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It’s “Rebels in the Morning”, Rebel HD2’s Saturday Talk Show hosted by Tristen Vernon & Lucca Pastorino. Join them as they interview the movers and shakers of the UNLV community, one Saturday at a time. Exclusive interviews, exclusive behind the scenes talks, we go it all, at Rebel HD2, Rebels in the Morning.
0:00:00
Yo yo yo, one two, one two.
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This is Rebels in the Morning. Wake up. With Luca and Tristan, live from KUNV Studios.
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It's Rebels in the Morning.
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Wake up! Alrighty, good morning everybody. I am Luca Pastorino. I am here with my co-host. Hello everybody, my name is Tristan. I'm here with Luca for Rebels in the Morning. Yeah, we are hosting our little show here where we talk about our student organizations here on campus. And we have a lovely guest today, if you'd like to introduce yourself.
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Absolutely, hello everyone. My name is Micaela Franklin, and I'm the student body president here at UNLV.
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All right, Micaela, so let's jump right into it. Right off the bat, tell us about your day-to-day as the student body president and the many other hats that you wear at UNLV. What do you do on a daily basis for UNLV?
0:00:49
Yeah, absolutely. So I think the biggest one is office hours, right? Making sure that I am available for students to come into the Student Union on third floor for any questions that they have, for students to drop in to ask about funding, scholarships, open positions that we have on campus. And so that takes up most of my day.
0:01:10
From there, just doing some meetings with other people around campus, with higher administration, because that is my job, right, is to build the bridge between higher administration and the student voices, and kind of be that advocate and that voice for students. And so we get a little bit into that, and then, you know, actual CSUN meetings that we have in the evenings that range from,
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you know, Senate meetings, executive board meetings, and then all of our little committee meetings, Ways and Means that does RSO funding, Internal Affairs, University Initiatives, Scholarships and Grades and things like that.
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Gotcha, sweet. So in your bio, it says that you aim to help nourish a sense of community here on campus. How have you accomplished that so far?
0:01:53
Yeah, absolutely. I think that between the different activities and the different outreach opportunities, I think that CSUN and my cabinet at least have been really good at reaching out to students and RSOs to bring together that community. I think after the tragic event that happened on December 6th, there's a lot of community building that we've been doing. A lot of how can we bring the UNLV community together, how can I speak to the president
0:02:21
and say, hey, how do we ensure that everyone wants to come back to UNLV? How do we make sure there is that sense of UNLV rebel pride here at UNLV? And so just little things like that, you know, we're starting to kick off our elections. And so ensuring that people feel heard and, you know, making sure that people feel that their voices are being represented the right way is something that's really important to us. And so I think through there and then a lot of marketing, right? I think that marketing does bring people together. And so between, you know, shirts and business cards and different little gadgets
0:03:02
that you know CSUN pulls out and puts out during involvement fair does a lot of community building as well.
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Sweet. All right.
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I'm going to pass the buck over to Tristan here. If you got some questions you want to ask as well.
0:03:13
So during like the beginning of the year address, you know, we had all of like those new students who were in the Cox Pavilion, I believe, and you talked for a little bit and you talked about how you, you know, coming into UNLV, you wanted to kind of make your college experience like that perfect college experience. Do you think that you've been able to do that here at UNLV?
0:03:30
Absolutely, I think, like I said, you know, in that little whatever, three-minute speech that I gave that morning, I wanted to ensure that when I walked into college that I was giving, I was going to create an experience that I was never going to forget, especially even walking into COVID. And between all of the leadership opportunities that I've held and all of the outreach that I've done and all of the community building and the connections that I've made here at UNLV, I think that I've, you know, gone beyond making just, you know, a simple college journey and a simple college experience. So much so that I wanna stay for grad school.
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So I guess UNLV's doing something right.
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So, sorry to jump in here,
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but what do you wanna study for grad school?
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Yeah, so I'm gonna get, hopefully, if I get accepted, get my master's in the executive hospitality field. I'm currently taking three master classes as is. So I'm hoping that I get into the school so these three classes are worth something.
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Fair enough.
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Right on, right on.
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Well, you kind of talked about how you were engaging in those different leadership opportunities here on campus, really taking advantage of those different resources. Would you say for all of these current undergraduate students here at UNLV that it's really important to take advantage of those opportunities to kind of maximize your UNLV benefit?
0:04:48
Yeah, it's crucial. It is absolutely crucial that you get involved. It is crucial that you find those resources. And so like I said, let's start at the first step, right, getting involved. It's really important that you are ensuring that you are finding student organizations, you're finding people to hang out with, you're finding places to, you know, study and places to find research opportunities, because then from there, you get all of those resources and I think that's the biggest thing that UNLV could always improve on is ensuring that students know how to reach the resources that are absolutely available to them.
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We pay so much money every year to be here as students here at UNLV and that goes into resources that are free to us, you know, with our tuition that we're paying that I don't think a lot of students know about, right? And so that's one of the biggest things that I've done in CSUN is that we have a CSUN resource newsletter that goes out every month that tells you about different scholarships that are opening, how to fund your RSO, step-by-step guide,
0:05:50
and things like that. And so we need to do a lot more of that. And the best way for students to know about the resources that CSUN offers is through getting involved. And so it's absolutely crucial that students take that step beyond, you know, just going to class and just coming here to submit an assignment, to really enrich themselves in the UNLV community so they can reach and touch those resources. Because if I, you know, sat here and decided that I wanted to only go here for school,
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I would never be where I am now offering the opportunities that I am to other students. a little bit, but I was curious if you could go into a little bit more what some of the resources that CSUN actually offers are.
