Meet the student government president of ASU West: Natalie Carranza

Natalie Carranza, a senior studying biology with a minor in Spanish, started her term as Undergraduate Student Government president of the West campus in the summer of 2020.

Although Carranza enjoys her role, she didn’t always see USG as being part of her leadership journey at ASU. 

Carranza had been involved with the Programming and Activities Board at ASU for two years and also served as president of the Pre-Dental Society before making the decision to run for president. For PAB Carranza has been an intern and served as the president. She planned to continue with PAB until she decided to run for student government.

2020–21 Undergraduate Student Government President of ASU West Natalie Carranza

After winning her seat, Carranza reflected on her decision to run for USG this year. 

“I feel like I kind of wanted one more challenge because I was already PAB president. I wanted one more challenge. I wanted to do more for the students at West,” Carranza said.

Carranza’s inspiration to run came from multiple people who encouraged her, including the previous president at ASU West, Tony Camisi, who Carranza reports she was very close with. 

“I was influenced by a couple people to run kind of last minute” even though she doesn’t like elections. She decided to just “go for it.” 

According to Carranza, it’s important for people not to be afraid to put themselves out there. 

“For my team in general my goal for them is to see them grow as leaders, as students and as people,” Carranza said. 

Carranza plans to bring the success she saw from her involvement in PAB, which focuses on student events, and bring some of those methods to her work in student government. 

Her main goal this year will be to improve the relationship USG has with student organizations. 

“I feel like we don't put ourselves out there as much as we could. This year we're really going to get on clubs and orgs, reach out to them, have a relationship with them so that they are comfortable enough to come to USG for anything,” Carranza said.

Carranza also plans to have the USG host more events. 

“Last year we didn't really have events as a whole as USG. I kinda wanted to change the dynamic around that,” Carranza said. 

USG especially hopes to host events geared toward the upcoming election to encourage Sun Devils to vote. 

“We want to have debate parties, like a debate watch, stuff like that,” Carranza said.

After starting to work on different issues, Carranza discovered that being student body president was the challenge she had been looking for. 

“So far the job is kind of a lot. I think it's been a little difficult because I have been taking classes over the summer,” Carranza said. 

Carranza’s biggest regret in USG so far is not joining sooner. 

“I wish I would have started last year so I could start these things then continue them,” Carranza said.

Carranza plans to graduate in May 2021 and own a dental practice in the future. 

Keep up with her work at the USG West website. Updates can also be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.