Meet the USUSA: Dallin Johnson

Dallin Johnson is a senior at Utah State University as well as Huntsman Scholar, a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, a former Capitol Hill intern, concert connoisseur, the self-titled “official-unofficial brand ambassador” for Nando’s restaurant, and the administrative assistant for USUSA.

Johnson is a northern Utah native. He was born in Ogden and has lived in Bountiful and Layton. He attended middle school and high school in Fruit Heights and graduated from Davis High School.

“I say I grew up in Kaysville when people ask,” Johnson said.

His family has since moved to Hawaii.

“I’m on my own out here in Utah, but have a great place to go home to for Christmas,” Johnson said.

Johnson found out about the administrative assistant position from Liz Rumball last spring when he was running for executive vice president against Blake Harms. He learned that the administrative assistant gets to help with the academic senate and executive council.

“Working with academic senate and executive council is what peaked my interest in the position,” Johnson said. “It’s been fun working with Michael and the other officers and the student involvement office.”

Johnson said his job consists of taking minutes at executive council and academic senate meetings, keeping legislation organized and creating agendas for the meetings.

His favorite part of the job is being the chair of the academic opportunity fund committee, a fund within USUSA that provides money for students to present their academic research and compete in academic competitions.

Johnson started out as a biology major at Utah State University. He later got accepted as a Huntsman Scholar and realized how much he was enjoying his economics classes.

“(Economics) has so many different aspects to it.” Johnson said. “It’s understanding how society works and how people make decisions.”

Johnson graduates in May, which he said is nerve-wracking because he isn’t yet sure what he is doing afterwards. Owning a Nandos franchise is a career he hopes to have at some point in his life.

Economics has lead Johnson to his love of politics, as he was an intern in Sen. Orin Hatch’s office last summer. Johnson took his experience on Capitol Hill and brought it back to USU.

“It was a neat experience to work with a legislative team and getting to see how that works, to see how an office works, and how a governmental office works, and taking those practical applications back to USU,” Johnson said.

Johnson is a leader in both USUSA and USU’s Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He is the vice president of communications where he also takes minutes in meetings.

Erik Olson, Johnson’s friend and fraternity brother, said they have a running joke where he suggests Johnson takes minutes when they are in a common meeting.

Olson feels that Johnson got experience with his fraternity and brought it to his USUSA position.

“I think generally he sort of learned what it is to be a leader and learned what it is to be responsible for something and be the person to go to about making sure it gets done,” Olson said.

Johnson and Olson have bonded over music and memes. Their friendship flourished with the help of SigEp.

Olson is the college of engineering senator and works closely with Johnson. He said his friendship with Johnson helps work for USUSA become more effective.

“We have that mutual trust and respect and love for each other,” Olson said. I think that makes everything we say, whether it’s critical or positive, in kind of a positive light and say it in a constructive way.”

Because the USUSA administrative assistant position is appointed, not elected, it is often overlooked.

Michael Scott Peters, USUSA president, understands that “sometimes people look at the administrative assistant role as that of lesser responsibility.”

“Dallin is as much of a leader as anyone up here on this floor,” Peters said. “Without him, we would not be as successful as we are and we wouldn’t have been able to do the things we’ve done so far. It’s all thanks to Dallin.”

Johnson said there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved in non-elected positions.

“Even if you’re not in an elected position, there’s still ways to be a force of change,” Johnson said. “That requires being good to people and being genuine.”

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