SGA Presidential Candidates: Nateras & Wilkins
2 teams are running in the 2021 SGA race at TFC. Daphne Nateras is running for SGA president, with Shelby Wilkins as her running mate.
Daphne is currently a sophomore, majoring in Cross-Cultural Business Administration. When she is not busy, Daphne enjoys salsa dancing and playing with dogs. Extra curriculars for Nateras include working in admissions, serving as an RA and being one of the leaders at the weekly prayer and worship nights. Daphne wants to be SGA president so that she can “give minorities a voice and bring campus-wide revival.” As a Latino woman, Daphne is most excited about the prospect of “cultural heritage and service events.” In the future, Daphne would like to be doing finances for a non-profit, working with sex trafficking victims.
Shelby is currently a junior, majoring in both Ministry Leadership, and Theology. In her free time, Wilkins likes to hike, or do an art project. Some of Shelby’s extracurriculars include working at the library, leading the art club and also being one of the leaders at prayer and worship nights. Shelby also co-leads the Ministry Leadership Department B-group. Wilkins would like to be SGA vice president because she has “seen where there are areas on campus that need growth.” Shelby explains it as simply “wanting to be a part of fixing that. I just want to help bring growth, and especially spiritual revival to this campus.” Wilkins is most excited about the prospects of “overall spiritual growth and getting to work with clubs.” In the future, Shelby can see herself working on Church administration, joking that it will be “probably on a river somewhere. With a husky.”
While the pair has some smaller goals, such as getting the word out about clubs and raising student engagement, there are four main focuses of the Nateras-Wilkins team: Restoration, Revival, Reconciliation, and Renovation.
Restoration on the campus, according to Nateras and Wilkins, would involve bringing some of the joy back to campus. COVID-19 has done a lot to affect the TFC community, especially with mental health. Shelby and Daphne have plans that would involve getting the community healing through more counseling options and creating events that would restore some of the joy on campus. Some online counseling options, for example, would be a real possibility if Nateras and Wilkins are elected. Rest in general could be good for healing, with Daphne sharing that they would like to fight for a three-day weekend if there is another condensed semester.
Revival has more spiritual connections than anything. With both Nateras and Wilkins serving as leaders on the prayer and worship team, they see a need for spiritual growth on the TFC campus. One of the things Shelby and Daphne would work towards as SGA president and vice president is adding a spiritual growth chair to the SGA council. A spiritual growth chair would allow for more spiritual events to be created on campus. Something else that Daphne and Shelby would be pushing for spiritually is a co-ed, campus wide, always open prayer room. Prayer is something that Nateras and Wilkins feel is very important, with Shelby explaining that “just in the last week, I’ve seen even more of the power of prayer in the community.”
Reconciliation is something that Daphne and Shelby want to touch on in multiple different ways. One of the main things that the Nateras-Wilkins team want to work on reconciling is the relationship various heritages, cultures, and overall races. Racism is a big problem right now, with Daphne sharing that as a Latino woman, she does not “feel that [she has] much of a voice." Shelby and Daphne want to reconcile the relationship with various cultures, by creating events, educational opportunities, relationships with heritage clubs on campus, and an overall voice for minorities. Communication is another thing that the team feels needs to be addressed with students as a whole, and clubs. Some of the ways that Shelby and Daphne would work on improving would be anonymous google forms for feedback, and other events and ways for students to allow their voices to be heard. The Nateras-Wilkins team is also hoping to fix the lack of social events listed on the MyTFC Course Pages. Currently, clubs also can only pick one form of event advertisement. Nateras and Wilkins feel very strongly about club advertisement, with Wilkins saying that “social media should be a given, even if that means having to create another Instagram account.” There is also reconciliation that Daphne and Shelby feel needs to happen between Toccoa, and TFC. Students are missing out on events and Church services, and Nateras and Wilkins would love to be able to compile a type of index that would help students get plugged into the Toccoa community.
Renovation is an area that Nateras and Wilkins also want to tackle. There are limited options for students to directly affect renovation, and Shelby and Daphne are aware of that. Nateras explained that “things like paint, cleaning, and new furniture in dorms such as Forrest and LeTourneau are not far out of reach.” Another area of renovation is the idea of general safety on campus as a whole. Communication is also key here, as Daphne explained that they “want to keep students up to date on the things being worked on.”
For more information on their campaign, Daphne can be reached at DNateras@tfc.edu. Current students can vote through their email, or in the student center from 2/16-2/18.