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Yeah, absolutely. So let's start with the big one that I've been mentioning a lot.
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We do a lot of funding for registered student organizations here on campus. We will fund, you know, orgs up to $10,000, depending on how many active people you have in that organization. And that is the one, the biggest thing that is helpful. We have a lot of scholarships. We do grants. We do sponsorships through CSUN. So the bike shelters that residents are able to use
0:07:04
went through CSUN. The period products that you can see in the library and in the student union went through CSUN. So we have a lot of initiatives and projects that goes through CSUN that are here for the benefit of students. We offer free little Scantrons and the exam books. I don't think a lot of students know that if you go to the third floor in the CSUN offices, we offer free things for them to use so you don't have to go to the library
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because they have actual textbooks. They have about two to three textbooks for your classes, which I don't think that anyone knows that the library holds in the back. So if you go and ask, you can check them out like a library book. And then obviously, you know, the biggest resource is we have paid positions in CSUN. You can get paid to be a leader here on campus. You can get paid to represent your college here on campus. You can get paid to do my job.
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You can get paid to be the student body president. And I think that a lot of students get really nervous and really scared about being in those positions, but that is the best position to be in. You are at the top of your game, being the top of your college and the top voice for your constituents and your students. And even if that's too big of a step,
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being an intern in CSUN, that's another huge resource is you get to learn about all three branches that we hold that oversee all of the undergraduate students. That's the best way to see how the university works behind the scenes is if you have questions on how am I getting represented and why is this decision being made on my behalf and why is tuition going up
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and I don't know about why tuition is going up. This internship program will allow you to see all three branches and all of the reasoning why and allows for students to ask questions before they step into a paid position, I guess, which is a huge resource that I think that I love taking advantage when I first got here to ULB. Right on.
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Well, you kind of touched on it a little bit. You said, you know, well obviously you wear a lot of different hats, you're super involved, you're all over the place. You know, I know that you're involved in the RHA. How do you like balance like all of that all at once? You're doing so many classes, you're gonna be graduating, you're doing CSUN, RHA, like how do you balance it all?
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That's a funny question, because I don't. I mean like, I don't balance it. It's a day by day process. When people ask about my time management, I wake up and hope for the best every day. I do have a calendar, a monthly calendar. I have a weekly to-do list. I have a daily to-do list that I check off.
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But when you love what you do enough, it kind of just comes easy. It just fits into the day-to-day process. And so holding the hats that I hold has not been done before. There's a lot of conversations about how do I hold Tsunamadi president as well as the Residence Hall Association president, as well as all of the classes that I'm taking,
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as well as all of the other organizations that I'm helping out in. That's not something that UNLV's ever seen before. And so it's hard to balance it, right? Because I'm representing so many different people and so when I say things and I am coming to you know speak on behalf of people I have to figure out which hat I'm gonna wear and so it's not always an easy thing to do but like I said I love what I do and I
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love being able to represent all of the students here on campus no matter what hat I'm wearing and so it kind of just flows with the wind I guess and I just you know like I said hope for the best every day that, you know, I don't forget anything.
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Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I mean, I think that that's kind of what a lot of college students, especially here at the university, definitely kind of think about. I don't think a lot of people have an exactly like a game plan of kind of like what they're gonna like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm going to balance everything exactly like this. So it's really cool that you do have kind of a schedule and you do kind of take it day by day. And it's really cool that you know like you mentioned you're kind of like the first person that's been able to go you know CSUN you know the student body president and the RHA president as well as you know be involved in these other things it's kind of you're kind of like a UNLV
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celebrity. What about you Luka, you have any questions for? Yeah
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absolutely so I want to be a little bit more a little bit more brevity here. Okay I just want to see what is your favorite event that you've worked on through CSUN? Was it the most successful event, or why is it your favorite?
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That's a good question. Favorite event that I have thrown in CSUN. I would have to say my sophomore year, I was the Associate Director of Campus Life, and we somehow pulled off monthly parties in the Pi Days for all cultural month. And I think the biggest one that we had was our AAPI month in May. We had so many different caterers come out.
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We had, you know, like a whole carnival, you know, sitting outside of the student union. We had a really great turnout, a lot of interaction with that, and a lot of feedback I got was the AAPI students felt heard. They felt like they were being celebrated, and they loved that. In relation to that, we did the same thing, a Black History Month. It started to snow that day, conveniently, because it was supposed to be outside. I've never seen Vegas snow except for that day when my event was supposed to be outside. But we moved it inside, and that was like the first time in my UNLV experience
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that I saw that many black people in one space. And for me, that was huge, right? To throw a CSUN event and see that many black people, understanding that there's only 9% on UNLV's campus, was really amazing to see. And that's not a lot of students. And so for me, having that large of a show out was so cool. There was so many different foods, so many different RSOs that decided
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that they wanted to come and table, which kind of really brought the whole UNLV community together. Those parties and the paitas were top of the line for me. I loved every minute of those.
