Ode to Joy: New ASI President Adds Lessons of Service and Giving to New Academic Year

Summer vacations are a far-flung memory for senior Joy Masha, who took the helm as president of Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Instead, she spent June, July and August preparing for a one-year term that includes improving student life in a climate of deep budget cuts to the CSU system and influencing her fellow students to give to those less fortunate.

Masha had previously worked in her positions as ASI student activities commissioner (2007-08) and vice president of operations (2008-09) to help establish community service as a way of life for students at CSU Dominguez Hills. Among her projects, she established the Pan African Union’s continuing efforts to feed the homeless on Skid Row every other Saturday.

“I’m really proud of that project,” she says. “We’re getting a lot of donations, people really want to help. A lot of organizations in downtown Los Angeles have seen us serving and would like us to take part with them... helping with their soup kitchens and church services. They say, ‘We love seeing young college [students] here.’”

In keeping with the adage that “charity begins at home,” Masha and her cabinet have created the “Pact to Students,” a set of eight goals for the 2009-10 academic year that she hopes will improve the quality of student life.

By addressing issues including sustainability and the environment, student advocacy through lobbying and activism, shared governance on the cabinet of CSU Dominguez Hills president, Dr. Mildred García, campus safety, personal financial stability, student retention, and school spirit, Masha hopes that examining and improving these areas will bring about an atmosphere of caring that students will thrive in.

“I kept thinking about Obama and his theme of change,” she recalls. “When students stand in a long line for financial aid and they get there and are given all kinds of bad news, they don’t feel helped. I want students to feel that we really care about them. As long as I know that you care and you’re going to do everything possible to help me continue here and finish my education, I think that takes away from being made to stand in a long line.”

A human services major, Masha looks forward to pursuing advanced degrees in educational leadership and hopes one day to be able to serve students at her alma mater as an administrator. Her mentors, who include Sue Borrego, vice president of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, and Randy Zarn, associate vice president of Student Life, have led her to find a career path that means she will always be in college – ideally at her alma mater.

“What I’ve been able to learn about myself and where I want to go is that I love the university,” she says. “I would love to come back to Dominguez Hills, I love this school so much. I hope to come back and work in student affairs and one day be a vice president.”

“I love campus life,” she continues. “The university is a great place; there are so many opportunities. On a college campus, you have that option to really get out and question things, and give students the opportunity to go out of the box.”

When asked what she hoped her legacy would be after her one-year term, she says that she hopes students and alumni remember her leadership through its “spirit of giving.”

“If I could leave anything,” she says, “I hope that students would [remember] that, ‘When Joy was president, you always saw her around campus doing something. And that inspired me to do the same.’ If I can leave a legacy [of giving] and that that effort continues, I think that CSU Dominguez Hills will be the best CSU.”

- Joanie Harmon