year level, to meet and make friends 🙂

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Jhemma Kooner (1st choice: President, 2nd choice: VP Social Programming)

Refer to President for Jhemma’s profile.

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AUS Representative

Henry Yong (1st choice: AUS Representative, 2nd choice: Treasurer)

Hello to whoever is reading this! I’m Henry – I’m a fourth year English Honours student (also considering doing a History major) and I’m nominating myself for AUS Representative for the ESA this upcoming school year, as well as the summer preceding the year.

I have lots of experience taking notes and formal minutes during meetings as I am Secretary/Director of the Community Advisory Council (CAC), an elected body under the University Endowment Lands’ (UEL) administration. Similar to the role of AUS Representative, I attend meetings, take notes and record minutes, raise concerns from the public, and discuss matters privately with the other members of the CAC.

Since I’m in my fourth year and have devoted most of my time at UBC to English courses, I’m well-versed with the English Department and its community. I’m also a good communicator and I don’t tend to miss deadlines. I believe I can maintain a typing WPM of over 110.

I’d be really happy to help out the ESA’s executive team as an AUS Representative for the 2023-2024 school year; also looking to gain experience and make some friends/connections. Thanks for reading this and I hope you’ll consider voting for me <3

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

More casual events like lit-related trivia, making it more clear for new(ish) English students on how to use the online UBC library correctly/efficiently to find scholarly English sources, maybe through a written guide?

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Alexei Villareal (1st choice: AUS Representative, 2nd choice: Honours Representative)

As an English student, I would really like to contribute to the bettering of the student experience for other English majors whilst maintaining my current ongoing commitments to the Arts Undergraduate Society!

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

As an ESA Executive, I would hope to bridge the communication between what English majors might want to see reflected in the student association. Perhaps put out more polls and/or find new ways to engage!

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Lilly Murphy (1st choice: VP Marketing, 2nd choice: AUS Representative)

Please refer to VP Marketing for Lilly’s profile.

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Natalie Knoll (1st choice: Honours Representative, 2nd choice: AUS Representative)

Please refer to Honours Representative for Natalie’s profile.

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Honours Representative

Isabella Corbet (1st choice: Honours Representative, 2nd choice: N/a)

My name is Isabella and I am a third year student dual majoring in Honours English Language and Literature and First Nations and Indigenous studies! I am a member of Tsawwassen First Nation and live on lands. I am running for a leadership role as Honours representative. Because I commute to UBC, I found that I have gotten less involved with activities on campus than I would like to be. This is why I am applying for this role to branch out and push myself to try new activities and put myself out there. I know that I could perform well in this role based on my own leadership experience in my community as the youth representative on our housing committee, as well as representing Tsawwassen at the Land Claims Agreement Coalition youth simulation. In my free time I enjoy doing the stairs at Fred Gingel, going to new cafes and walking my dog at Deas island.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

I hope to create a welcoming environment that will encourage as many students as possible to come out and meet each other. I never fully realized the importance of creating a strong network of like minded people in university until this year when I joined the honours program. I was intimidated by the program at first, but it ended up being a very positive impact on my schooling as I made new friends who are encouraging for me to do my best in school! As honours representative I hope to encourage more people to apply to the program as well as create opportunities for more students to meet each other in the English department! An event idea for this would be a casual meet and greet at browns or the gal on campus. I think meeting others in a more relaxed place than a classroom promotes more socializing that is less focused on school work, which in my opinion creates a better bond.

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Heather Sham (1st choice: VP Social Programming, 2nd choice: Honours Representative)

Please refer to VP Social Programming for Heather’s profile.

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Margaret Zhang (1st choice: Honours Representative, 2nd choice: n/a).

