Nahom Taye stands apart from the other candidates as someone who is not a member of the Student Government Association. Where others may see this as a weakness, Taye sees this as a strength.
“I come from different organizations that run differently from SGA. An outsider will see that there is no limit. We can’t hide behind the rules,” Taye said. “I think they are all very involved, but they don’t look out as much with what’s going on with the student body, so you can’t see the students’ wants and needs.”
Taye also said that his experience as a student on campus allowed him to see the things that he loves and things that could be better.
“There’s a process at Georgia State and that was falling in love with everything more and getting to know different people and experiencing different things,” he said.
Taye’s leadership experience primarily stems from the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, where he’s held many positions including health and safety officer, risk management and president.
“We did everything for our guys. We raised the average GPA by about 0.2, and we’re the fraternity with the highest average in the North American Interfraternity Conference,” he said. “We’ve also done philanthropy events and beat our previous goal for our Children’s Healthcare fundraiser.”
Taye is a junior majoring in public policy.
“The opportunity to run for president is important to me because I want to be a part of SGA in my final year,” he said.
His platform centers around financial literacy and assisting students with their careers.
“I want to continue the push for financial literacy and career services to students,” Taye said. “Particularly, I want to gear it towards students learning what Career Services can provide as far as resume building, mock interviews and headshots.”
He also has an idea to add more campus art to buildings at Georgia State.
Taye opened up the comments on his Instagram for students to voice concerns.
“I [posted that] because my perspective is limited to my social network of my friends. I should listen to other perspectives of students,” Taye said.
He said that students are concerned about safety, particularly when it comes to campus escorts.
“People are asking for rides back to their cars from [the Georgia State University Police Department],” he said. “They are getting turned down, and it’s not right.”
Taye also wants to bring more events to Georgia State.
“We should look into receiving grants so that we can have more events and celebrate students on campus,” he said.
Taye recognizes that many students don’t vote during SGA elections because many of them don’t know what SGA does.
“We should do a marketing push showcasing what SGA has succeeded in and what they’ve done for students,” he said.
Taye said that it may sound cheesy, but he got into politics and the race for president because it’s fun.
“It’s the level of competition. It’s like getting to see a score increasing and watching the smiles on people’s faces,” he said.
