Nominated by Jenessa Lund, Casey Park and Kendra Higgins

Since A.S. of HSU candidates must have successfully completed at least one semester of college prior to joining the A.S. Board of Directors, Pao didn’t wait long to get involved and joined A.S. of HSU the moment she was eligible. The 2nd semester of her freshman year (2016-17), Pao was appointed as the A.S. At Large Representative. Some of the many topics and/or legislation she was involved in included Pepsi pouring rights; adding two new positions to the A.S Board of Directors (Social Justice & Equity Officer & Environmental Sustainability Officer); and changing the name of A.S. from Council to Board of Directors. For her sophomore year, 2017-18, Pao was elected to be the A.S. Legislative Vice President.

Pao has a number of amazing qualities that make her an awesome human being and leader: kindness, compassion, passion, advocate, ability to remain calm, listen well, organize and run meetings, and be a supportive partner to her co-leaders who were working on legislation and resolutions. She was instrumental in advocating for the creation of two new A.S. Programs: The Student Legal Lounge and Scholars Without Borders. Pao also represented A.S. of HSU at the annual CSUnity where all 23 Associated Students organizations in the CSU meet annually for collaborative, state-wide training and planning. Pao was elected, for the second consecutive year in 2018-19, as the A.S. Legislative Vice President. Legislation that she had extra passion and support for this year were The Green New Deal (which was then taken to the Cal State Student Association (CSSA) and supported there) and work to update the plagiarism policy via the University Academic Policy Committee (APC). Again, Pao represented A.S. of HSU at CSUnity, strengthening HSU’s connection even more with the other 22 CSU campuses.

Pao focused on her love for HSU students and returned to A.S. to be appointed as the A.S. External Affairs Representative. She travels to monthly CSSA meetings where she works with leaders from all the other 22 CSU campuses to strengthen the voice of over 550,000 students in the CSU. Pao is also leading a group of student leaders to the California Higher Education Student Summit (CHESS) Conference in March where they will advocate with state legislators on legislation that impacts college students in California.