When it comes to extracurricular activities, Kevin Doan isn’t shy.
He’s the treasurer of Asian American Student Union, a dancer for Filipino Student Association and a sophomore UF student senator. He also serves on the budget and appropriations committee.
The 19-year-old UF finance sophomore is running as Student Body vice president for the Access Party along with Student Body presidential candidate Joselin Padron-Rasines and Student Body treasurer candidate Nicholas Carre.
The Student Body vice president oversees three divisions and 19 departments within Cabinet.
Doan said he became involved in Student Government because he wanted to gain experience and get involved in student organizations.
“I wanted to get professional development, and I wanted to give back to a university that’s given a lot to me,” he said.
Growing up in Ohio, before making his way down to Parkland, Florida, he heard stories of his parents escaping the war in North Vietnam. Vietnamese culture played an important role in his life and manifested in the tight-knit family surrounding him.
He said food, language and dance are ways he connects with his culture in addition to joining AASU.
Doan said if he were elected he wants to focus on the cabinets under SG. He said he wants to align the cabinet departments with the current student organizations to bridge the gap between student organizations and Cabinet.
Cabinet is a segment of SG that breaks down into three divisions and 19 departments categorized by different areas of campus life, such as LGBT affairs, leadership development and Innovation Academy. The departments work with student organizations within their category to increase outreach and help organize events. The Student Body vice president oversees the divisions and departments.
One of his main goals would be to expand outreach to students. He said programs in SG are not using their full potential in reaching students.
Doan said SG has resources that can be expanded to benefit the Student Body. He said his party has discussed creating a newsletter that would update students on news that occurs in SG in the form of an email.
Another suggestion he made was promoting SGTV. He said SGTV is a new program that is an efficient way to inform students about events in SG, and he hopes to reach more students with it.
According to Alligator archives, SGTV launched in Fall 2014.
“Making sure that it really reaches our audience because if you just look at the demographics of the viewership of these videos is not as much as compared to the entire student body population,” he said. “It’s still a work in progress.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 2/20/2015]
Kevin Doan is running to be UF's student body vice president as a member of the Access Party.
