A dedicated and driven Siena student, Anthony Bjelke is a star here on campus. Involved in a wide variety of things at Siena, Anthony is this week’s campus celebrity for many reasons. Read on to find out more about Anthony…and if he could possibly be a running for President of Student Senate? Go find out!
Hometown: Dix Hills, Long Island
Major: Political Science with a History Minor and the Pre-law Certificate
Year: Junior
Interesting Fact About Anthony: He is an Eagle Scout, leading him to devote a lot of time to service, and leadership skills when he was younger.
HC: So, Anthony, what are you involved with here on campus?
Anthony: Right now I am the Vice President of Student Senate and with that, I deal with most of the clubs on campus. I am the Chair of the Committee for Club Chartering and Management and that advises clubs with how they can improve and make themselves better. I also Chair of the House of Clubs, and that helps facilitates collaboration between clubs. I am also one of the Co-Captains of the Mock-Trial team and we compete every February in national competitions. I am also a member of Pre-Law Society, and I write for the Promethean once in a while. And I do get to sleep…on occasion.
HC: You have to find time to sleep! And what is your favorite out of all those things to be involved with here at Siena?
Anthony: I think the Senate. It is an enriching experience and through the Senate, you get to be involved in all the other things that this campus has to offer. It is an open gate to be able to talk to anyone on campus, people normally I wouldn’t have the ability to speak to. Whether it is an administrator or if its just students that I don’t normally come into contact with. There’s a lot of interesting and dedicated people I get to interact with and I get to see a lot of different aspects of the campus.
HC: What are your career aspirations?
Anthony: Definitely as a lawyer. That’s obviously pre-law, leading into law school. I’m looking into Boston and New York City, looking at some law schools there. But definitely a lawyer. There’s an old saying in the law field, “there’s a difference between a lawyer and an attorney.” Whereas a lawyer is more of someone that purely discusses the law and has a typically very strong moral compass. Not to say that an attorney is a derogatory term, but it’s more of a stylistic choice, and I lead more towards the lawyer part of it with fairness and all that.
HC: Is there a certain type of law you would like to go into? Would you ever consider becoming a politician?
Anthony: Becoming a politician is something I’ve been tossing around for the last few years. Last summer I went to Pace Law School and I did a Summer Legal Fellows there and I worked in a lot of environmental law. That’s something that really caught my interest and something that I am definitely looking into. It is a lot of public interest work, and going back to tossing around the idea of becoming a politician, there is a lot of politics in law and it gave me a lot of perspective while I was there in New York. Maybe environmental law or even international law is on the table, too.
HC: Speaking of Politics, I also hear you are running for President of Student Senate! Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Anthony: This has been a progression over the course of the last few years. I got in very early. I basically have been involved in Student Senate since the end of the first month I was here. I started out freshman year as a Senator at Large for a year and that stretched between two different Senate administrations, which was really interesting to see the differentiation between the styles of the Presidents, which got me interested in the job. Then I served for a semester as Parliamentarian, and that is in charge of chairing the meetings. I sat next to the President and I was in charge of calling on someone who raises their hand, and it’s very parliamentary procedure-related tasks. It’s really fascinating and it gave me another insight into the role of the President. This past term I served as Vice President of the Senate, and it gave me yet another very interesting look into the eyes of the President. I’m his number two man, and all the meetings he can’t make, I attend for him. I sit in on a lot of the big meetings he has. It’s one of those things where I’ve done my homework on the job and I think I can do a very good job at it when it comes to all my experience. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I feel that I can be very helpful to the student body with.
HC: That’s quite an impressive list. What characteristics do you possess that you think would make you a good President?
Anthony: One of the main characteristics is leadership and management. When it comes to being able to manage my own time and my own priorities, and the time of others. I will never expect more of anyone that I work with that I wouldn’t expect of myself. It’s about setting up reasonable goals, and then meeting and exceeding those goals as a team. I make sure that everyone is contributing and doing what they want to do. If someone joins Senate and is really passionate about a particular cause or service, you have to be able to look into each person and find the why or the why are they here. You have to be able to utilize that in such a way that creates the most good for the most amount of people.
HC: If you are elected President of Student Senate, what will your first act be?
Anthony: To set the bedrock for what we can do in the administration is become, what I call, social-media responsiveness. People go on Facebook or Twitter and Yik-Yak, and they voice concerns. I think that Senate can do better with getting their voice into the social media realm. I want to better inform the students on what we’re doing. Over the past few years, we’ve done a lot as a Senate, but our marketing has been less than perfect and we have relied on word of mouth. During the Murphy administration two years ago now, was a religious-exemption policy. For example, if there was a religious exemption not covered by our Catholic tradition, let’s say it was a Muslim student or a Jewish student that needed to miss class due to their religious holiday, they would be able to get out of class exempt rather than leaving it up to the professor’s discretion. It took a long time, and we didn’t do a good job of publicizing that we got it done. When we go forward with an issue, getting the information out there is crucial. On the other end, if there are a lot of people going on Facebook, Twitter, and Yik-Yak and expressing their concern over an issue, being responsive to that concern and translating it into action. We are also looking to increase our social media footprint and increase our number of followers so when we correct an issue, we can get the information out to more people.
Follow Anthony’s campaign for President of Student Senate:
https://www.facebook.com/Bjelke4Senate
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