2024-25 USUSA President candidates
Matthew Richey:
What year are you in school? What are you studying? Where are you from?
I’m a junior this year. I’m studying economics with a minor in anticipatory intelligence and aerospace studies. I’m from Ogden, Utah.
What does it mean to you to be an Aggie?
For me to be an Aggie, it means to be part of a larger community. One that loves its school, loves its sports and is generally supportive of each other and the various, you know, activities and adventures that are going on.
How will you prepare yourself to accurately represent and be a voice for the entire USU student body?
I’ll prepare myself to be a voice for the entire student body by continuing to reach out to students. In preparation for this campaign, I reached out to students and faculty alike to make sure that my campaign was well-researched and that all of my initiatives were actionable and realistic. Additionally, I’ve been working with students from other campuses to make sure that their voices are heard.
What do you plan to do to include and empower the students at the statewide campuses and regions?
My actual first campaign point has to do with making sure that every resource that we have available on Logan campus is effectively being promoted in other groups — that includes on a statewide level and making sure that they’re accessible to them. If a resource isn’t effectively able to be used online, then it’s really not feasible for students from the Eastern campus to use them. So making sure that it does have like a feasible online option is very important to me.
If you don’t win the election, how do you plan on staying involved at USU?
I’ve been involved at Utah State since I’ve stepped foot on campus. Actually last year, I lost an election. I ran for business senator and lost by about 40 votes. That was a tough ride. But I mean, last year, I said much of the same stuff I’ll say this year. I’ll find committees that I appreciate the mission of, and I will continue to make sure that I’m contributing to the culture. I’m also heavily involved in the ROTC, and a lot of my focus probably will go back to there to make sure that our ROTC here at Utah State is the best it can be.
If President Cantwell invited you to a potluck, what dish would you bring?
I actually have this running joke where if I get invited to something like that, I’ll just show up with cilantro. Sometimes it’s like it has no use, and it’s just kind of a funny thing. And they’re like, ‘Oh haha, you know, classic Matt.’ Or sometimes it’s like a taco night, and it turns out to be exactly what people need. It’s about 50/50, but it works both ways.
Jake Russell:
What year are you in school? What are you studying? Where are you from?
I’m a sophomore. I’m pre-med studying public health with an emphasis in public education. From Stansbury Park, Utah. It’s a little city next to Tooele, but I’m not from Tooele.
What does it mean to you to be an Aggie?
For me, being an Aggie is connection. I love going to all the football games and basketball games, club events and just — just being on campus in general and getting to meet all my fellow students, all my fellow colleagues, because really what being an Aggie is, is people. I think being here at school is — its main purpose is to help each other grow, right, and so I love being an Aggie, and I love being an Aggie with my fellow Aggies.
How will you prepare yourself to accurately represent and be a voice for the entire USU student body?
I think I’ve been preparing myself to be a representative of the Utah State student body since I first got here on campus. I’ve been involved in many things; I’ve taken a part in lots of campus life. And I feel like I get the sense of what the student wants here on campus. And I know that I’ve been trying my hardest, and I will give it all my hardest to be your representative.
What do you plan to do to include and empower the students at the statewide campuses and regions?
My plans for the statewide campuses and regions across the state is I want to make it more accessible for them to kind of have a voice here on the Logan campus. I know it kind of feels like Logan campus is like the central and that’s kind of because it is, but giving them more of like, accessibility to things here on campus and Logan giving them more of a say, because all the decisions here made affect them as well, so they need to be well represented.
If you don’t win the election, how do you plan on staying involved at USU?
If I don’t win, which is possible, I will still be putting all my effort into being involved. I’ve loved being involved on campus, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop, no matter what happens with the outcome of the election. I’ve had so much fun being involved, and I’m already part of so many things — like I don’t really want to give that up.
If President Cantwell invited you to a potluck, what dish would you bring?
I make a mean crockpot mac and cheese and get like four types of cheeses and bacon bits and just like everything. It’s like, nice, and you pull it out of the crock pot and like the cheese is still stuck — it’s good. Trust me. Trust me, that’s what I’ll be making.
Brayden Adamson:
What year are you in school? What are you studying? Where are you from?
I’m a junior. I am studying finance, economics and accounting; triple major. I’m from Salem, Utah — just southern Utah County.
What does it mean to you to be an Aggie?
To be an Aggie, this is something that I know quite well. If anyone’s seen, I transferred from University of Utah, and I was doing engineering there, and I loved it. But I just didn’t feel at home. Every time I had been up here to visit friends or go to games, I just felt a different sense of pride up here. Being an Aggie just means that you care for one another, you have compassion and you have a strong drive to just keep going and do anything. That’s what it means to be an Aggie.
How will you prepare yourself to accurately represent and be a voice for the entire USU student body?
Of course, so I’m going to prepare myself. I try to do this every day, whether or not I’m USUSA President or not, but I live life to the fullest. I dream big. That’s my campaign promise is that I want Aggies to dream bigger. And I know that through connecting and being a kind person, I can do that.