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All right.
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So parties and the paitas is your answer, yeah? Yeah, parties and the paitas.
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All right, sweet
0:13:40
So this is another another light question. Okay, just you know trying to keep it a little bit a little bit low tension here If you could collaborate with any person for your job real fictional historical Who would be your number one person you'd want to work with and why? Oh goodness. Oh
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goodness
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That's a good question. I feel like, you know, I think everyone would answer would be like, you know, an actual president that we had, but I feel like that's just too easy of a question. You know who I would want? Kid president. You know that little kid who does those YouTube videos, who's a kid president, he has such inspirational
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little speeches, I would want to work with him, because somehow he's doing something right. Everyone loves watching his videos He always has like such an inspirational word being so young. Yeah, I want I would want it I would want to collaborate with kid president. That'd be so cool. Oh, that'd be so awesome. Yeah
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Nice
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All right. So we've talked a little bit about the different hats you wear be it orientation leader National communications coordinator for the RHA as well as the president. You are president of CSUN, of course, College of Hospitality Student Advisor Board. That's a lot of hats to wear. How do these different jobs interact with your goal of creating a sense of community?
0:15:02
Yeah, absolutely. So being able to have my hand in so many different pots and places allows for me to take what each group is doing and kind of put them together to create that sense of community. Every piece of UNLV, it's like a heart with veins, right? Every vein works together in order to get blood to the heart, which is the UNLV community at the end of the day. And so ensuring that you're understanding how all of these things connect and kind of
0:15:30
bringing them together is how you create that sense of community. So starting with orientation later, we're bringing students into UNLV. This is their first time at UNLV, this is their first time at school. How do you ensure that they understand that they're a rebel at the end of the day and so there's a huge family that's backing them up and they don't have to feel like this is a scary college experience that they're alone in. Right? And so being like, okay, look, I'm in this, this, this, and that. So when you want to get involved, let me know and I'm going to tell you to take you to the right people and tell you the right things to do to get involved. You know, being an RHA,
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there are so many things that need to happen and need to be fixed and problems and voices that need to be heard. But I can take that and say, okay, on a CSUN level, hey, Mr. President, hey, you know, Vice President of Student Affairs, here are the issues that my residents are going through. I'm gonna tell you as student body president, but then I also need you to come and see me as the RHA president to understand what these people are going through.
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And then CSUN overall, being the president, being like, okay, I'm doing all of these things, you can too. And at the end of the day, right, understanding that all of these students know that I'm a student at the end of the day. And if I can do it, they can do it too. And so being able to really grab that inspiration
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out of them and say, hey, let's step up and all together collaborate and create that sense of community, like I'm always talking about, is the most important thing. But I also think that it does take that one person to spark that, spark that little interest inside of a person
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so they can say, you know what, let me help collaborate with you or let me create this sense of community so I can ensure that I feel it as well as other people. And so hopefully with that mindset, if I can create a sense of community, everyone else can, brings UNLV together in the best way possible. And I've seen it happen. And so especially during this year, this community of UNLV, people have been so supportive of each other
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and people, you know, the outside Las Vegas community has been so supportive of UNLV. I think this is the best year that we've seen UNLV come together as a community and I'm happy to say that I, you know, I've gotten to spend my term here at UNLV as a student body president seeing this community building.
0:17:59
So it seems like a lot of your principles are built upon leadership and leading by example. So that begs the question to me, how do you define a leader? What do you think are good traits in a leader?
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Yeah, I think the biggest thing is right, being able to listen to understand rather than listening to respond. I think that is the biggest thing that a leader can have. And that's how you really find leaders. You know, people who want to manage and people who want to, you know, overtake things, they're going to listen to you and then quickly respond to make you, you know, feel like they have an answer for everything.
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But I don't think that a lot of people understand who want to be leaders or who are not reaching that leadership opportunity section is that you have to listen to what people are saying so you can understand what they mean. And it doesn't always have to end in an answer. It sometimes has to end in, you know what, I don't know how to respond right now, and I'm going to figure out a solution, but you're going to have to give me a second to figure out that solution. And so I think a lot of also people who, you know, look at leaders in a inspirational way, just want to be heard at the end of the day. And so that's, I think, a big
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thing that leaders do is they listen so people can feel heard. And that taking that and understanding that in order to advocate for people's voices. And so that's what I do, right? I think that I am a leader and I believe that I'm a leader because when people come to me and they say, hey, here are these problems that I feel like I'm facing or I feel like the university is facing,
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I don't have the answer for all university issues. I really don't. And I think that a lot of people have heard me say that. I don't know. But, in the same breath, let me go figure out and talk to someone who will know and who can find you an answer so we can find solutions to this problem
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and ensure that we're moving forward. If that answers your question. Absolutely.
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Okay, great.
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I mean, it's so amazing, because in the former question that I had asked, we talked about how you've kind of designed that perfect college experience. And I think it's really centered on because you are able to, you're really striving to make the UNLV community kind of like, you know, it's all inclusive. Everyone's participating, interacting with one another.
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And so that's amazing. And that kind of leads to, you know, we talked about what you do specifically like within CSUN, but, you know, what does your day-to-day look like within the RHA? It's kind of a different branch, kind of separate from CSUN, so how is that different?
