After three weeks of ratifying the Associated Students of Arizona State University Downtown’s constitution, four students are campaigning for president, all focusing on bringing the student body closer to its government.

Rabia Abdulmajeed, a nursing junior, is the current president and said she would like to have another crack at the position and continue to move Downtown student government forward.

“I’m running again because I feel like I’ve already have done the job, and I know what to do,” Abdulmajeed said. “I feel like I would do exceptional at it again just because I can kind of continue with the vision that I started.”

Abdulmajeed, who served as student council vice president and helped create an organization for Somalian refugees at her high school, said she chose nursing sophomore Natasia Bongcas as her running mate because Bongcas joined student government long before anyone else.

“So she’s been at my side this whole time, and she knows what’s been done, she knows how to get things done and, honestly, I couldn’t possibly think of a better candidate to run with just because we’ve done the dirty work together,” Abdulmajeed said. “She understands how I do things, and I understand how she does things.”

Nonprofit leadership and management junior Olga Lykhvar comes into the race with a three-point platform: promote student life, create a community and unite the Downtown campus.

Lykhvar said that there are a lot of activities for students, but they do not know about them because there is not enough outreach.

“So in that sense, I want to promote student life,” Lykhvar said. “I want to create more activities that they can participate in, and I want to create events that they will feel comfortable participating in. Things that will encourage student life, student involvement.”

Lykhvar said she and her running mate, nonprofit leadership and management junior Latia Shaw, believe they can create a community downtown.

“We believe that if we come together then we can foster the initiative that we have to create a community on our campus because public programs and nonprofit is all about creating communities,” Lykhvar said.

Lykhvar’s experience includes being the vice president of an honor society at her junior college and being the president of and helping to create the Nonprofit Leadership and Management Student Association.

Tania Mendes, a journalism freshman, was president of her high-school class and is a current lobby corps coordinator for the Arizona Students’ Association.

“A reason I’m running is because I’m a part of the Arizona Students’ Association, and through that I’ve been able to learn a lot about the budget cuts and how that is going to affect our campus,” Mendes said.

Mendes said she wants students to view student government as a place they can come to with ideas, concerns and requests.

“A lot of students aren’t happy with the Downtown Phoenix campus, so I definitely want students to get involved,” Mendes said. “Involved maybe not by being a member of student government, but just by feeling that relationship with students and student government.”

Mendes’ running mate is public relations freshman Beth Wischnia.

“We work really, really well together,” Mendes said, later adding that “she kind of complements me where I might fall short.”

Duyen Tran, a broadcast journalism freshman, is the current vice president and has been involved in student government since she was in the third grade.

“The really biggest feat for me was [being] senior class president [in high school],” Tran said.

Tran, whose running mate is public relations sophomore Christina Lundeberg, said she wants to appoint officers to the executive board who will be qualified and also representative of the Downtown campus.

“I don’t want a jaded executive board, especially if those people are in charge of everything, and you don’t want someone unqualified,” Tran said.

Reach the reporter at snrodri2@asu.edu.