Caroline Goodwin (she/her)

Board Candidate
Elevate Slate
West Chester, PA
Biological Sciences

My name is Caroline Goodwin and I am a sophomore studying Biological Sciences on the Pre-Med track. I am a sister of Kappa Delta Sorority where I serve as Greek Week Chair. I am also a member of the Blue and Gold Society as well as the Pitt Alumni Student Network. Last year I served as a member of the Allocations Committee of Student Government Board. During my time on the committee, I learned much more than I could have imagined. While different clubs and organizations came to meet with us to discuss their events and programs, I was getting to know so much more of Pitt’s student life than I anticipated. I was only a first-year student but was meeting the leaders of nearly every student group on campus. Through this experience I found myself recommending new organizations for my friends to join based on their interests. If elected to board I hope to increase engagement, particularly of upperclassmen, and connect more students to organizations that may suit them. I want to have an online resource highlighting which clubs are actively looking for new members. This would hopefully increase engagement throughout the semester, not just at the start of the school year. The activities fair is a phenomenal event to connect students with organizations, but it is generally geared towards first-year students. It is built into their orientation schedule and is held at the Peterson Events Center, which is quite a distance from South Oakland, where the majority of our upperclassmen students reside. The addition of a “new connections” fair may increase membership from upperclassmen students, particularly those with changed interests. College is a time for change and growth, so it is to be expected that students’ interests in activities will also change. Considering this past year, I think it is especially important to extend new membership opportunities to those with new interests or those who have not chosen to get involved in the past. I also hope to be an advocate for maintaining aspects of the Flex at Pitt model in the coming years. While I have not seen it as the ideal form of education, I see the benefits it provides in creating flexibility for students with jobs or those who need to travel home. Life is bound to throw curveballs, as we all have been made abundantly aware, so having this backup is beneficial. Having lectures available to rewatch and/or the capability to join a class remotely opens a new world of possibilities we could not have imagined prior to the pandemic. In-person classes are ideal for a majority of the students here, but the occasional sick day or trip home to visit family can completely derail your studies. In the past, missing a lecture would require you to find a friend with notes or just suffer the loss of information provided in that lecture. There definitely has been quite a learning curve with the transition to online, but we all have adjusted. Both faculty and students are capable of using this technology, so there should be no excuses when it comes to posting lecture content online. My hope is to maintain a higher level of accessibility to the education for which we are paying. It would be a privilege to be a member of Student Government Board. Thank you for this opportunity, and as always, Hail to Pitt!