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Yeah, so there's a little bit of difference, but not a little bit of difference, right? Because people know I wear so many hats, people will reach out to me all day long asking, it depends on the email, right? I got 10 different emails that I get to oversee, do these different positions. And so for RHA, it really is, you know, walking around campus, eating in the dining commons, watching how people interact in the student union, ensuring that, you know, these things are up to par, right, going to advisory board meetings. I know that I help plan those dining advisory board meetings so I can ensure that the dining commons is up to par, because I know for a lot of students they don't believe it's up
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to par. Ensuring that maintenance is working quickly, because I know a lot of people have issues with maintenance and flooding, and no one likes the Wi-Fi in the residence halls because it doesn't work very well because somehow the microwaves all ruin the wi-fi in each one of the halls. So just you know ensuring that I'm walking around and being available is my day-to-day for RHA president is walking around and people being like hey you're the RHA president right? Yes I am. Cool. I have these issues in my room
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and I just don't know how, like no one's answering me, and no one's answering my emails, and I don't know what to do. Cool, well, you know, here's my phone number and here's how you reach me, let's figure this out ASAP. You know, ensuring that I have RSA meetings
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every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Warner building so students have a place to come and, you know, come and give public comment and say, hey, these are the issues that I'm running into at living here on campus. Because we want to also keep the retention rate going. We want people to come back and say, I want to live on campus again. I have lived on campus for the last four years.
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And somehow I keep coming back. So I want everyone to know and feel the same way, the sense of, maybe it's not so bad living on campus, but also they have to come and speak and say, you know, speak up for what they need so I can help fix those issues. And so that's the biggest thing is really creating those meetings and that space for students to feel like, hey, I can come here and this is the one location that I know that I can say all of my issues and I know something's going to get done because they're going to
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tell me, here are my solutions and here is how we're going to fix this and you know those meetings have all of our residential professional staff at them. They're going to have a solution and you know once it goes on public record that you said hey these are the issues something has to be done at the end of the day because you know you can look up all of RHA's public meeting minutes. If someone says something and it's a you know pressing issue and you go back and you're like nothing nothing was done about that. That's not the professional staff and I don't I don't think that they want that hanging over their heads and so they're always going to do
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something about it.
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Great, I mean it's kind of exactly, I mean, campus life isn't campus life if you're not like taking into account the RHA and residential life and dining and things like that and so for me, I think this is the same for you, because you've been on campus for a while, that it really, staying on campus, getting involved on campus, doing your classes on campus,
0:24:10
it kind of does form that college experience that you kind of had said, everyone can have that. Everyone can do the same positions you've done. Everyone can get involved on campus. They just gotta be proactive about it and kind of make those decisions. My question before I toss it back over to Luca is, not everyone is super leadership oriented
0:24:31
or the most outspoken, right? So for those students that maybe wanna get involved with CSUN or RHA, but maybe they're a little apprehensive or not as outspoken, what would be your advice to them? What would you say to convince them to come on over and join some of those organizations.
0:24:50
Yeah, absolutely. I think that the first thing is ask questions. Go find the people who are in these positions that you're like, I wanna be able to do that someday, or I want to be able to find out how I can be like that person. Ask questions on how they did it. Not everyone, like you said, is going to be leader-oriented
0:25:10
and like, you know what, I'm just ready and gung-ho to do this, and I just wanna jump in head first, right? Some people wanna dip their little toes in the water first. So ask questions. Really go to meetings and see how those meetings work. Before you know it, you take on a role and you're like, whoa, this is too much. Because through meetings and asking questions,
0:25:34
and both organizations have internship opportunities, right? Really low maintenance, you don't have to go to everything. It's unpaid, you get to choose your path on how you want to work in those spaces. You get to choose who you wanna work with. You get to really see the workings of how each organization, which are the two biggest RSOs on campus, you get to see how those work.
0:26:01
And so I think that would be the first step, is to ask questions, join the internship program, and really go to meetings to see how things work before you feel like you have to jump in, because you don't have to. Not everyone is going to be like that. And I think that each organization, and I think all RSS on campus,
0:26:21
have people who want to teach you about their organizations and they want to see you come and hold leadership positions in their organizations and it just takes a hello, right? A hi, I'm kind of interested, but I don't know where to get started and I don't know what to do first. From there, I don't know a person who's gonna be like, no, you can't know about how to get involved.
0:26:46
Like, there's no way. And so, you know, involvement fairs are super important. Like, that's the place that you say, hi, I don't know how to get involved, but I want to get involved. That's what I did as a first year student, is, you know, I was a little scared first year, didn't know what to do,
0:27:03
and it just takes that little step, and everyone is gonna be like, okay, cool, let's go. Let me teach you how to do this. Let me make this, like, not scary, because I want you to be in my organization, but I'm really excited, I'm holding in all of my excitement. Everyone does that, every organization does that, but it just takes that person to dip their big toe
0:27:24
in the water just a little bit, just a tiny bit, to see what's going on.
