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 Jen Hassum, 0T6
 JUNE 2006 - Jen Hassum could not have anticipated her high-profile turn in the campus political limelight. “In first year, I was really kind of quiet. I didn’t take any kind of leadership role.” Yet in her fourth year, the Trinity student met with Dalton McGuinty, the premier of Ontario, lobbied more than 20 members of the provincial parliament, co-hosted a press conference with Chris Bentley to thank the minister of training, colleges and universities for his government’s $6.2-billion investment in post-secondary education, and then held a closed-door meeting with him to urge him that, after a decade of sharp tuition hikes, students needed more financial help. Hassum, who is a former co-chair of the University of Toronto NDP Club and former vice-president, external affairs on U of T’s Students’ Administrative Council (SAC), credits a few things for bolstering her confidence and sharpening her passion for public service: interning at Queen’s Park, working as a research assistant to Professor Robert Bothwell, director of Trinity’s International Relations Program – and simply breathing in the peculiar air of Trinity College. “The environment fosters people who are willing to take on leadership roles,” she says. “It’s a close-knit community of intelligent and academically minded students who ask questions, challenge notions.” And now? Hassum, who specialized in American Studies and graduated in June 2006, is currently building further on her political skills in the paid role of president of the U of T Students’ Administrative Council. She has been elected to become chairperson in 2007-08 of the Canadian Federation of Students, Ontario, acting as spokesperson for the more than 250,000 post-secondary students across the province. At Trinity, she says, she learned to be "meticulous about my research, to base my political beliefs on sound arguments. If I have faith in my research, I know I can articulate my ideas no matter what the crowd." – Margaret Webb |
