Anna Olson, current Student Government senior director of communications, is a presidential candidate for this spring’s election as she and her vice presidential candidate, Mariana Gonzalez, look to take office next fall.

Olson, sophomore in journalism and political science, has been organizing events with her Student Government since high school. Along with putting on community service projects in high school and her current Student Government role as senior director of communications, Olson has continued her outreach at Iowa State by writing for the Iowa State Daily newspaper, being on parliament for her dorm her freshman year, being involved with the First Amendment Committee at the Greenlee School of Journalism and recently putting together the 2021 Women’s Week Conference. 

Having joined Student Government this past summer, Olson was initially pondering her move to run for president as she wondered if she had enough experience. However, after conversations with some of her colleagues, Olson made the jump.

“I feel like through the projects that I’ve done and the passion that I’ve had just throughout the short span of time that I am willing to put in the effort to learn more, make sure I’m prepared for this,” Olson said.

One of the most important things to Olson is spreading awareness about diversity and inclusion. A few things Olson and Gonzalez hope to do to counteract racism and bigotry is supporting the Divine Nine Plot, having biweekly meetings with minority groups and making sure gender-neutral bathrooms are included on the MyState app. 

“It’s like something that I can’t personally understand,” Olson said. “But it’s something that after recent events that have been happening, there is a big difference between doing nothing, saying nothing and then actively trying to educate yourself and making it a really strong point on our campaign.”

Olson hopes to create an Iowa State experience where students are not afraid to speak their mind, beliefs and opinions as she related this to her experience on deciding to run for president. 

“. . . (t)hat was kind of my purpose for running because I felt like I couldn’t even run,” Olson said. “So that’s kind of like the point that I’m hoping to get across the students of like, this is not as scary as it seems to be, you can make a lot of great friends. And you can make a lot of great changes.”

Olson will speak in the Student Government presidential debate Tuesday where she will face off against her opponent, Julia Campbell. 

Access to more information about the Olson-Gonzalez campaign.