Our first celebrities for the semester are our very hilarious, very charming, Co-Presidents of LSPB (Le Moyne Student Programming), John Sessa and Luis Torres. Not only are they hard workers in planning exciting events for Le Moyne, they are also inseparable roommates with outgoing personalities. If you haven’t seen or heard them around campus, get to know them now!
LT: I’m a dual major in history and psychology… with a minor in sexy.
JS: I’m an English major with a creative writing concentration. I’m in the five year program…if that matters.
HC: Where did you grow up?
LT: I grew up in NYC, Jackson Heights. My partner here grew up in the hood.
JS: Yeah I did. I lived in Utica, New York, then I moved to Tampa Bay for 3 years. I then moved back and I’ve been here ever since.
HC: Alright, I’m a freshman here, so I don’t know much about LSPB. Can you guys describe to me what it’s all about?
JS: We’re the Le Moyne Student Programming Board. We basically deal with all major events on campus. Clubs come to us and we sponsor pretty much all events.
LT: We organize and are basically the intermediary between what students want and what administration will not allow us to do. So we basically organize it, filter it, clean it up a little, and then we present it to administration and see where it goes from there. So your events basically go through us first. We support clubs and co-sponsor events with them. We use our publicity staff to get their word out there. We do as much as we can to reach out to every student and make every student happy.
HC: Why or how did you guys get into this?
JS: I got involved accidentally. My freshman year, I didn’t run. I was kind of interested but I was like nah, you know. And then two members that we have now, who are on the e-board, Skylar Avisa and Rose Murphy, were like, “we think you’d be good ‘cause the freshmen reps that they had just stopped showing up to meetings.” So I didn’t run my freshmen year, they pulled me in. Then I ran for my sophomore year, and won. Then I did publicity chair and now this year I’m co-chair. So, it’s been a long journey, but it’s fun. What about you? [To Luis]
LT: What about me? I’ve never been elected into LSPB until last year. I just showed up because I was part of COVE. And then I became COVE secretary and then COVE director, and then somehow I was to be co-chair. And I never thought I would do it, but we’re just such a great team that we have no choice but to do it.
HC: What’s your favorite part about it?
JS: My favorite part is probably just getting to know the people that I do because it’s not necessarily that you wouldn’t be friends with these people, but it opens so many doors because everybody has a different group of friends. You become really close with all 20 members and then you meet their friends. Everyone kind of knows that you’re on LSPB and it’s pretty much an honor when people ask you about information for the school.
LT: You’re working with administration, you have meetings to go to, and you’re getting ready for the real world. So, not only are you networking, but you’re also preparing yourself to be an older, mature person. But, aside from that, I guess the idea of knowing that if we wanted to do something on this campus, we have the power to. Also, if you wanted to do something and you spoke to us or one of our representatives, you know that we would be the ones to take care of things. So, knowing that you’re the one to make things happen on campus or you have the authority to do so, is kind of power hungry.
HC: So, are you part of any other clubs or organizations?
LT: Well LSPB takes up most of my time. Actually last year I was Vice President of a club, director of another, and finally, treasurer of another. But then LSPB just takes everything up. You just want to focus on everything. I support here and there but LSPB is most of what I do.
JS: Yeah same here. I was President of the education club and I was on COVE committee. So this year I’m just doing Student Government Association and LSPB.
HC:Now, what do you guys do for fun?
JS: I like to have fun. Luis and I, we’re pretty crazy people, in a good way. We like to have our fair amount of fun. But I also play guitar. I play some different instruments. I like to do crazy things like jump over buildings and–
LT: Chase unicorns.
JS: And all those kind of things.
LT: We’re pretty adventurous and we’re very spontaneous. We’re kind of unorthodox at times, but we live life and have fun. When we graduate and think back on college, we know that we had mad fun. We just make each other’s memories [Aweee.]. Unfortunately, I don’t play any instruments. My Xbox is broken.
JS: Our hobby really is LSPB.
HC:What are you guys doing after graduation?
LT: Whoa, already, well what are you doing?
JS: Well we’re just going go back to my place… Actually, I’m in the five-year program here, so I do have another year here for English education and special ED for adolescents. I’m looking into a PhD program at SU, so we’ll see how that goes.
LT: After graduation, since I’ve milked my years here at Le Moyne, I’m either going to live up here in Syracuse and try graduate school at SU, or try graduate school in Texas where my family is. Or, I know it’s going sound weird, but either move to Australia or move to Panama City in Florida–
JS: Oh yeah! We’re trying to move to Panama City after the five year, if I don’t get accepted into one of the programs.
Special thanks to Luis and John for accepting to be our first celebrities and for the continuous effort in trying to make Le Moyne a more exciting place for all students. Le Moyne Students, a little bird told me that LSPB has some really exciting events coming this year—so get pumped! Word.