There is a new President on campus, and he is not your “Average Joe.” Her Campus took the time to interview Joey Parizek, and his partner-in-crime and our new VP, Matt Kovesdy, to get some insight into the new faces of Miami University.
Joey is a senior finance major from Dublin, Ohio, while Matt is a junior kinesiology major from Cleveland. The two have been playing on MU’s club hockey team since freshman year, and have always aspired to leave a legacy behind. Since both of them come from different areas of study, they strongly believed that by teaming up, their strengths and weaknesses would compliment each other and truly bring change to the university.
We have all seen the slogan and the hashtag #HaveAPurpose float around campus all of last spring as the two sought to make a name for themselves and get people interested. But what is that slogan truly about? We at Her Campus were able to get the inside scoop!
What inspired your campaign slogan “#HaveAPurpose?”
J&M: We wanted something masculine and strong to define us and have an impact when it was heard. Our hockey coach always tells us to have a purpose out on the rink, so it only made sense to embody that in our message since most of our character building was out on the ice. We want to use this journey as an opportunity to find our own true purposes in life.
Tell us about the election week.
J: That may have been one of the most stressful weeks of my college career. Matt and I had to run around and sacrifice sleep just to rank up votes. A lot of peoople thought we weren’t serious enough about this, especially because we are both Greek-affiliated, so we had to work extra hard to prove our worth. It was surreal hearing that we won by 72 votes and overcame a typical stereotype.
M: We also got lucky with the huge exposure on social media. That is something we will continue to utilize so people can follow our story and our accomplishments.
What do you invision for the 2015-2016 year?
M: First and foremost, we would like to get rid of the stereotype that is affiliated with Greek life – we want to be approchable to people of all backgrounds. One of our biggest projects is to simplify the scholarship process so that every student is capable of finding a scholarship of their choice. We believe there are too many demographics that go into finding and receiving scholarships.
J: Yes, we think redefining the scholarship process will even encourage more students to travel abroad and get that global perspective. We also have a reform proposal for the meal plan. We would like to make dining more attractive to both on-campus and off-campus students. Off-campus students don’t receive discounts as opposed to their counterparts, which prevents them from eating on campus. Overall, we just want to make the dining experience enjoyable for all!