ASU’s Polytechnic president focuses on basic needs resources for Sun Devils
Cecilia Alcantar-Chavez is a senior studying mechanical engineering systems and is Undergraduate Student Government president of ASU’s Polytechnic.
ASU’s Undergraduate Student Government President of the Polytechnic campus Cecilia Alcantar-Chavez has spent her first term working on an initiative called Basic Needs Investment and Education.
The project connects students with food and housing insecurity or other basic needs to current campus resources, such as the Dean of Students office.
Basic Need web pages are also being highlighted through increased promotion, redesigned to be easier to navigate and made more accessible for students by being linked in the ASU mobile app. In addition, the ASU Crisis Fund and additional resource connection forms will be made more accessible for students.
According to Alcantar-Chavez, who is a junior studying mechanical engineering systems, her goal for the project is to not only help students on the Polytechnic campus but students on all ASU campuses.
“It's really just grown and I think evolved in ways that will definitely benefit students and also work with the resources that the university already has,” she said.
Alcantar-Chavez joined the Undergraduate Student Government as a sophomore at ASU and has been involved with Devils Advocates, Women in Science and Engineering, Desert WAVE, Changemaker Central, Fulton Ambassadors, Poly on Wheels and the Lewis Center Student Organization. She recommends that students get involved on campus any way they can for their own benefit and the community’s.
“Getting involved opens up the doors for so much more. I think it helps some people who may be less extroverted to just go out there and try new things. I think it puts you in a place where you are more aware of things that are happening at the university,” she said.
Looking to the future, Alcantar-Chavez plans to graduate in spring 2023 then continue her education while further exploring project management and her current career interest through internships.
“I am looking into a master's in either project management or nonprofit organizational leadership and management,” she said.
This summer, Alcantar-Chavez will intern at TDIndustries as a project manager and will be returning as the Student Body President of the Polytechnic campus this fall.
Learn more about her upcoming campus projects on Instagram.