0:27:29
So a lot of people, from people that I've talked about, they always have that misconception, they think that CSUN's like Fight Club, like we don't talk about Fight Club, right? Just like being invited. It's like, everyone that I've met within CSUN has been so supportive with students wanting to get involved. I've talked with you just a couple weeks ago
0:27:47
about how students can get involved. I know you have, like you said, you have internship programs which are an amazing opportunity for them to connect with other CSUN members, kind of gain that experience, dip their toe in the water, and kind of think about what they do. But you also host public meetings for both organizations that people can go to. They can see how it functions. They can ask questions. They can
0:28:05
find out what's happening in the UNLV community. So there's definitely a lot of resources there. So I really hope that students take advantage of those. But Luca, what about you? You have some questions here? Sure. So my questions are going to be
0:28:17
oriented a little bit more towards your experience as a student. I want to make sure the listeners at home know that you're a human being and not just the figurehead of the student government here. So my question for you is, having lived on campus myself, I understand that a lot of people have this issue where, because they're living at their university, it's kind of hard to separate their recreational time from their university time, and it can lead to
0:28:44
a lot of issues with like procrastination, stuff like that. So how do you unwind after one of your days where you've worn all these many hats? How do you take a step back and breathe and make time for yourself?
0:28:56
Yeah, that's a good question. So my number one rule for myself is I never take schoolwork home or to my room. I never do that because once I bring work or schoolwork into my room, it's no longer my safe space. That's the space where I get to unwind, I get to watch TV, I can make myself hot chocolate with marshmallows, I have a little hamster, and so she runs around when I get back to my room, and so that's the unwinding, right, is I get to come back to a room and take a deep breath, and I can sit on my couch
0:29:35
or lay in bed and just take a really big, deep breath. But I also, I will never pull out homework, I will never answer emails in that room, because once I do that, then right, like you said, then the lines get blurry. And then I no longer am, you know, taking time for myself, and I'm no longer, I'm allowing a space where I set a boundary, even for myself, right?
0:29:59
Setting boundaries for people is, for other people is important, but I'm setting a boundary for myself to say, this space is for me and me only. And it's not for other people because once I start doing other things for other people, then that's all that space is. And then I feel like I have to go to bed in a place where I do my homework. And I know that's a lot of issues that students have is that when you are up and you're doing homework in bed, it's hard to fall asleep in the same bed.
0:30:26
Because your body is so used to you sitting in that one spot, doing things, and your brain working. So your brain thinks and is simulated the same way. Once you lay your head on the pillow, you're still simulated as if you're doing homework. And it's really hard to fall asleep in the same place. And so that is the biggest thing, is that I don't like to do that.
0:30:45
Now, self-care is not my best thing. I don't do self-care very well. I take showers and I sing and I have concerts in my showers and that is my self-care. But, you know, everyone should have their self-care and so, you know, in retrospect, if I spent enough time in my room, I would do more self-care, you know,
0:31:07
besides the 40 minute showers because I have concerts every day that I take. But, you know, I think that that's something that everyone should be able to do, right, is if you live on campuses, set that boundary for yourself. You know, if you are going to do homework, don't do it in bed and make a space that you know, this desk is for homework and homework only. And then when I get into bed, that's for, you know, scrolling on TikTok, that's for, you know, taking time for myself. Don't intermix those because then then you never can separate them again.
0:31:39
Once your brain mixes them and says, you know what, you can do everything in this one spot, then there's never going to be a separation and it's really hard to come back from that.
0:31:48
So when you say that it can intermix them, is that speaking from personal experience then?
0:31:53
Yeah, it is.
0:31:54
So my first year, I would sit in bed all day and would do homework. And then I would wonder to myself, you know, why I'm staying up till 3, 4 o'clock in the morning, you know, forcing myself to go to sleep is because I'm so awake and thinking like, wow, I could do homework. This is this is a place that I do homework. And so my brain never shuts off because it's always on go when I'm sitting in that spot. But once I learned that, you know, I could teach myself that I sleep here, but I could
0:32:19
go to my desk and I do homework here. There's a there's a different differentiation that my brain has. I don't know how it does, but my brain knows when I'm at the desk, it's work time. When I go to my office, right, you know, it's work time. But when I come home and I get to get in my room and things like that, it's unwind time. It's no longer, you know, let me pull out my computer
0:32:45
and do this one last thing. Nope, it's zip the backpack up, hang the backpack up, and then be done. But it took a long time. It took my whole entire freshman year to understand, don't do homework in bed. Because it doesn't work like that. It's really hard to be able to do that.
0:33:01
Especially, and I know I would have friends over, and I feel like, you know what, I gotta do homework. I gotta pull something out, and I have to make myself busy instead of just being okay to just sit and be okay for a second and not do things. So unless I was at my desk, I got to just roam free. I got to be a freelancer in my room. But you know, as a student, as a human being, like you said, it didn't, it wasn't like crazy.
0:33:30
I know that this is like the magic answer when I first walked onto UNLV's campus. It took a minute. And I can say now, you know, four years later, don't, I don't do my homework in bed and I won't take work home with me. Especially because I work, sleep, play, eat, and do everything in the same spot. My room is five minutes away from my class, which is also five minutes away from my office,
0:33:53
and they all intermingle. People know where I live. Can't tell you how many times people have knocked on my door to be like, hey, my sink's flooding. That's cool. Here's the work order. But this is me time. This is me time.
