Booths were set up along the Pond bridge, It was the first day of the Welcome Back Week event here at Cypress College when Robert Mounce gave the Cypress Chronicle an inside look at life as the Cypress Associated Students Council president.
After greeting Mounce at the entrance of the Student Activities Center building he led me to their conference room while he went to check in. The atmosphere was warm, homely even, the counter in the back filled with an abundance of chips, Chips Ahoy cookies, water containers, and other snacks in preparation for the week’s event.
Just before we began the interview, a face appeared from behind the counter- one which, judging by the look on Robert’s face, was a very familiar one. He walked over and introduced himself- this was John, an Associated Students officer, and as Mounce mentioned later in the interview, was the AS President’s best friend, and in fact, who Mounce started his Associated Students journey with.
One particular, innocuous event started this journey; “I was in the game room in the Student Activities Center with my best friend John, who you met earlier, and we were just playing and there was some office cubicles on the side and I asked what it was and they said ‘Student Government’.” Little did he know, this marked the start of Mounce’s AS journey, leading him to sit in on Student Government meetings-something that made him realize this was something he was willing to do in order to make a change in his own academic life.
When asked what exactly motivated him to get involved in the Associated Students, first as vice president, and now as the president of AS, Mounce answered, “I would say what kept me in AS is [that] I want to leave something better than the way I found it.”
Mounce’s passion and motivation for AS is something that was showcased not only through his words and eagerness for students to get involved, but also the way he handled our interview time, ensuring that he would be on time for the Welcome Back Week event set up with the rest of the Associated Students.
When asked if he had anything he wanted to say to students here on campus, Mounce stated,“I feel like anybody can be a part of AS- I mean in high school… I was in no way, shape, or form, part of ASB or [the] student body. So, it’s just if you want to grow, if you want to do something different, always do something different. It’s not bad.”
