November 11, 2007

University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan sophomore Gable Bohn has been elected to serve on the United States Student Association, the largest national student association in the country, which serves all public and private colleges and universities in the United States.

USSA works to lobby national and state governments on a variety of student efforts, as well as education access and quality issues.

Bohn, 19, will serve as the USSA Community College chair and will represent all two-year educational institution members across the nation, which includes Wisconsin's 13 UW Colleges campuses.

Bohn, a 2006 graduate of Sheboygan North High School, will ensure that all the nation's two-year institutions will have a voice at the national level and give fellow USSA members the perspective of a student at a two-year college. He will attend USSA Board of Directors meetings, which are held five times a year in cities across the country.

As Community College Chair, Bohn is able to share the important — and sometimes unique — viewpoints and needs of students at two-year schools. For example, at the recent USSA Board of Directors meeting in Washington, DC, earlier in October, Bohn was able to explain how some programs and methods that USSA recommends members disseminate information to students are not effective at two-year schools, many of which are commuter campuses without dormitories.

"They understood some of these issues, but they didn't work as hard as they could and still focused on presenting information to students at the four-year level and not the two-year schools," Bohn said. "But now USSA is focusing on giving schools campaigns and, instead of giving us exact protocols, they give us ideas and allow us to develop our own ideas and then spread those ideas in the most effective way on our campuses."

Bohn said the opportunity to serve his fellow students at UW-Sheboygan, and others all across the United States, is an exciting one.

"The idea of organizing and being a leader at the national level really enticed me to run for this position. Now that I am Chair, I feel both honored and overwhelmed," Bohn added. "I am most looking forward to making things happen for students like myself who are getting their start at two-year schools."

In addition to his work with USSA, Bohn also was recently elected to serve as UW-Sheboygan's representative to the United Council Board of Directors, which is the UW System's student association. He also serves as United Council's Executive Committee Chair. Bohn also serves as the Executive Director for the Student Governance Council, the UW Colleges' student association.

At UW-Sheboygan, Bohn works as an Information Technology intern and serves as the President of the UW-Sheboygan Student Government Association (SGA). As SGA President, Bohn serves as a student representative on a variety of campus governance committees, including the Appointments and Aids, Awards and Appeals, as well as the Collegium. He also serves as a student voice on the UW-Sheboygan Foundation.

In his spare time, Bohn participates in activities with the UW-Sheboygan student organizations the Gamers' Guild and the Philosophical Literary Society.

Bohn, who is seeking a bachelor's degree in Business Management, plans to transfer to UW-Madison next fall.