0:34:09
If you need me, my office is over there. Or catch me when I'm walking out of my room. But because I work, eat, sleep, and do all of that in the same spot, it was really hard these past four years to understand how do I make one space my safe space where I don't feel like I have to do anything. And I have to, you know, turn on a different Mikaela that just is like, not a relaxed Mikaela. And that's another thing that took a long time to learn is that I don't always have
0:34:39
to be on go mode. I don't always have to be President Mikaela. I don't always have to be Orientation Leader Mikaela. There is some like, relaxation and, and like taking a minute to take a breath, Mikaela, right? And so that's why I don't take work home. That's my long answer on why I don't do homework and work.
0:34:58
It makes so much sense, honestly, because I mean, I'm guilty. I'm definitely the person that's staying up like two o'clock in the morning, still going. But I think it is really just a really important point that you've kind of made, is that it is, it's very important to not get lost and you're on the university campus, that you're just constantly only doing university stuff.
0:35:23
It's very unhealthy constantly, if all you're doing is just doing homework or if all you're doing is just consistently studying just in your dorm room 24-7, it's important to make a better balance, even if it's every day at a time. Go out and hang out with people, go to those events. You know, if you're gonna be studying, try to separate it from your free time and don't have them blend together.
0:35:45
So that's really cool.
0:35:46
All right, so I wanna pivot back to President McKayla here for a moment. Let's do it. And ask you what will probably be one of the harder questions I asked so far today, which has been what has been your greatest mistake as the leader of all these organizations? What do you think has been your tripping point?
0:36:03
That's a good question.
0:36:04
He's playing hardball here.
0:36:05
He is, he threw it in there. I think, I think my biggest mistake is that it has now taken until, what, it's February for us to almost fill all positions in CSUN. I don't know what happened at the beginning of the year where we just like could not fill and hold people in their positions, and that's really hard, right? It's because, you know, I sit on principles of, you know,
0:36:35
if you want to see change happen, then you have to be the change. You have to be the person that's making the change. And I thought that, you know, I was running with it. I thought that that was, you know, people were hearing me when I said that and like we were on go mode, but we could for some reason not fill all those positions.
0:37:00
I don't know what was happening. And so I think that was been like the biggest mistake is that I didn't dive a little bit deeper into knowing why we were not getting the involvement that I originally wanted. And I think also, right, as I started a whole new department, a diversity, equity, and inclusion department, and I wish I did more on that.
0:37:20
I know that my CSUN term ends in April, and I know I created that position in order to show that CSUN is very inclusive. We have equity-based programs, we have inclusive programs, and that we're working to really hit the diversity here that UNLV shows, but I wish I did more. It was there, we did a little bit more outreach to the students to show that we are, we uphold the standard of diversity, equity, and inclusion
0:38:09
for all students here at campus. And so I think those are the two biggest things that if I went and did a do-over, that I would say I would want to focus a little bit more on. I could say now that we have 24 to 25 Senate seats filled, hopefully after a couple of weeks that we'll have all of our judicial council filled and we'll have a full executive board,
0:38:35
but it shouldn't take until February when all terms end in April for that to happen, right? And so that I think is the biggest thing that whoever comes in after me and I wish I could be able to do different, is that having a full CSUN, all three branches filled, and having a whole good working internship program is how we make sure that students feel heard
0:39:01
and that students are represented. Because that's what CSUN is there for, but they weren't fully represented, unfortunately, because we just didn't have positions filled. And I think that was my biggest need. Okay, okay
0:39:15
Pivoting here. I don't want to I don't want to stay on the negative to
0:39:17
Let's let's take it the complete opposite direction here. What's been your greatest success as a member of leadership here at UO?
0:39:24
Yeah, my biggest success is getting into the position We my cabinet and I we made history on the university campus being the first all female and Black ticket that CSUN has ever had. And that CSUN has brought into their space. And so I think that is my biggest accomplishment is I never felt like I saw people who look like me in CSUN. And so that was the whole reason
0:39:51
why I joined in the first place. And so to have that and bring that into CSUN for the first time has been my biggest accomplishment is finding two other people who have never been in CSUN before. We are all seniors, and so for them to say they've been here five, six years and never interacted with CSUN
0:40:13
was the craziest thing I've ever heard, but also was the best thing that I've heard because they're bringing an outside perspective. So not only are we making history, I'm bringing two people who have never been in CSUN and are, you know, connecting with students on a level of, hey, I don't know what CSUN is, and I know you don't know what CSUN is, but how do we together make CSUN, the CSUN community, a little bit stronger so you know what you're doing and in turn help me with my job.
0:40:46
So I would say that was my biggest accomplishment is, you know, becoming president and doing it to get that made history at UNLV.
0:40:53
I mean, that's amazing. One of the coolest things, I do admissions work, so does Luca, and one of the things that we talk about with a lot of prospective students or students that are coming to UNLV is how diverse the UNLV campus is. And it's sad how in some organizations it's just now starting to kind of show how diverse it is, but it's also really cool, you know, that organizations like, you know, CSUN, they are, they show that they're inclusive, they show that they're diverse, that they represent, you know, all manner of the students on campus.
0:41:27
And I think that that's just absolutely amazing because, you know, we are one of the most diverse campuses in the country. So it's really cool that that's actually being represented. I know Luca asked you kind of a hardball question, and so I'm gonna have to throw you a hardball question too, but don't worry. It's all about that transparency. There are some students on campus,
0:41:47
there's always gonna be those sorts of people, and they're gonna be like, we feel like CSUN doesn't do enough. What is your response to that?
