Meet the Candidates

Nicole Kukuruda

• Junior residential student
• Student Senator and Vice-Chair of the Finance and Student Services Committees
• Campus Coordinator for the OneVoice Movement
• Co-founder of Virginia21 at Mason
• Officer of Alpha Xi Delta
• Member of the L-Team (Leadership Team)
• Intern at the State Department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs
• Patriot Platoon member
• Model UN Treasurer
• Broadside Opinion Columnist
• Active College Republican
• Sings in her shower and loves Gunston!

Hi,

I’d like to take a minute to introduce myself. My name is Nicole Kukuruda and I am thrilled that you are taking the time to find out more about the candidates you might be supporting. After working very hard for you this year, we are dedicated to advocating for students even more in the next academic year.

Ravi and I thought about what our slogan should be for quite some time, and we feel that “Real Solutions. Right Now.” sums up our platform and experiences perfectly. We’re not offering platform initiatives that aren’t feasible — we won’t promise you that we’ll cut the tuition costs or magically make a parking garage with 2,000 spaces appear overnight. What we are offering in our platform are Real Solutions to the problems that we face everyday that Student Government can, should, and will change next year. We have taken what we have learned through our experience working with the administration, faculty, and staff on campus, and translated that into a platform which can be brought to life through your vote.

The second half of our slogan is “Right Now,” which we believe is very significant. Ravi and I have been working on lots of things that can be implemented immediately — solutions that don’t take much time, just the passion and initiative to push for them to happen NOW. Just recently, I visited the Sodexho-run dining facilities at the University of Pittsburgh with Mason’s new Executive Chef and the Director of Dining Services; Ravi has been working with the VP for Information Technology and VP of the Technology Services Divison recently to upgrade the Mason email system (hopefully to Gmail!). Based on our work, the quality of food has gone up in Ciao Hall, the dining options have become increasingly varied, and we’re going to be using a brand-new email system by Fall ‘08. Long story short? We’re not waiting to get elected — we’re already working on these problems. We’ve been getting things accomplished and, win or lose, we will keep getting things accomplished next year.

Slogans and ideas are great, but you also need to know that the person you elect to office has the leadership skills necessary to see them through. Part of being Student Body President is overseeing a staff of nearly 20 people, giving them a vision and goals to pursue, and providing them with the resources necessary to succeed. My leadership skills, from being an officer or head of 5 different student organizations to being a demonstrated leader in Student Government, have provided me with the skills and relationships necessary to advocate for students with administrators, faculty, and staff. The wide assortment of organizations Ravi and I lead and are involved with also allows us to utilize the different lenses of these organizations to better understand the needs of the Mason community. I feel the Mason spirit coursing through my veins and I know that I have what it takes to lead the student body and best represent you, the students.

We’re so excited to keep working on our campaign initiatives and I hope that you vote for us as your next Student Body President and Vice President on April 15th and 16th. Thank you for your support!

-Nicole Kukuruda
Candidate for Student Body President

Fun Fact: Nicole used to be a lead vocalist for the Pump Girls, a young musical group that advocated for diabetes awareness and even performed on CNN and at Disney Land! Check out some pictures on Wikipedia.

Ravi Udeshi

• Sophomore commuter student
• Student Senator
• Model UN President
• Phi Alpha Delta Treasurer
• Rodamus Group,LLC CEO and Co-Founder
• Connect Mason Designer
• Fairfax County Youth Leadership Program Graduate
• Fmr. Lt. Governor for Virginia and North Carolina of Junior Civitan International
• Active College Democrat
• Loves to play fantasy football and debate intellectual property and media law!

Ravi Udeshi is the best candidate for Student Body Vice President. He’s a recent convert to Student Government, deciding to get involved and do something about the problems at Mason rather than just griping about them. He’s quickly gotten his feet wet and has been hard at work pursing initiatives that will benefit the student body.

Fun Fact: Ravi’s last professional haircut was in January 2006. He grew out his hair for almost 2 years — more than 15 inches long — and then cut it all off himself and donated it to Locks of Love, a charity that makes hairpieces for children with cancer. He was bald for a few months, and is now (slowly) growing his hair back. Check out a video of him cutting his hair on Youtube!

Our Competition

Say what? Information on our competition? Why would we do that? It’s very simple. We actually love that there are so many candidates for President and Vice President - 12 in all! We believe that a healthy debate of ideas will only lead to a better Mason and so we encourage you to take a look at the ideas and platforms of the other candidates. We look forward to seeing the best ideas everyone has to offer implemented next year and that can’t happen if we’re not all willing to work together. Go ahead, take a look — it won’t hurt ;-).

• Jacob Rehpelz, Bailey Hall - No website or other published platform.
• Anna Godlewski, Katie Bowen - Platform available at AnnaandKatie4Mason.com.
• Nicole Kukuruda, Ravi Udeshi - That’s us! Take a look around this website for any and all information about us, our campaign, and our extensive platform (NicoleandRavi.com/platform/). Questions or ideas? Let us know!
• Ijeoma Nwatu, Chris Hild - No platform; Vision for Mason available in their Facebook videoblog.
• Zach Golden, Claire Forman - Platform available at ZackandClaire.com.
• Alexander Innes, Christine McGuire - Platform available at AlexandChristineForMason.com.

Note: List of candidates taken from Student Elections Commission website. If we have forgotten to list someone’s information, please contact us and we will fix it immediately. (PS. Other campaigns: No website? No worries, we’ll be happy to host a PDF, DOC, or some other version of your platform if you send it over.)