If you haven’t met Jessica Ranck before, chances are she is a part of an organization that you are involved in… or she runs it. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Student Government Association while at the same time participating in track and dedicating countless hours of service to APO. As a former Girl Scout and President of her senior class, Jessica has been serving others for a long time and continues to bring her passion and creativity into SU’s community.
Full Name: Jessica Ranck
Graduation Date: May 2013
Hometown: Lewisburg, PA
Major/Minor: Biology-Secondary Ed, with chemistry, Spanish, and honors minors
Why did you decide to get involved with the Student Government Association? As the Vice President of SGA, what are your responsibilities?
I was always involved with student government in high school, so naturally it was something I was interested in being involved with in college. My senior year in high school I planned the district conference for our district for the Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils and loved seeing what a huge impact students can have in their schools and communities. Seeing this impact in high school only inspired me to seek to have an equally efficacious experience at the collegiate level. Not only does the SGA impact clubs on campus, but also has a great impact of all of student life at Susquehanna.
As the Vice President, I am responsible for dealing with internal affairs of the student government. I largely work with the class officers and make sure they have all the resources they need to make sure they are able to execute their events and activities. Also, as a member of the executive board, I help make decisions on vital issues that relate to the health of the organization.
What other leadership roles have you held while at SU?
Other than my various roles in SGA (freshman class senator, sophomore class president, and current vice president), I served as the co-president and vice president for the Hispanic Organization for Latino Awareness (HOLA), PR chair and secretary for the SU College Republicans, the assistant pledgemaster and then pledgemaster for Alpha Phi Omega, and will be a captain for the track team. My sophomore year I served as an O-Team leader and summer crew leader before becoming the chair of fall opening and move in for WWPC, a two-year position. Off campus, I am a troop leader for a local Junior Girl Scout troop and work as the SISPA scholar for Americorps, requiring me to complete 300 hours of service in a year. Many of these hours require me to plan and host different service events on and off campus.
As a member of the class of 2013, it was required for you to participate in the GO Program. How did you decide to fulfill that requirement?
Coming in as a freshman, this requirement seemed incredibly daunting! I knew I needed to complete an entire biology major along with the different requirements for my minors and the edu
Fate on the other hand had a different plan for me. I ended up getting sold on a trip to Peru. I had never even dreamed of traveling to South America, let alone a 3rd world country. This trip however was such am amazing and priceless experience for me. It was a 3.5 week trip in the summer of 2010 and combined two of my loves: Spanish and service. We worked with ProWorld to build stoves in the Urubamba Valley. It was fantastic to actually go and experience the culture and be able to have such a tremendous impact on the lives of those people we encountered. I was completely out of my comfort zone riding in the back of trucks and passing public busses mixed with Peruvians and chickens. Perhaps I’m biased, but I think all GO programs should have some sort of service component!