0:41:55
I think my response would be, if you don't believe that we're doing enough, then you come do it. And not in a rude or disrespectful way, but if you believe that CSUN is not doing enough and you think that there should be more, you obviously have things that you believe CSUN should be doing, right?
0:42:14
So then I would say you take that and you come do it because we need people who need that. I think sometimes, you know, people get into CSUN with all of these grandiose ideas, and then they get really nervous when they're in the position for some reason. We need people who, you know, have ideas, and come tell us the ideas so we can go do it. Or you come do it.
0:42:38
And we'll pay you to do it, too. And so I think that's the biggest thing is... I mean, I guess that would be my answer. You come do it. That's the perfect response, I mean, right? Because if, I mean, you're just right in the sense that, you know, if people have those ideas, right, they're a university student, then why not, you know, kind of make the, try to turn those ideas into something, right?
0:43:03
Make a change with it. You mentioned, you know, that pretty much all those positions are going to be, you know, pretty much opening up all again, you know, here in April because, you know, all those terms end and stuff. And I know Luka's going to want to talk to you a little bit about it as well. But it's really gonna be a time where, you know, it's gonna be a really big turning point for all those people that, you know, have those ideas. It's like, just in a couple of months, they're gonna open up and you can, like, you know,
0:43:29
implement those ideas.
0:43:30
You can try to make a change, you can get involved, and that's really, really cool.
0:43:33
Absolutely.
0:43:34
All right, back to me. I also think it's hilarious that we're two white dudes talking about diversity. But anyway, moving on from that. My next question for you is pretty straightforward. You talked a little bit about short-term goals with grad school. What's your long-term goal?
0:43:50
What's next for you?
0:43:51
Yeah, so right now I currently work at T-Mobile Arena, where our fearless Golden Knights play as the supervisor of the premium suites. And so we're gonna kind of stay there, see how far we can move up in positions like that. You know, I wanna be able to do, you know, as we talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, I wanna do diversity, equity, inclusion,
0:44:12
and leadership trainings on an executive level, and really dive into hiring practices within hospitality, right, being able to see, you know, how do you ensure that you have the most unbiased hiring practices, right? Where, you know, different or specific demographics are not sitting in specific places or in job holdings, right? You know, I don't want, I've seen a lot of it
0:44:38
and I don't want this to continue happening is like, you know, the Hispanic and Latino and Latina communities feeling like they, their, all of their experience has to go to janitorial experience. There's so much more, right? Or for, you know, African American, Black, identifying people to feel like, oh, I have to be security, you know, for the stance and the strongness
0:45:00
that I possibly hold in my build, right? There are so many other positions, right? And then so how do you dive farther into it and say, you know, what's the difference between school-based experience versus hands-on experience? And how do you differentiate the two? Because not everyone has access to schooling like other people do right and so how do you Look at that within the hiring practice and while you're interviewing people, you know, a lot of people are like, oh my gosh You've got what three papers. You got an undergraduate. You've got a master's and a doctoral. That's really cool
0:45:28
But then when I you know You're looking at me like that and then in compared to someone else who has So much hands-on experience and have has been doing this job for 10 plus years, how do you differentiate the two? And how do you pick between two candidates, one having these papers and textbook experience versus someone who has hands-on experience? And so really diving deep into that,
0:45:52
I wanna be able to see how far we can get within hiring practices on an executive level and see where other people's heads are at and ensure that people are looking at these processes in the most equitable and inclusive way that they can.
0:46:07
I mean, firstly, another hat. No, I'm just kidding. It's amazing that on top of everything you do on campus, you also work for T-Mobile. I think that that's absolutely amazing. But I think that that's an amazing response, especially, in a lot of industries, you know, there's very much that,
0:46:23
you know, again, to quote Lovino, two white guys talking about diversity, but there's a lot of discrimination in hiring processes. There's a lot of unequal treatment between different parties based on ethnicity and background and education and all those different things. And I truly think that it should just be
0:46:41
one of those things where it should be just an unbiased process of who's best to fill the position, right? Based on your experiences and things like that. I mean, I think it's really cool that you're looking into, you know, you know, a textbook education versus like on-hands, like experience, and you know, how to kind of differentiate that. So that's actually,
0:47:02
you know, really, really cool. Yeah. So my question for you is, ultimately, since you are a hospitality student and you are looking at a possible master's in hospitality as well. Would you like to eventually have your own business where you have these hiring practices or would you just like to climb the ladder in another organization? Like, would you like to be like the top dog at like the wind or something?
0:47:27
Or do you want to make your own hotel? Like, what's your dream here?
0:47:30
Yeah, so-
0:47:33
Dream big.
0:47:33
Shameless plug. So my dad currently does, so the way, what I just explained, right? My dad does that, but for children's hospital across America, and he has his own business where he literally will go to different hospitals, he'll go to different businesses and have these leadership talks
0:47:53
and these diversity and equity inclusion trainings and they pay him. And then he will sit and have a six month plan of how do we ensure we change your hiring practices and how do we ensure that in hospitals, you are being the most equitable doctor you can be in that space. And so I want to be like my dad.
