At the beginning of his freshman year, Ivan Rosales took the Myers-Briggs personality test. The results labeled him as an introvert. But when he took the same test again during the past summer, it labeled the current junior as the opposite: an extrovert.

When coming to Syracuse University and not knowing anyone, Rosales said he pushed himself to get out of his comfort zone and meet new people.

“I think that was a big change that made me be a lot more social and helped me by forcing me to be in that situation,” said Rosales, a junior accounting and policy studies major and Student Association presidential candidate. “You have to make friends or literally you’ll be alone.”

Now Rosales’ skill of connecting with and listening to students is the basis for his platform for SA president.

Rosales said the three main pillars of his platform — academic excellence, student engagement and diversity — are issues that students genuinely care about. This idea is seen throughout his campaign, including using the Twitter hashtag, “#sYOU.” 

“It’s ultimately about you as a student and that’s what we want to focus on,” he said.

Rosales became a part of SA during the 55th Session. He served as chair of the Student Life Committee during the first part of the current session, but later resigned. Last semester, the Board of Elections and Membership investigated him for leaking information to The Daily Orange anonymously in March.

He later apologized for his actions.

Simone Goldslager, a junior advertising major, became friends with Rosales during their freshman year after meeting through OrangeSeeds, a first-year leadership empowerment program. She said she found Rosales very quiet and timid, but saw that change after he joined OrangeSeeds and SA.

Now Rosales’ running mate, Goldslager said SA helped Rosales become a “true leader.”

PJ Alampi, a senior film major, has seen Rosales’ personality change since the two met when Rosales applied to be part of SA.

“He was very shy,” he said. “Now he’s the most out-there, tell-you-how-it-is, forward person you’ll ever meet.”

Despite Rosales being rather introverted, Alampi said he could see right off the bat that Rosales was interested working for and with the students.

“He was very much interested in working on very large-scale initiatives that affected the general interest of the student body,” he said. “It wasn’t much about just trying to do things for himself, but really affect the general populous of the campus.”

Alampi was also on the Chancellor Search Committee with Rosales and witnessed how focused he was on representing the students’ voices.

He added that Rosales displayed both diversity and intelligence while the two were working together on the committee.

Alampi and Goldslager said they weren’t surprised by Rosales’ announcement of his candidacy for SA president after witnessing his growth in confidence and leadership. In fact, Goldslager said she was more surprised when Rosales asked her to be his vice president.

“I literally had the butterflies,” she said. “I had tingles up my arms.”

Goldslager is not currently involved in SA, which she said plays into Rosales’ goal to bring SA’s focus back to SU students.

Jorge Talamantes, Rosales’ friend and roommate, said Rosales is always there as a friend despite his busy schedule and many commitments.

“He’s a great roommate,” said Talamantes, a junior psychology and political science major. “Even the small things, like when I’m running low on groceries, I come home and I find my favorite box of vegetarian chicken nuggets. He’s always looking out.”

Former SA president Dylan Lustig said Rosales is a “very real person,” which he said he finds rare in SA politics.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see past someone’s ambition to become a leader in the organization,” he said. “With Ivan, he’ll stop you, he’ll ask you about your day and see what’s going on with you, he’ll poke jokes at you, but in the friendliest of ways.”

Published on November 7, 2013 at 2:37 am

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers