Hubilla to seek an 'active, inclusive' ASSOC
Photo courtesy of ASSOC Elections Committee
By Janna Lagman
On Oct. 21, the Asian Studies Gazette conducted an onsite and one-on-one interview with Sofia Jordan Hubilla, the lone candidate for the position of Auditor for the Special Elections in the Asian Studies Society (ASSOC).
Seeing the lack of interest among the students in taking up the leadership role motivated Hubilla to run for the position. With her advocacy for transparency, accountability, and camaraderie in Society, she believes in creating a “safer” and “inclusive” community.
In hopes of having students actively participate in ASSOC, Hubilla laid out her projects to engage the student body while offering them opportunities for future endeavors.
Hubilla sees the need to fund the Society’s delegates from its two flagship events, the UST Model ASEAN Meeting and the UST Model United Nations. She believes this would allow the students to participate in other universities’ simulations.
She also aims to officially release merchandise that would amplify the involvement of Asian Studies students.
“I think that these will encourage the students to engage more with the Asian Studies Society as we always try to create or aim for projects that would have students willingly join and be part of it,” Hubilla explained.
Given her extensive experience as a leader, including her recent positions as the class president and one of the project heads of Agents of Diplomacy 2023, the first onsite event of ASSOC since the pandemic, she stressed the importance of proper communication with her members.
“As of right now, I’m really just willing to be guided and assured that even though it is my first time running for this kind of position in an organization. It also helps na parang inaassure nila ako na (they assure me that) they support me. From that on, that’s all I need to be able to learn,” she added.
Hubilla described herself as an “approachable” leader and shared her appreciation for the people who consider and value her friendly personality. However, she pointed out the need to establish a barrier to demonstrate professionalism with the student body, especially with her work as an executive board member.
Her vision for a highly cooperative student, considering that the Special Elections would result in more people joining the Executive Board, inspired Hubilla to lobby for an engaging society.
Hubilla won the position of auditor through a memorandum released by the ASSOC Elections Committee on Friday, Oct. 27. The auditor-elect received 158 votes over the 184 total votes received by the committee.
