With the spring semester winding down, the Associated Students Organization (ASO) is undergoing preparations to select the 2013 fall cabinet members and having hope of getting students engaged in the voting process.

“We want ASO to be more recognized in the student body and we also want a more active student life such as, students voting and talking about issues on campus,” Tiffany Tran, student public relations officer, said, “We want more students to be engaged in student government and student life at El Camino College.”

ASO said to always strive to encourage students to be involved in the student government system and especially for the upcoming election.

Tran added that last year only 1 percent of the student body actually voted so the hope is to make students more aware of the election and to vote.

The students currently running for office include: Marisa Tam for president; Alejandro Venture for vice president; Sean Borden for student trustee; Nick Awakumi for public relations officer; Luis Mendez for student services officer; Elizabeth Salinger for senator of health sciences and athletics division and Garett Lopez for senator of mathematical sciences division.

Campaigning for the election started today and this will give candidates the opportunity to not only publicize the election but show students who they can vote for and why they should vote for a particular candidate.

“I have a good background, I’m currently the senator of natural sciences, I started the pre-med club here at El Camino and I’ve been a division council member of health sciences and athletics,” Sean Borden, 20, biology major, said. “I have a wide variety to draw from, to help the student body as a whole.”

Candidates believe that they will make a difference if elected and have the opportunity to make sure that the students concerns are heard.

“I’m running because I want to be more involved in school,” Elizabeth Salinger, 19, business management major, said. “I feel if I’m more involved I could give a voice to those people who don’t have a voice.”

Many candidates believe they offer a different point of view that will ultimately be beneficial to the entire student body. With their perspective they hope to make a difference for the college.

“I feel like I have better perspective of actually being an engineering major at EC,” Garett Lopez, 19, electrical engineering major, said. “I feel like, not many engineering majors are interested in student government so I offer a unique perspective that’s somewhat rare.”

Candidates also hope to bring more awareness to student government as a whole and to help students work with each other and with faculty and staff to make the school more beneficial for everyone.

“I’d like to allow students the opportunity to get more involved and I’d like the ASO to be more visible,” Marisa Tam, 25, art history major, said. “So students know that’s where they can go to make their voices heard and get more involved with faculty and staff.”

In addition to the candidates publicizing their individual campaigns, there will be an official candidates rally on the activities center outdoor stage on May 14th from 1 to 2 p.m. The voting dates will be May 13-14 at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Schauerman Library Lawn and from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Activities Center and in case of bad weather, the  Schauerman Library location will be moved to the Activities Center.

Upon voting there will be complementary items and/or snacks available. The results of the election will be posted May 17 in the Student Development Office by 9 a.m. There will also be run-off elections for any position that is vacant on May 22-23 with the same voting schedule.