Following praise on campus for organizing the commemorative event following the Sept. 11 tragedy, ASGCC President Dan Wengert looks forward to a promising year of cultural events and student awareness.

Wengert was elected in the spring to head ASGCC after previously working with the finance committee for the GCC Scholars Program, then as senator of administration for ASGCC. It was that involvement with student government that prompted Wengert to run for president.

“I wanted to give back to the students,” said Wengert. “I noticed some issues on campus were not getting the appropriate attention and I wanted to make sure issues would get expressed at the administrative level.”

Although the position came with obvious extended responsibilities, Wengert was not intimidated by the workload that faced him the first day of school. Utilizing the summer to meet and plan for the upcoming school year, he has found ways to balance his time.

“It was not much of a shock,” said Wengert. “We were meeting all summer so when the school year came it was not much more. I just learned to manage my time.”

Wengert considered his first major accomplishment the planning of the Sept. 14 remembrance ceremony for the victims lost in the attack on America.

“It feels good to know that I’ve helped in some way,” said Wengert. “I just wanted to express exactly what GCC is all about.”

“He’s doing a great job,” said Vice President of ASGCC Ronny Hovanessian. “I heard from previous AS presidents, that the speech he gave at the ceremony, was the best speech ever given by a president.”

His main goals for himself and the cabinet is to focus on fair representation for all races throughout the school year. He is planning Chinese, Japanese and Armenian and other cultural activities to highlight diversity at GCC.

After completing his studies here, Wengert plans to transfer to either Brigham Young University, California State University at Northridge, the University of Florida or the University of Miami as a business administration major.