Senator Spotlight: Joey Novak

In this week’s Student Senator Spotlight, Joey Novak is taking the stage. Novak is an Aviation major with a Spanish minor. 

Novak lives a busy life. Outside of being in Student Government, Novack said he is the Vice President for the Residential Halls Association, a member of an NRHH and is also the Director of Recruiting for College Democrats. He serves on some committees that are related to the Senate as well. He does this all while being in his third year of his degree.

When asked why he joined Student Senate, he says, “I joined Student Government after last semester when the government was fighting really hard to influence some change, specifically with the kitchens and lounges in my position on RHA.”

He further explained by saying, “Working with a lot of senators, I was able to get a lot done and hoped that by joining the Student Senate I would be able to get even more done to help my fellow students.”

Currently, Novak is working on a few projects in order to follow through with his goals. 

“I’m working on two big things which is that me and some other senators are trying to get an LGBTQ+ learning community established in the residential halls,” he says. 

“The other project that I’m working on is trying to work with Cindy, who is the Dean of the residential halls, in order to get a few revisions made to guest policies.”

Though this is Novak’s first semester as a senator, he is enjoying his time so far. 

“I’m just very grateful for a lot of the connections that I’ve made with my fellow senators,” he says. “I’m just glad for a lot of the friends that I’ve made that I would then go on to hang out with and make great memories with outside of Student Government.”

He continues on to say, “There’s a lot to get done and there’s not a whole lot of time in the world to get all that, but I’m going to try my hardest to get as much done as possible.”

Moving forward into the rest of his time at MNSU and in his career, he is going to take the skills he has learned in the Student Senate with him. 

“I would say that the biggest skill that I took away from being in this is organization and project management,” Novak says. “It’s a lot to make sure that I’m not like selling anything short and I’m able to give myself 100% to everything that I’m involved in.”

Novak was also named senator of the month at the last Student Government meeting.