Amrushaa Jyoti Muralidhar, known as AJ, is a 21-year-old South Indian woman. She came to the United States when she was ten-years-old, and she lived in Los Angeles until 2021 with her family. She came to New York and enrolled at SUNY Old Westbury College as a full-time student and lives on campus.
As she remarks, her cultural identity can be defined as being “sixty percent Indian and forty percent American.” She still speaks Tamil with her parents, eats some Indian food, and goes to a Hindu temple in Flushing to perform her religious duties, keeping continued loyalty to her culture. But, she also feels that she quickly adjusted to American culture when she entered the educational environment, and today, she feels comfortable living in the U.S.
At SUNY Old Westbury, AJ is majoring in biology, and she is expecting to graduate in May of 2024. After that, her plans are to go to medical school and become a surgeon. She also plans to likely do a higher residency in Europe.
This semester, AJ applied to NYU for volunteer work, and she is also involved in different clubs and organizations on campus. She is the vice president of a new club on campus called Get Up, Get Healthy. She is also an active member of the Neuropsychology Club and Students Against Social Injustice.
AJ decided to apply to the Student Government Association because she has never been part of something big in high school or college. She said, “I researched the school and I talked to people, and they told me to go for a Student Government Association’s position, and I did.”
AJ’s connections with people helped her to win the Student Government Association’s elections and become the new Director of Clubs and Organizations on campus.
In her role at the Student Government Association, AJ must host Club Bash events. She will direct all clubs and organizations, making sure they are running smoothly and hosting appropriate events for other students. Also, she will attend “CoCO (Council of Clubs and Organizations) meetings” to update clubs with new information that could be relevant for them.
She stated, “I am not a confrontational person, so I always avoid conflict.” She therefore believes that she will need to acquire conflict-resolution skills to assist clubs and organizations at school in resolving potential conflicts with one another.
As part of the Student Government Association, she will make sure to encourage students to open new clubs and sign up for and participate in existing clubs. She will be sure to introduce all new clubs to the school community, so students are aware of their existence.