As students return to classes and the 2023-2024 academic school year is at a start, Texas Woman’s University welcomed a new student regent, Jianna Covarelli.
Covarelli is a student of political science and social work. She realized she wanted to study social work at TWU after she attended a program at TWU over Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).
The role of student regent remained in Covarelli’s mind multiple times throughout her college career but she never felt fully certain about pursuing the role.
“I thought about it as a freshman and I honestly wrote it off,” Covarelli said. “I wasn’t a political science major and I didn’t really care about politics at the time but I do remember thinking that’s really cool. Last year, the last student regent and I had political science classes together, and she’d mentioned the role here and there. That’s when I downloaded the PDF of the application and just had it there all of August, all of September, pushing October, but something in the back of my head said just submit it because you don’t know what the journey is going to be.”
Covarelli said she viewed the process of applying to become the student regent as daunting and something that caused her to have a lot of self-doubt. In the end, Covarelli said she found the process to be a lot more relaxed and comfortable.
During the application process, applicants only had to go through two interviews. In past years, applicants attended interviews with a panel of TWU’s Student Government Association and staff, the Chancellor’s office and the Office of the Texas Governor. For the 2023-2024 applicants, a member of Chancellor Feyten’s office was at the first interview, eliminating the need for a separate interview.
Covarelli said that the interview with the governor’s office made her realize the gravity of the role. She also said that the application process taught her to be sure of herself and allowed her to make deep connections with staff at TWU.
“The thing that really made me want to do it was walking through the ACT building and seeing the future plans of our property,” Covarelli said. “The legacy that TWU is currently writing, I think is fantastic and I really like the vision. I think it is such a cool thing to be able to play such a small gear in the whole clock of the future.”
Going forward in her role, Covarelli wishes to leave her own mark at TWU. She wants to continue to advocate for SGA and listen to the individual voices of students. Her goal is for students to be involved in the plans for the future that TWU has and also hear their concerns and ideas for the current state of TWU.
“I would like to talk about what the future looks like because I know for me that made me really excited to be a Pioneer again,” Covarelli said. “Really seeing what we have been doing, what we are doing and what we will be doing in five years. I’d like to share a little bit of that and share different programs I didn’t know about, like Night Owls, that they want to expand on. We can be just as involved and excited for a future that isn’t ours.”
Karyme Flores can be reached via email at kflores22@twu.edu
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