It Takes a Village: Emilie Kalaydjian’s Path to President
“If you’re not afraid, you’re not human,” said Emilie Kalaydjian, President of the USC.
As President, Kalaydjian is certainly not one to back down from a challenge. For most, the idea of being one of the foremost public figures on campus is terrifying—and for good reason. Your shortcomings are scrutinized, and your successes even more so.
Despite this, Kalaydjian has climbed the ranks of the USC, layering on responsibility after responsibility until she stacked her way to the top.
Today, her official title is “President and CEO” of the USC. For Kalaydjian, this means constantly juggling the student-facing and business aspects of the job.
“You can’t really have O-Week and fun events if we’re not balancing checkbooks behind the scenes,” she said. “At the end of the day, this job is a marriage of those two concepts.”
Being the CEO is no small duty; the USC is one of London’s largest non-profit organizations, worth an estimated 40 million dollars.
“When you’re elected, you become the face of the students and you represent their interests and their values—but the moral of the story is that this is also a business,” said Kalaydjian.
Describing herself as the “quarterback ” of the USC, Kalaydjian is responsible for directing the organization’s goals and executive decisions. When the USC takes on an issue, she grabs ahold of it first. Then—depending on the risk involved—she can decide whether to pass it to one of her five Vice-Presidents or run with it herself.
As CEO, Kalaydjian also works with the USC’s Board of Directors while her Vice-Presidents do not. Tasked with overseeing the corporate dealings of the USC, the Board fits perfectly into her business responsibilities.
In regular meetings throughout the year, Kalaydjian advocates on behalf of student interests, discussing topics ranging from the USC’s annual budget to policy decisions made by the Western administration.
Throughout her term, Kalaydjian has taken charge to bring her campaign promises to life. As students enter their second semester, her team has powered through over 60% of the goals in her platform.
Whether it’s introducing grocery shuttles, improving Frost Week programming, or advocating for a more compassionate academic consideration policy, Kalaydjian and her Vice-Presidents have been hard at work.
It doesn’t end there—the USC has more in store for the next few months. Kalaydjian is currently working to introduce a gala for students to meet professionals in their fields, along with workshops to support graduate school applicants. She’s also working alongside the USC’s Vice-President Student Services, Daniel Klapper, to introduce grants for students taking the MCAT or LSAT.
Although she knows her nitty gritty responsibilities are crucial for a successful presidency, Kalaydjian mainly wants to be remembered for the relationships she formed with the people she worked with, and the experiences they had together.
“After my term is over, I want students to remember how efficient my team was,” she explained. “But when I’m 40 years old and boring my kids about my job and the USC, I’m gonna talk about how much fun I had, the memories that I made, and who I made them with.”
Although Kalaydjian is proud of how welcoming the Western community has been to her, she knows there’s room for improvement. As the first woman to be elected president in ten years, she hopes she can inspire new students to follow in her footsteps:
“I hope that when I introduced myself as president during O-Week, it set a new tone for the next four years. At least one person, in their mind, thought ‘okay, Emilie Kalaydjian did it, maybe I can try it out too!’”
Aside from her USC work, Kalaydjian is a former varsity softball player. Now, as President, she certainly brought the Mustang mentality from the field to the office; her walls, plastered with framed pictures of family and friends, make it clear that nothing is more important to her than her team. Without them, she wouldn’t be president.
“You really need to have that kind of support system if you take on this role,” she explained. “It’s just impossible without it.”
As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a USC president.
