She’s a fourth year social sciences major with a criminal justice concentration and a Spanish minor; she’s an Orange County native; she was a WOW leader and on Open House Committee; she enjoys singing along to Christmas music with her roommates in October, and she can be found rooting for the green and gold at almost every Cal Poly game. So who is this Cal Poly collegiette? She’s your ASI President, Katie Morrow.
Katie first became involved in student government at the end of her freshman year, when her curiosity about ASI pushed her to apply for a position in the Executive Cabinet of ASI. She wasn’t involved in ASB or any sort of student leadership in high school, so her position as Secretary of Legislative Affairs was new territory for Katie.
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into, “ Katie said, “ Looking back, I don’t know if I even would have been able to explain my job until I was a couple months into it.”
Katie enjoyed her work with ASI Student Government, but she said she had no intentions in running for ASI President.
But Katie had no intentions to run for the position until midway through her junior year.
“As I got more involved and saw all the different opportunities and learned more about the school and the students, I knew I’d regret it the rest of my life if I didn’t run for ASI President.”
Katie’s top priority as ASI President is promoting The Mustang Way. It is a standard and a series of principles that ASI has set for all Cal Poly students.
“It’s a little bit more abstract than other presidents’ goals have been – some of them said they wanted to build a new Rec Center or create a new website – but I think we need a culture shift here,” Katie said.
The Mustang Way is a tool to unite the whole campus, so no matter what a student is interested or involved in, he or she is a part of this bigger community, Katie said.
The job of ASI President definitely isn’t an easy one. With a packed schedule of public speaking events, meetings, interviews and events, Katie has learned how to cope with stress and challenges her position entails.
“I’ve learned that I don’t know what I have to learn yet and so my goal is to just to keep having these new experiences and not be afraid of new things,” Katie said.
She is the fifth female student from the College of Liberal Arts to serve at ASI President.
“I’ve never felt like I would’ve been treated differently in this role because I’m a woman, and I think part of that is because I’ve never given anyone the chance to do that.”
Katie told HCCP she’d like to see Cal Poly collegiettes, and women in general, become more involved in political organizations.
“Anywhere women can have their say in politics and policy is incredibly important, “ Katie said. “We need that on campus – we need collegiettes to learn that here so that they can take that into the bigger world.”
In her rare free time, Katie relaxes by hanging out with her friends and going on runs.
One of her favorite ways to have a good time is attending Cal Poly athletic events. But Katie doesn’t just pencil in the big football, soccer and basketball games. She loves cheering on the sidelines at track meets and tennis matches too.
One of Katie’s favorite memory’s from her time as ASI President was attending a staff appreciation breakfast for Cal Poly Facility Services this past August. She said that many of the Facility Services staff told her they had never been thanked before by a student.
“Now when I see our custodians, landscapers, anyone from Facility Services around campus, I always say hi and thank them.” Katie said. “I’ll never forget that event.”
Maybe you’ll recognize Katie on campus after reading this article, but Katie said for the most part, she blends in and students generally don’t recognize her as their ASI President.
“Last night I was at an info-session on campus and as I walked out, I overheard someone whispering, ‘That’s Katie Morrow, I’ve always wanted to meet her,’” Katie said. “I was just standing next to that student, I wish they had just introduced themselves to me because I would have loved to meet them. I want students to feel as though I’m approachable.”
Fun Fact: Katie said if she wrote an article for Her Campus Cal Poly, she’d probably write an article on how to dress in business casual. As a very stylish ASI President who loves her business casual, Katie highly recommends Banana Republic as her favorite place to find professional-wear.
HCCP LOVE: “I think we have a lot of similar experiences that are true just to women – we’ve seen and felt things as women of a prestigious university that we want to talk about and we deserve a place to do that so I’m really excited about Her Campus Cal Poly.” – Katie Morrow, Cal Poly ASI President.