After an entire semester of coordinating and late night meetings, the COSGA committees can finally relax, for the most part; the organization held its conference last week here in College Station and I can only imagine how my roommate, Jane Ha, felt that weekend. Luckily, I managed to catch a moment to interview her about her experience in COSGA.
Jane Ha is a senior communications major, with a talent for keeping her sanity when things don’t seem to be going as planned.
Her Campus at Texas A&M: What is COSGA?
Jane Ha: COSGA stands for Conference on Student Government Associations and is the largest student-run student government conference in the nation. Founded 36 years ago at TAMU, COSGA’s purpose is to bring student leaders from all over the nation to share and spread their ideas on how to better their respective student governments.
HC TAMU: What was your position for COSGA?
Ha: I am the Operational Support Executive for COSGA.
HC TAMU: What were your responsibilities under that title?
Ha: My responsibilities were designing and ordering all apparel, materials for conference, and giveaways for delegates! I also was in charge of obtaining sponsorships from local businesses and building long lasting relationships with our sponsors.
HC TAMU: Why did you choose to join COSGA?
Ha: I chose to join COSGA because I had never heard of anything like it. Being a part of an organization that solely focuses on planning and delivering a conference that will change the lives of college students across the nation is an incredible feeling.
HC TAMU: What obstacles did you face while preparing for the conference?
Ha: Fortunately, I didn’t face a lot of obstacles! The biggest obstacle I think I faced though was trying to have my committee meet all at one time throughout the weeks. Everyone’s schedules are so different it was hard to coordinate a time for us all to meet.
HC TAMU: How did your experience compare to last year’s COSGA conference?
Ha: My experience this year was wildly different from COSGA 2016. Last year, I had more of a naive view of conference since I only showed up for specific shifts. This year, since I knew about every little detail that went into conference, I was more involved and paid more attention to all the things happening around me.
HC TAMU: What was your weekend like during the conference?
Ha: My weekend was absolutely crazy, but I loved every second of it. My morning call times were super early and I would only be sleeping around 5 hours every night, but it was so worth it! I got to meet so many delegates from around the world and I had a great time with all of the COSGA staff as well.
HC TAMU: This time around you were in charge of other members, what was it like bonding with your committee?
Ha: Anyone who knows me knows I talk about my committee way too much. They are a group of truly incredible people and I am so glad I got to be their exec. They were my backbone for a majority of conference and I really would not have gotten through the year without their constant support! Bonding with them and having them see how everything we worked on during the year impacted conference was the best feeling in the world.
HC TAMU: Who do you think would enjoy being a part of COSGA?
Ha: I think anyone who wants to network with student leaders and learn about the ins and outs of student government would enjoy being a part of COSGA! There are so many different components that make up COSGA that I think anyone would enjoy it!
HC TAMU: What do you recommend for future members who will be taking on a role similar to yours?
Ha: My advice to the future execs is to have fun with COSGA. You will have amazing committees to help you along the way and an exec team that will be by your side from the first day you find out you’re an exec. COSGA comes fast, so make sure you enjoy every second of it!
HC TAMU: What’s up next for you and COSGA?
Ha: I’m graduating in May, so sadly this was my last year of COSGA, but I’m so grateful that I got to spend my last year of COSGA as an exec and can’t wait to see how COSGA 2018 turns out!
I’m sure Jane would agree that COSGA has contributed positively to her life socially and professionally. Talk about Aggie networking! For those of you who might be interested in joining COSGA, the organization recruits new members every fall and conference is held in the spring semester.