With their term drawing to a close Monday, ASUO President Emma Kallaway and Vice President Getachew Kassa sat down with the Emerald to reflect on their time in charge. Here, they speak about their relationship and the early history of their attempts to gain office. Longer articles about their time in office will follow in next week’s Emerald.
Oregon Daily Emerald: I like to begin interviews with the most difficult question of all: Who is your favorite Duck football player?
Emma Kallaway: LaMichael (James). Definitely LaMichael.
Getachew Kassa: I guess I would also have to say LaMichael. It’s a difficult one, but yeah.
ODE: What do you think that says about your personalities, your leadership styles?
EK: (It) says I don’t know enough about football. (laughs)
GK: I think it says that sometimes you may not think you’re ready, but you get into certain situations and then you have to produce in order to benefit your whole team. That’s what LaMichael James did this year when LeGarrette Blount unfortunately could no longer play. He came in, stepped up, and it was his first year ever and he made the most out of it and I think he won Pac-10 Player of the Year and really helped the Ducks to be successful this year. I think, in a lot of ways, we’re like LaMichael James, where we have those qualities.
ODE: How did you meet?
EK: Getachew and I met because we had a mutual friend who introduced us and because I think we both wanted to run, but I especially needed to find a partner who was going to be a lot of the things that I’m not really good at. And Getachew goes above and beyond any partner someone could have asked for, especially for this job. I think specifically he’s a great listener, takes a lot of time to think about all the issues, (and) constantly challenges me to think outside the box and outside of what’s presented in front of us. And I think in general I just … I was glad that we met, but we needed to build a relationship throughout the entire year, and that’s made us stronger as an Executive.
GK: We met through a mutual friend and, when we first met, I could tell that Emma was a very patient person and someone who didn’t care necessarily about just getting another candidate to run with her, but she really wanted to kind of invest in that person and really find out who they were. I think that really showed throughout the whole process, because before I decided to run with Emma, we really got to know each other and we went out to dinner a few times and we talked about our strengths and weaknesses and what we both can contribute to this team.
I said it before and I say it now: I don’t think there’s any person more qualified to be president than Emma, from all her experiences to the kind of person she is and her leadership style. I think that all of those things kind of attracted me to Emma and to really run together. So I’m glad that I did it. Our friendship has changed my life.
ODE: Do you mind if I ask? Who was the mutual acquaintance?
EK: Yeah. It was (former ASUO Multicultural Advocate and presidential candidate) Kari Herinckx, a mentor of mine.
GK: And mine as well.
ODE: How long have you wanted this job?
EK: … Something that I haven’t thought about in a really long time … The first time I walked into the ASUO (office), I met (former ASUO President) Jared Axelrod, and I shook his hand and I signed up to be an ASUO intern. I just was really impressed by what the ASUO had to do and felt like that was a place where I wanted to spend my next four years.
That was a pretty early realization, but did I ever think that I would have the utmost privilege of holding this seat? Definitely not. That’s not something that my family has a long history of doing. I think that I come from a very hardworking family. I think that, just the privilege of being able to sit in this seat and help students make really powerful decisions is just an incredible opportunity and something that I never would have expected would have happened to us.
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Saying goodbye
Daily Emerald
May 19, 2010
Ivar Vong
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