0:48:14
I know that's like, aw, I want to be like my dad and do that, but for hospitality on the other side, right? To be able to create my own business where I can go to different hotels across the world, right? I don't even want to say in just America. I want to do this like internationally and have these conversations about ensuring that these hiring practices are the most equitable and inclusive that they can be is like the coolest dream that I could have.
0:48:42
You know, and I, who doesn't love working for themselves? As hard as that is, who doesn't love working for themselves?
0:48:49
That's great. I mean, I just, I find the whole thing like a full circle moment. Like you were inspired kind of like by, you know, your, your dad. And then you're also like here on campus, kind of like also inspiring like others. So it's just, it's really, really cool, honestly, just overall. And I think, you know, one of my favorite quotes, I don't know where it's from, but we'll just call me think, think big, dream big, go big, right? And you've thought big, you're dreaming big, and then you're gonna put it into practice, graduating, which I think is just amazing.
0:49:22
Absolutely.
0:49:24
So we're getting pretty close to the time here. So I wanna pass the buck over to you, actually, and see, is there anything that we have not talked about yet that you'd like to talk about, or any questions you have for us?
0:49:35
I guess the biggest thing, right, is that now elections are open as of Yep today Elections are open filing periods are open. And so if you Listeners who are listening if you are aspiring to be, you know Student body president student body vice president or Senate president The opportunity is now right your time starts now, opportunities start now, and this is the time to do it, right?
0:50:06
As we talked about, if you have the ideas, come be the person to do it. This is the time to do it right now, you know? And so it's really, in my mindset, it's easy to do. You just go to the VCSUN website and you click the filing packet and you fill it out and you hope and cross your fingers for the best that you can sit in my seat and take my office over in April. But it is
0:50:34
it's time now right and a lot of people in CSUN are graduating on a Senate level so starting about in May paying attention to see you know what Senate seats open up I know we're still looking for an education senator right now but there are many senators who are planning on leaving because they have to graduate. And so I think that it's really important that we start now paying attention to open opportunities and leadership opportunities to enhance your college journey,
0:51:02
enhance your UNLV experience, and floof up the resume, because why not floof up the resume? So I think that's the biggest thing, it's a shameless plug on elections that are coming up in CSUN right now. It's open, so go do it. But yeah, I think that was it.
0:51:21
I mean, just for the elections,
0:51:24
I mean, you guys have so many resources available. If anyone's interested, go to the CSUN website. They have all the information on there. But I think it's gonna be kind of like a fresh start, right? I mean, you said that there's gonna be so many of you guys graduating, you know, this spring that, you know, come, you know, next year, you know, the next semester, it's gonna be kind of a whole new ballgame for CSUN. So, you know, my question, I mean my last question, is just kind of like, you know,
0:51:52
what's next for you in terms of, you know, this semester? Like, is CSUN, you know, kind of done for this semester? Are you guys gonna keep like chugging away? Are you guys just gonna start working on kind of that, you know, helping that transition of getting newer people in?
0:52:05
That's a good question. No, we're hitting the ground running. We're moving fast. We have lots of event ideas. We have lots of plans. I know all of the senators, you know, they have things planned. The executive board, we have, you know, voter registration events planned. We've got, you know, got initiatives that we're starting for the semester to help start the new executive board off on a really good foot. And so I know we have scholarships that are opening up. We have grants that we are hoping to approve
0:52:41
in the next couple of weeks. We've got sponsorships that we're creating still and things like that. So no, we're not done. I don't think CSUN is ever done, but I know that right now we're working fast and we're working hard. I know a lot of us who are graduating in May
0:52:58
are trying to ensure that we really make that long-lasting footprint, and we're ensuring that our footprint stays, especially me, right? I know that I leave in May, but my term ends up in April. I want to ensure that everything that I said I wanted to do, every dream that I had that I wanted to CSUN do, I've got three months to do it,
0:53:19
and best believe I'm gonna do it. You know, and so it's gonna be hard, but CSUN's gonna be working as hard, you know, harder than I've ever seen it work in the last four years, and hopefully we impact the student body, you know, the way that I'm hoping, and the way that I want to.
0:53:36
That's part of our motto, right? Rebels make it happen. We make it
0:53:39
happen and I'm gonna make it happen. Absolutely.
0:53:42
Luka, do you have any other, you know, what kind of questions left? I think I'm pretty much dry on the well here. So thank you so much for coming on our show
0:53:50
today, Mikaela. Yeah. Would you like to plug an Instagram or anything before we
0:53:54
close out here today? Um, yeah. So, you know, if you ever have any questions, my office until April 30th is on the third floor in the Student Union, room 313R. It's kind of weird that I know that. My email is Mikaela.Franklin. It's also on the CSUN website. I'm not spelling out my name. I kind of think that's weird. But my Instagram, I will spell out my Instagram
0:54:13
is MikaelaBaylor at M-A-K-A-Y-L-A-B-A-Y-L-A. And you all can follow me. And I do follow back. I am that nice of a person, so. All right, well thank you so much for coming on our show today, Mikaela. Thank you for having me.
0:54:29
It has been a great time.
0:54:31
Thank you so much, and this has been Rebels in the Morning with Luka Pastorino. And Tristan Vernon. Join us next time. Well, we'll be interviewing someone. Well, we'll be interviewing someone.
0:54:39
We'll figure out when we get there.
Transcribed with Cockatoo