The Association of Campus Entertainment, or ACE, recently announced that the new president, Julia Singer, has been elected. Singer is a junior in the Honors College studying marine biology with a minor in sustainability. She has been involved in a wide variety of organizations across campus including ACE, the Swingin’ Seahawks Swing Dance Club, the Stand-up Paddle Board Club, Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, UNCWeekends Late-Night Programming Board, and the Study Abroad Ambassadors. After graduation, she hopes to combine her love for leadership and her passion for conservation to attend law school for environmental law.

The Seahawk reached out to Singer to answer a few questions regarding her new position and where she plans to take ACE in the future. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Q. Congratulations on your new position as ACE President! What made you decide to run for this position?

A. Thank you. I decided to run because I wanted to give back to this organization and to this campus. Within ACE, I have served as a photography coordinator, programmer-in-training (PIT crew) coordinator, and the Homecoming Chair. I loved these positions because they gave me an opportunity to work with peers, professional staff, and alumni, but I wanted to have an even larger impact. As the president, I will now have the opportunity to not only to help program events, but also to mentor other coordinators and chairs. I love the idea of leaving a place better than you found it and by training the next generation of leaders, I believe I can accomplish that!

Q. What are the most important decisions you make as the leader of ACE?

A. ACE is a very collaborative organization; most of the decisions are actually made by other members of the executive board with input from their respective committees. As the president, I will be more in charge of guiding the executive board through this process as well as handling a lot of the behind the scenes operations.

Q. Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe someone who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?

A. One of the people who has had the largest impact on my leadership style is Jess Reich, the lead facilitator of UNCWeekends. UNCWeekends is a student event planning board similar to ACE, but we focus more on off-campus and late night events. I joined this organization as a freshman and then joined the leadership team as the co-marketing coordinator during my sophomore year. Jess’ leadership style was very inspiring to me because of how much she cares about each individual member of the team. She makes sure that as much of the team is happy with a decision as possible and always makes every member feel heard. She is incredibly hardworking and dedicated as well and manages to balance a challenging major and an honors thesis while continuing to improve and grow this organization. I hope that I can be this same type of role model for the members of ACE in the coming year.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish in your time as President? More specifically, what things would you like to improve and/or what new things would you like to implement?

A. In my time as president, I hope to improve the connection between our board and the student body! We are a board of students programming for students, but it’s still difficult to figure out exactly what our ever-changing campus community is looking for in events. We already implement a campus-wide survey that is open to all UNCW students to help decide our annual “big show,” as well as event surveys at individual programs, and I would like to expand this type of approach in the future. Our goal is to spread joy to as many students across campus as possible, so the best way to make sure that happens is to hear directly from the students about what type of events they would enjoy!

Q. What do you feel are the biggest issues facing this organization and how would you like to address them?

A. One of the biggest challenges involving this organization is getting new members. We run a training program once a semester, known as PIT Crew, or the Programmers-in-Training Crew. Typically, we have a fair number of applicants in the fall but struggle in the spring to get enough people interested, as many students have already filled up their schedules. I would like to address this by increasing our outreach to all areas of campus! Students already love coming to our events, so I believe that we can definitely increase our recruitment in the 2019-2020 school year.

Q. For other students thinking about joining ACE or running for a leadership position within the organization, what is your advice?

A. My advice is to go for it! Getting involved in a variety of organizations across campus was certainly the best decision I have made at UNCW because it has helped me grow my professional skill set, provided a form of stress relief from my academic coursework, and introduced me to many of my best friends. While the idea of running for a leadership position may seem daunting, it is always beneficial to get interview and application experience. UNCW offers such a wide variety of organizations in areas such as athletics, arts, academics, service, professional, multicultural, and a ton of very specific special interests – there will certainly be a club for you to continue doing what you love or learn something new!