Ana Vermeulen and I meet at the Chai Tea Lounge the day before reading week is about to start. I have never been to this quaint Parc Ave. café before, but she has plenty of times, because it is a common meeting spot for the Religious Studies Undergraduate Society, which she is currently the president of. In fact, she tells me that this is the spot where she was first interviewed for her position with RSUS.
Ana became involved with RSUS three years ago as a first-year student in the midst of pursuing one of her two majors, religious studies (the other major is English lit, and we met in a Shakespeare class).
“I saw an advertisement [for positions on RSUS] on the listserv,” the Toronto native explains to me. “Since nobody reads the listserv, I inquired about it and I got in!”
She first started out as the VP Internal on the council, where she was a liaison between the professors and students of the department. Having this position was hugely beneficial for her.
“It’s a pretty tiny department, so you really get to know all the professors,” she remarks.
Now in U3, Ana has become the president of RSUS after three years as a loyal member of the council. One of her biggest responsibilities is keeeping tabs on all the other council members.
“I have to make sure I know how to do everyone else’s position,” she says.
She also gets to organize several of RSUS’ major events; in addition to their annual samosa sales and wine and cheese evenings, Ana informed me of an upcoming event with RSUS, the Caribbean Students Associates, and the Russian, German, and English literature programs. They are all collaborating for a Language and Literature Apartment Crawl that will take place on March 24. During her presidency, RSUS has also gotten funding to get new computers for their lounge in Birks, and they’re even creating RSUS apparel!
For Ana, the best perk of being president of RSUS is getting to be in a position of delegating tasks.
“I love being a leader,” she declares. “I’m excited that I’m the one that makes sure these [events and changes] happen.”
She likes that she can use her position to make positive change in the department and create a lot of opportunities for fun.
Another thing she’s very excited for is her upcoming graduation from McGill this spring. When it comes to RSUS, she says, “We’re nervous, because almost all of our council is graduating.”
So, if anything, graduation has presented her and the current executives with the challenge of recruiting new council members, which is especially tricky because the department is so small. On a personal note, Ana is both nervous and excited for graduation; she’s looking forward to being free of the McGill workload and the Montreal winter slush puddles, but most of all, she’s excited to see what the future has in store for her. When we met, she talked a lot about her keen interest in Japanese Shintoism, and her hopes to study it in practice one day.
When we finish our coffees at the Chai Tea Lounge (ironic twist, right?), Ana heads over to “her home,” the Birks building, where she is planning to attend a lunch featuring four candidates for a professor in Japanese religions. Another one of the perks of being president is that she has been able to join in these discussions recently.
I bid goodbye to my friend, as she enters one of Birks’ Downton Abbey-esque lounge rooms to resume her presidential duties with a giant smile on her face.
Image in article is the interviewee’s own.
Thumbnail image from: https://www.mcgill.ca/arts-internships/awards/internship-award-recipients#AUIF