What do you plan to do to include and empower the students at the statewide campuses and regions?
One thing I want to get going on all the statewide campuses is an Aggie Dreamers Lounge, and that dreamers lounge is just going to incorporate as many people that are willing to volunteer and give a sense of community and connections. So if you have an idea, and you want it to take it to fruition, you go into this Aggie Dreamers Lounge, and someone there is going to help you make it happen.
If you don’t win the election, how do you plan on staying involved at USU?
If I don’t win the election this year, I am planning to join a few committees, and I would love to be a part of the HURD and be involved in any way possible. I want to make a change.
If President Cantwell invited you to a potluck, what dish would you bring?
I think I’d have to bring pizza. That is just my No. 1 food.
Jamie Parry:
What year are you in school? What are you studying? Where are you from?
I am a senior at Utah State. I am studying political science with minors in nonformal community-based education and anticipatory intelligence. I am from Boise, Idaho.
What does it mean to you to be an Aggie?
For me, being an Aggie means finding what you are passionate about here on campus and having all of the students, regardless of if they share that passion or not, uplift you and help you achieve that passion.
How will you prepare yourself to accurately represent and be a voice for the entire USU student body?
I feel like I have prepared myself to be an accurate voice for the student body. I’ve done everything from being on events, committees, events directors, President’s Cabinet, Government Relations Council, I had a podcast through Student Media. From the day I stepped on foot here on campus, I have been meeting so many different Aggies, and through this, I have prepared myself to be a voice. With this, I also will continue to listen to students first as being USUSA President, to advocate for students.
What do you plan to do to include and empower the students at the statewide campuses and regions?
Here at Utah State with a statewide system, the president represents students from all different campuses. But what this means is enabling all of the vice presidents at campuses to enable their students first, because they’re the ones that are directly listening to students. So being able to have personal relationships with each of the vice presidents here at Utah State, as well as visiting different campuses, such as Price, Moab and more to listen to students directly.
If you don’t win the election, how do you plan on staying involved at USU?
If I don’t win the election, Utah State University has always surprised me with the next opportunity, times that I didn’t get things that I wanted. I found myself interacting with students through student events, because I didn’t get into the program that I wanted to academically. And then when that happened, I decided to find the anticipatory intelligence program. I don’t know exactly what the path would be moving forward after losing an election potentially. But I know that Utah State has those opportunities for me to continue to move forward, even though I don’t know what that path looks like right now.
If President Cantwell invited you to a potluck, what dish would you bring?
I would bring cheese fondue with lots of different things to dip into it, like pretzel bites and Ritz crackers, because I love cheese, and I think it’s a fun activity as well as a snack.
Sarah Pope:
What year are you in school? What are you studying? Where are you from?
I’m a fourth-year Ph.D. student. Cognitive psychology. I’m originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
What does it mean to you to be an Aggie?
That’s such a good question. What does it mean to me to be an Aggie? I think that it means taking advantage of the resources that are available, kind of in a way that you can capitalize them. For example, like being able to have strong relationships with admin, I feel like is really central to being an Aggie. I don’t think that a lot of other universities have such a close relationship like with their students in the university administration. And so for me, it means being able to kind of communicate with students as well as admin to get a good picture of what’s happening at the university.
How will you prepare yourself to accurately represent and be a voice for the entire USU student body?
I think that having served on USUSA for two years as the graduate studies senator has given me some preparation. But you know, I’ve also reached out to statewide students. I spent a day on Eastern talking to their student government and their students. And so, I feel like by being proactive and reaching out to not just Logan campus students, but to all statewide Aggies, will really help me be that voice for everybody.
What do you plan to do to include and empower the students at the statewide campuses and regions?
I want to create a student director of research position, and I want that position to come with a statewide counterpart so that way we are including our statewide Aggies within our research initiatives. Another thing that I want to do is capitalize on the events that already happen. For example, Salt Lake has a Jazz night with their Aggies in Salt Lake, and I think having Logan, at least the USUSA, or inviting the larger student body to come down and support those events is how we can do that.
If you don’t win the election, how do you plan on staying involved at USU?
If I don’t win the election, that’s hard for me because as a graduate student, for me, not winning is kind of a sign that I should focus on my dissertation. It takes a lot of work. I’m doing three different research projects at once for this degree. But at the same time, you know, I’ve told the person coming in after me for my senator position that I will always, you know, be a resource for them. And, you know, I don’t know if that answers the question completely. And maybe it’s a bit selfish that I do switch to focus on myself, but I think that’s just the honest answer.
If President Cantwell invited you to a potluck, what dish would you bring?
President Cantwell makes me kind of fangirl just a little bit. I find her to be incredibly effective and efficient and just maybe one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. And so if I were to bring a potluck dish, I think I would have to bring probably some chili like from the South — like I am from Tennessee, and so we take pride in our crock pot dishes, if you will. And so I think I would want to give her a little bit of spice.
Interviews conducted by Caitlin Keith