Checkmate! Queens College has captured new Student Association (SA) leadership.
At the end of the Spring 2025 semester, Shawn D. Rajkumar for the Students for Tomorrow (SFT) Party was elected as QC’s SA President for the 2025 – 2026 academic year, beating previous SA Vice President Brandon Adams. Rajkumar officially took office on June 1st, 2025 and will finish his term on May 31st, 2025.
Lining his SA executive board are Johan Muller as Vice President, Gian Matute serving as Treasurer and Christian Mejia serving as Secretary. Additional members include Jai Dan as Campus Affairs chair, Matthew Marchena as Career Development chair, Annalisa Lloyd managing Programming, Areeba Haseeb as Academic Affairs chair, William Baron as Greek Life chair and Shania Narine as Philanthropy chair.
On November 10th, The Knight News conducted an interview with Shawn Rajkumar focused on the intended student-life goals, the standards of his team and the expectations for which Queens College can be on the look out.
According to the Student Association Constitution Article III item B, the SA President “shall be the official spokesperson on behalf of SA.” Rajkumar held the interview on his own, speaking on behalf of his administration.
When asked about the qualifications of current committee members, Rajkumar said, “Firstly, our Treasurer, Gian, has had previous experience working in student government. He also has a full-time offer at Deloitte working as a Staff Accountant, thus having a lot of experience managing money.”
“Programming chair, Annalisa Lloyd, facilitates the organization of various large scale parties and events, communicating with the President of the College Union Programming Board (CUPB), William Baron. In 2023, she worked on my Career Development Committee as Secretary.”
This year, SA held several events including Club Day, Multicultural Night, the Welcome Back Party and the Halloween Party. Unlike last year, the Halloween Party charged a $10 entrance fee for QC students and a $15 entrance fee for non-QC guests.
“Matthew Marchena, the Career Development chair, also serves for the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) Queens College chapter. Through his leadership, we were able to host events for the Computer Science department which in turn, helped with funding.”
He continued, “We are trying to work out of the business realm as the Student Association usually only helps business students but now, we’re trying to venture out more.”
Mejia served as a Senator on the executive committee in the Student Association for LaGuardia Community College and works with QC’s Ascend. Haseeb was a student leader at Cedar College in Pakistan, she concurrently works at the Career Center and is a Resident Advisor at the Summit Dormitories. Marchena serves as the President of the QC chapter for the Association for Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA). Baron, Rajkumar’s predecessor, is the Veteran’s Association President. Narine currently serves as the President of the Pharmaceuticals and Health Sciences Club (PHARMA).
This year, Narine organized the Breast Cancer Awareness Week events during Spirit Week which ran from Oct. 27th – Oct. 30th, including the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk and the Breast Cancer Card Making events.
“The executive board is there to help and support, but the various committees are the real ‘bread-and-butter’ of the SA organization.”
When asked about goals and expectations for the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters, Rajkumar said, “Upon my election, a big goal of my administration is to work more with the clubs because the Student Association hasn’t had a really direct connection with the clubs on campus.”
Rajkumar expressed his commitment to career development for QC students, having started in the Career Development Center committee stating: “It’s now our biggest committee, helping students with resumes, interviews and appointments. In the past couple years we have helped hundreds of people secure job offers and thousands of people with resumes.”
When asked about events and student-based functions, Rajkumar said, “We are trying to host different events aligning with ‘awareness and heritage’ months such as Hispanic Heritage month, Black History month, [and] Women’s History month.”
When asked what’s in store for the following semester, Rajkumar said, “Definitely more interactive events, we have had a lot of programming events and civic engagement events, I want to have events that focus on community-building.”
When asked how collaboration works between the SA president and QC President, Frank H. Wu, and other administrators, Rajkumar had this to say:
“An example comes from a recent occurrance, when QC switched its I.T. system and security, somewhere along the way our Discord got banned so, we worked with administration and brought it to their attention, thus clarifying the issue on students’ web browsers, however the issue is still looking to be resolved on the app.”
Rajkumar concluded, “Everything relating to our budget and financing gets signed off by the Director of OSDL, Craig Blodgett. I do not get a final signature. Craig makes sure all of our events are in compliance with the accurate rules and regulations.”
With the academic school year halfway through, it remains to be seen whether or not the Student Association will deliver on their promises of improving the student experience at QC.