English always seemed like the most isolating major to me, since it revolves around the solitary activities of reading and writing. Yet this year, joining the Honours Cohort and interacting with fascinating people, I realized that community is not mutually exclusive with the major. Learning, but more importantly, life, is augmented by the friends one makes along the way– a stupid thesis, but something that rings true throughout my experience at university. With this mantra in mind, I want to bring us bookworms together in a sense of community, belonging, and fun, that might not be expected for English Honours students. UBC can be isolating for many of us, and I intend to change that. Simultaneously, I understand the rigour and difficulties of the Honours program, and I intend to provide resources and useful events in order to smoothly facilitate our years together. Furthermore, (the obligatory term) having suffered mental health issues before, and realizing how increasing prevalent it has become in academia, I intend to address these issues to the fullest extent that I can as an Honours Rep. In conclusion, I would be honoured (no pun intended) to create the best possible experience for all you little geniuses of which the Honours program consists.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

I am interested in increasing the collaboration, community, and mental health present within the English program at UBC. Thus, I intend to design events that foster a sense of community, which in practise means I intend to create an environment where individuals feel comfortable enough to have others see them for themselves. Socializing is hard, and university is often an isolating place. At the same time, learning is extremely improved when ideas are bounced off of other individuals’. Thus, I intend to create academic and social events in order to maximize the wellbeing of Honours students. I also understand that connecting with Profs, while invaluable to both the learning experience and to things like the Honours Thesis, can be difficult, and intend to collaborate with the Honours Coordinator in order to minimize this difficulty.

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Natalie Knoll (1st choice: Honours Representative, 2nd choice: AUS Representative)

Hi, I’m Natalie. I’m just about finished my third year and I’m an Honours English Literature student. I’m particularly fond of Gothic literature and anything with a little mystery. I’m also very into rock music and love to give recommendations. I’m interested in running for this position because the ESA has made me feel like I’m part of a community and I want to help provide that same experience for other students, who, like me maybe aren’t extroverted enough to go out and meet more people without the promise that there will be something in common to talk about.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

As an ESA exec. I just want to provide opportunities for students to meet people, potentially new friends, that are like-minded and have the same interests. I also want to create opportunities for new second year honours students to talk to upper year students about the program and ask questions they maybe aren’t comfortable asking professors about or just would prefer talking to someone who is just closer in age, someone who has just finished their second year/is figuring stuff out right now too and can speak more personally about their experiences.

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VP Marketing and Graphics

Lilly Murphy (1st choice: VP Marketing, 2nd choice: AUS Representative)

I am very interested in the field of marketing. My experience this past year as VP Marketing for the ESA as well as for the AUS has enhanced my passion for member outreach, event promotion, and event showcasing. I have significantly enjoyed being able to showcase a creative approach to the ESA’s graphics and hope to continue my work into the 2023/24 school year.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

I feel the ESA book recommendations have been a great success, but in the future, I would love to have an ESA book club to meet and discuss novels. I also feel as if the ESA could produce more writing competitions/showcase events for members to participate in.

you may refer to the ESA’s instagram as of November 2022 to see Lilly’s work.

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Shubhreet Dadrao (Applying as VP Marketing or VP Operations)

My name is Shubhreet Dadrao and I’m running for VP Marketing. I’m interested in engaging with digital audiences to enhance the ESA’s viewership and participation in not only events but in general English-related news and activities. It’s important to relay events and information in a way that is accessible and personable for students to gain a proper overview of what the ESA has to offer. I have experience creating posters to spread awareness of discrimination in our community for my high school’s social justice club, and creating events and social media posts for activities that are aimed to engage the student body in school, and faculty, spirit. I also have experience in writing copy for a travel agency to engage audiences in opportunities abroad available in Europe and the Middle East. I was able to garner $200,000 in travel packages through the pieces for the business in six months. As an ESA executive, I can efficiently provide students who are interested in English with more information on social and academic engagement opportunities and how they can become a part of the English community through self-motivation, graphic design experience, and striving to serve the student body.

What do you hope to accomplish as an ESA Executive?

As an ESA executive, I hope to contribute more to the ESA social media in terms of doing a monthly spotlight, in which we highlight important work of the faculty, students, or achievement of the English department or ESA to show ESA members what is possible as an academic scholar. Also, in promoting more career-oriented posts about what kinds of jobs you can get as an English major as finding a job with an Arts degree is something that concerns some people. I want to enhance student engagement in not only the ESA and English department, but encourage and promote the possibilities surrounding a future in English. These would be brief engagements throughout the year, promoting upcoming events that could motivate students to attend seminars on what to do with an English degree or events where undergraduate students speak to MA students and professors in the English Department. This will allow students to think ahead and attend more events by the ESA and help students out by having them think about jobs and participating opportunities beforehand.

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Sloane Madden (1st choice: Treasurer, 2nd choice: VP Marketing)

Please refer to treasurer for Sloane’s profile.