Name: Erik Zorn
Year: 2015
Hometown: Roanoke, VA
Major: Plant Biology major, Environmental Policy and Culture Minor
Claim to Fame: ASG Vice President
How did you first get involved with ASG:
I started in the ASG academic committee spring quarter of my sophomore year, so compared to several people on ASG exec, I came in late. However, it’s been an action packed year, as I’ve worked with the Undergraduate Student Advisory Board, the 3+E project about receiving credit for co-curricular activities, and lead a team to investigate ways to improve classroom spaces. I also worked with ASG as the president of the Residential College Board on residential issues this past year.
What is your role as ASG Vice President?
As Vice President, I manage a decent amount of the internal matters of ASG while Julia focuses on leading the organization. I lead the cabinet, which consists of several vice presidents who lead committees to create and execute various projects, and I have a few other operational tasks, such as serving as ASG’s treasurer. A decent amount of time is also spent in meetings with admins and student leaders, but I also like to keep my schedule as free as possible to meet with any student who has an idea on how to improve Northwestern.
What’s your favorite aspect of ASG?
ASG is unique in that it gets to represent every undergraduate student at Northwestern and serve the entire student body. It has tremendous potential to influence how this campus is shaped in the future, especially with the “We Will” Capital Campaign beginning this year, and it’s a great organization to learn about how the University works and be part of that process.
What are your personal goals in seeing Northwestern change?
Julia and I are focused on executing all of the goals listed on our platform, but many of our action items for spring fall under accessibility and experience. Several of our projects are also about making ASG more of a helpful resource for students and student groups rather than just a source of funding or even a roadblock. More specifically, we’ll be looking at creating collaboration pools to reward student groups for collaborating on events among other funding reforms, continuing efforts with 3+E, and working on initiatives related to socioeconomic status, just to name a few.
What else are you involved with on campus besides ASG?
I was the president of the Residential College Board last year, and have also been involved with NCDC, Chapin Humanities Residential College, LIFT Evanston, NUCHR, and NU Gives Back. I also work at the Chicago Botanic Gardens as an undergraduate research intern in the soil ecology lab (aka I turn dirt into science!).
What’s your favorite ASG memory?
During one of our academic committee meetings, our academic vice president was traveling home but still wanted to have a meeting by skyping in, because there was no way we were going to skip a meeting. Absolutely nothing productive actually happened during that meeting, and we instead spent most of the meeting making memes of our VP.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
This question frightens me a bit, because I honestly have no clue. For a while, I thought I would go into research and academia, but my interests have shifted over the past year or so, and I see myself now looking at careers in environmental policy. Hopefully in 5 years, I will have a job somewhere in the country where polar vortexes aren’t real.