Sen.
promotes participation, involvement
By
Latifah Muhammad
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Ashley Stanton uses her position as senator-at-large to help students at Cal
State Long Beach and the community through her volunteer work and involvement
in student government.
Stanton, who is a criminal justice major from Oakland, Calif., came to CSULB
as an aspiring dancer. During her freshman year she was advised through the
Educational Opportunity Program to get involved in organizations on campus
after taking the first two years to focus on her schoolwork. After her sophomore
year, she changed her major and got involved with on-campus activities. She
joined the African Student Union (ASU), became a member of the Alpha Phi Sigma
National Criminal Justice Honor Society and Zeta Phi Beta sorority.
She is currently serving her first term as senator-at-large at CSULB. Stanton
heard about running for senator at an ASU meeting last year and decided to
run.
“
I wanted to get involved with the campus,” she said.
According to Stanton, because of the controversy surrounding last year’s
Associated Student Inc. presidential election, the environment was not welcoming
in the beginning.
“You could tell there was some tension,” she said.
However, after working with other senators on committees and attending a retreat
in Palm Springs in the summer of 2005, the group became closer.
Stanton’s duties include representing student organizations on campus
that are not represented by college senators. She is also working on recruiting
black students to attend CSULB, as well as encouraging more black students
to get involved in politics on campus
“
I’m trying to recruit more black people to run for president,” Stanton
said.
Kimberly Franklin, a friend of Stanton’s, said she wants to run for ASI
president or senator- at-large this spring.
“
She’s the one who encouraged me to run for office,” Franklin said.
Stanton and Franklin met four years ago during the Summer Bridge program at
CSULB.
They have been friends ever since.
Along with fellow members of Zeta Phi Beta sorority, she put on a sexual awareness
workshop and dialogue in the fall 2005. The workshop, which was held on campus,
brought sexual educators to the campus to inform students about safe sex and
sexually transmitted diseases. She and the other sorority members set up a
breast cancer awareness booth on campus last fall, and collected school supplies
to give to students in the Gulf Coast who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Every Monday Stanton volunteers at the Los Padrinos juvenile hall in Downey
where she helps incarcerated youth by teaching them how to improve math and
writing skills and fill out job applications.
Layla Johnson met Stanton while the two both lived on campus. Johnson is the
vice president of the Human Resource Management Association, an organization
on campus that assists students in the College of Business by providing workshops
in which students can meet people in their field of study and provides job
listings for students of all majors.
Though the two have different career interest, they are close friends.
In the future Stanton wants to work in the field of probation. She also plans
on running for another term when elections begin this spring.
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