By Eric Rench
[email protected]

The once bare, burgundy walls inside Valencia’s West Student Government office, now boast three more prestigious awards received at the Florida Junior Community College Student Government Association Conference (FJCCSGA).

On Feb. 3, 10 delegates from the SGA office were selected to represent the school at a conference in St. Petersburg. During the conference, members voted on state wide issues including: Bright Futures, Undocumented Students, a Local Option Referendum and Florida’s State Budget.

After the voting, an awards banquet was held to recognize schools that had made the most impact during the semester. For District 2, Valencia Community College’s West campus received most of the awards given out that night. The Spirit Award was received by SGA’s West President, Catalina Perez, who humbly accepted the award. She credited her success to the “…strength of our organization.”

Later that night, the award for most community service performed also went to West campus. The West campus was responsible for the large amount of toys collected for Baby DJ and for all the food and supplies donated to Harbor House, a shelter for the domestically abused.

The last award given to Valencia’s West Campus, the Excellence Award, is given to a school that has demonstrated to FJCCSGA that they have excelled in all areas. After the awards, Catalina has this to say, “On behalf of the SGA at West campus, I want to personally thank the students and faculty for their continued support throughout the semesters; none of this would have been possible without you.”

On Wednesday, Feb. 9, the awards were presented to the SGA’s governing body and to the students of Valencia at their general meeting. Dr. Shugart was invited to the event, but regrettably he was attending a conference in Indianapolis. He sent an email to the press secretary stating that he was “…very proud of the organization and that he would let the Board of Trustees know of their success.”

In attendance was Kathy Hauser, Assistant Provost, who stated that “…they couldn’t be more proud of the SGA’s success and that if they ever needed anything, to let them know.”

As you may recall, last semester, the SGA office was surrounded in controversy that eventually led to the resignation of the President. The SGA office is going to use these awards as building blocks, a way of severing the past and moving on to a brighter future.

If you have any questions, contact the Press Secretary at [email protected].