The President of the HCC Brandon Student Government Association, Daria Leon, is running for the Florida College System Student Government Association Presidency. As president, she would represent the voice of 28 colleges in the state of Florida and the issues and concerns brought up by their Student Governments.

  “There are 400,000 university students in Florida and 1 million Florida college students [state and community colleges] … FCSSGA represents way more students,” Leon describes. “We get together and we come up with ideas … we’re able to make a platform and even come up with our own ideas as an organization” Leon continued.

  A Florida college is classified as a 2-year community college or a state college where you can receive your bachelor’s degree. HCC falls under District 3 along with College of Central Florida, Pasco Hernando State College, Polk State College, State College of Florida and St. Petersburg College. Last year, Leon ran for District 3 coordinator and was not elected. Her familiar face landed her the role Director of Legislative Staff. “I look up legislative issues, talk to our legislators and we talk about things that’s on our platform and what … are issues we voted on as a whole.” Leon added.

  Leon is a familiar face at HCC who takes pride in student-involvement, and even made it a personal goal to take at least one class at each campus to explore the full HCC experience. Originally from Tallahassee, she chose HCC because her research proved it is the best community college in the area. HCC is her first experience with student government.

  “When I was in high school, I didn’t join SGA because I was like ‘no, those people are party planners,” she chuckled proudly wearing her HCC SGA Brandon campus polo shirt.

  Seeking a future in politics, Leon discovered her likes and dislikes within her first semester of college in the fall of 2013 and decided to take action. She met with the dean and the campus president to discuss these issues and solve them. After becoming a senator, she attended every event SGA hosted and assisted with anything the organization requested of her.

  Dr. Earl Paul, advisor of the SGA Brandon campus, shared, “She has met with many other college officials besides me to ask questions and offer suggestions. Many of her ideas are good ones and ones that can, and have been implemented.”

  Leon was voted in by the executive board of SGA as treasurer in January 2014. She learned the executive board in that semester and met with the president of the college. She then ran for SGA president and was elected in May 2014. Her impact was not only school-wide, but personal to many.

  “Daria has a good heart and is truly interested in the welfare of others. She wants very much to grow and learn and be a strong leader,” Paul added, “She spends a lot of time in her life focusing on how she can best serve students and make their experience here at HCC a better one.”

  As former treasurer, Leon spent time with Austin Polk, current treasurer of SGA, to train and help him become prepared for his new position. “I think that she has always kind of been a leader for me, like someone I can look up to. She’s the reason I became treasurer in student government,” Polk added, “She kind of nudged me along to make that move and I probably wouldn’t have done it without her.”

  As SGA president, she raised the minimum required GPA from 2.5 to 2.7 with the goal of 3.0. She implemented a 6-hour requirement of community service for all members of SGA. Leon is also working with Metz to help lower the cost of food, making it more affordable for students, realizing that this is a big issue to students. One of the most adored events she brought to the campus is “Taco Tuesday”, an event specifically requested by students. Additionally, she gets vendors to provide food for students weekly. Other major contributions from Leon include clothing drives and being on the committee to elect the new president of Brandon campus.

  “I just want to be around for the students. A lot of times, I just go outside and I go talk to random students and I go see what they want,” she explained. “I created a survey committee… we go out there and we survey the students to see what they want.”

  Politics is extremely important to Leon. As she moves forward with issues dealing with college education, she noticed that students are having a hard time voicing their opinion and making their say count. She came across students who could not vote because they were not registered due to the simple fact that they did not know where to register. At first Leon pushed to have the issue resolved solely at HCC. Along the way she learned that she could not as an SGA president, so she decided to bring it to the state and include all college-level institutions.

  “I want HCC to be a place where college students can register to vote as well as be a polling station,” Daria stressed. “I want to put that on my platform to have every 4-year college in Florida, even universities …work closely with the FSA, which is the Florida Student Association, so we can bring that to our students.”

  Leon is currently dealing with Baccalaureate Degree House Bill 5101 with legislators. Unfortunately, if passed, the bill would eliminate the opportunity for students to obtain their Bachelor’s degree at a state college. If the option to earn a Bachelor’s degree from a state college is eliminated, many students might need to relocate their residency, job and families to attend a university. Students who choose to transfer to a university would also experience a significant increase in cost of tuition when compared to a state college.

  “We have to have a place where students can go if they cannot get into a university. We have these places because they don’t cost a lot of money. Students aren’t looking to go $30,000, $40,000 in debt,” Leon stated.

  Ultimately the decision lies in the four votes per college to determine Leon as FCCSGA president. If elected, she will be working directly with legislators addressing pressing issues and concerns of the students state-wide.