Associated Students of Diablo Valley College President Sam Park is not just a leader within many respectable organizations on campus, but is someone who will champion the rights for all students whose rights have been ignored through politics and policy from the leaders they entrusted to represent them.

Sam Park was at the Inter-Club-Council (ICC) as a representative of the student government at Diablo Valley College in the student union conference room at 5 p.m. on Thursday April 18; he was taking notes on the ICC discussion items.

Park is the current Associate Student of Diablo Valley College (ASDVC) vice president of legislative affairs since fall 2012; his duty is to help students with issues and find solutions to solve them as best he can.

Park’s first club he attended at DVC was SIFE (Student International for Free Enterprise); where he moved to the executive leadership of the organization. His goal was to help other students by being involved and recognize student government as a great opportunity to help other students.

Since coming to DVC, Park has been excelling in school like any other student on campus; his goal is to transfer to a UC system, maintain a career GPA of 4.0, and lead numerous clubs on and off campus.

His passion for political science and law is to help people who cannot defend themselves; he’s seen as a true friend by the people he interacts with.

“I’m part of a lot of student organizations on campus and serve in numerous organizations as an executive,” Park said.

Former ICC President Francisco Hinojosa appointed Park as parliamentarian for spring 2012. Afterwards, due to his leadership roles, he was appointed in SIFE and other clubs on campus such as YAL (Young Americans for Liberty) and AGS as director or executive officer.

As president of ASDVC, Park says he will provide services to students of the DVC community in the best of his ability.

He will provide his services to people as friends as opposed to just their voices within the student government.

Park is a big supporter of changing DVC; coming from an international background he understands the struggles of international students and students who are suffering have equal opportunities to a good education as he did while growing up in the Philippines.

Sam Park was born in Seoul, South Korea, where he is born to Christian family who did missionary work in the Philippines.

Park only lived in Korea for a year after his birth before moving to the Philippines, where his parents provided Christian humanitarian aid at a school, helping people and providing medical care.

Park attended several public and private schools while growing up because of his parent’s work. He couldn’t adjust with the people there because of their views toward foreigners.

Park attended Faith Academy, in Manila, Philippines for his middle school education, where he learned English and made friends.

The academy only accepts children of missionaries, international students, and the Filipino elites (children of political leaders and famous people in the Philippines). The academy is one of the top five schools in the country.

Park graduated Faith Academy in 2008 at age 18; he attended John Brown Christian University (JBU) in Arkansas, USA for fall 2008.

Park studied business administration and international business at the John Soderquist School of Business.

Due to the quality of education not being focus on liberal ideals and having a strong religious bias, Park didn’t like the education provided at John Brown University.

Prior to dropping out of JBU, Park visited his father in San Diego to help him out at his restaurant where he re-examined his life and decided business wasn’t for him.

he intended to study business to make money to support his mother, but that wasn’t for him, so he studied to be lawyer to help anyone who couldn’t help themselves.

His cousin recommended DVC, because of its affordability and transfer program to the University of California system.

Park worked as in interim for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office since last summer 2012, where he was taught how to summarize or analyze information, observing the element of crimes in each case; his cases were people with common misdemeanors, such as DUI cases.

Park understands the struggles of international students when they attend a school in a different country, as he’s been in a similar situation.

Several students who know him understand Park will never make promises he cannot do.

Debeasinta Budimen said he is wise because of how he communicate with and influence people.

“He can lead, has leadership characteristic, can decide to make the right thing to make DVC a better place,” Budimen said.

According to Lillian Benitez, When ASDVC has gone through bureaucratic changes that affect DVC students without their consent; Park intervenes on behalf of the students against those changes made by ASDVC.

“When the student’s voice was ignored by ASDVC, their voices weren’t projected well before Sam, Sam tried to change ASDVC as Parliamentarian and vice president to give more funds,” Benitez said.

According to Diam Nguygen, Park is not just a leader of ASDVC, but he has served as a leader within many organizations on campus and off campus, and he speaks for them at ICC as a strong leader.

“I think Sam will do well at DVC, has expense in leadership in ICC and ASDVC; he knows a lot on student government and my belief is he will do well. I think he will do the best in his ability and is knowledgeable he has the chance to change what’s possible at DVC,” Nguyen said.

Park is a respected individual; his leadership qualities and experience make him a prime candidate for ASDVC president, according to Elijah Ziskin a Model United Nation ICC Reprehensive, Park is a big supporter of changes within certain policies which includes the high tuition for over stayed students, supporting a center for veterans and cooperating our student government with ICC.

“His knowledge on the topic to comply with people and to gain respect is competent; he knows how to properly and respectfully communicate with people.” Ziskin said.