by Laurent Ruttkowski

ENC’s International Student Organization (ISO) recently held elections for the 2017-18 school year and now has a new council. At the head of the council is President José Amilcar Mata and Vice President Lingxiao Tang.

 

After some difficulties finding a new president of the International Student Organization, as last year’s president did not wish to return, Mata was elected. Mata, coming to ENC from Honduras, is a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering. The full electrical engineering program offered by ENC was a primary factor in Mata’s decision to attend ENC, as well as its standing as a Christian college.

 

The role of the president is to arrange and conduct meetings of the ISO twice a month, as well as to meet with SGA or scheduled council meetings. For Mata, “this organization is important because it makes ENC more global and enriches campus life, so I want to contribute to it as much as I can.” 

 

The elected new Vice President, Lingxiao Tang, is from China. Also a sophomore, Tang is majoring in Mathematics, Music Performance, and Piano. As Vice President, his job is to assist the president as much as possible. Tang explains, “I chose to go for the vice president because I want to support José in creating a multicultural environment at ENC.”

 

Together, Mata and Tang want to pursue some new impulses within the organization and on campus. Looking forward to this school-year Mata states, “The change that we want to see in the International Student Organization is growing from what we were last year. We have new and returning international students. This year, we want to have new and more frequent events, we want to have more students involved, and we want to strengthen the organization for future generations at ENC.”

 

Membership in the ISO is primarily made up of the foreign students on campus with an F-1 Visas. Nevertheless, the original purpose of the ISO, written in the Constitution, is to bring diversity to all on campus and give Americans an understanding of other cultures. According to this purpose, faculty advisor David Restrick believes that “the organization is an opportunity even for Americans to learn more about other countries and other cultures.” Restrick represents the international students in the faculty and “tries to help in every possible way.”