Building Belonging: 2025-26 ASA President, Vice President Let Community Guide Strategic Plan

Augustana Student Association (ASA) President Igen Nyawanda '28 and Vice President Maggie McKeown '28 may have different personalities, but they share several passions. The one that guides their administration is a desire to redefine what it means to be part of a community.

As South Dakota natives, the community around Augustana is no stranger to them. However, both of them originally wanted a college education outside of the South Dakota community they had come to know so well.

"Growing up around Sioux Falls, I have known Augie my whole life, which is one of the reasons I wanted to go farther from home. I wanted to expand my horizons in college," laughed McKeown, a nursing and Spanish double major from Harrisburg, South Dakota. "But through the whole college search process, Augustana was the one school that made me feel understood and safe in a way. They really cared about me as a student and as a person."

"At first, I wanted to get a little bit far away and see something new," added Nyawanda, of Brookings, South Dakota, who is majoring in government & international affairs. "I would say Augustana is like the hub in South Dakota in terms of academics. If I went to a big school it would be so much harder to make myself stick out with the same kind of opportunities that come from Augie."

Nyawanda and McKeown started both college and ASA at the same time, providing each of them with a friend going through a similar situation.

"It's kind of scary when you're the youngest and everyone else knows what they're doing," said McKeown. "They know how the meetings flow and the history of the school. He (Nyawanda) was another freshman that I could connect with in that way."

After their first year, they bonded over their experiences and friendships built through ASA, sparking a new idea that would soon become a no-brainer - running together for president and vice president in the next ASA election.

"We were both talking about how we wanted to do ASA again and Igen said, 'You know what? Why don't we try something crazy and take a leap,'" McKeown explained.

"I think you could say it started as a crazy idea, but then it kind of snowballed and became more and more realistic as it got closer to campaign time," said Nyawanda. "I think our personalities are perfectly matched, and we both have really good sets of qualities that are similar but also different. Thinking about who I would want to work or run with, Maggie was the obvious choice."

During their time in office, Nyawanda and McKeown are focusing on three pillars as part of their strategic plan.

One of these pillars is efficiency, which guides student government operations and campus services by maximizing resources, improving existing systems and eliminating barriers to accessing them. Within this part of the plan, they have focused their efforts on transportation, student opportunities and dining. Nyawanda explained that by streamlining their financial system in ASA, their efficiency has grown exponentially.

"We've worked a lot with our treasurer to simplify the ASA budgeting process," he said. "Some parts of the process are complicated, so we have a financial reorganization coming up that we worked on in the fall."

Under the pillar Viking spirit, ASA has been working to build on the previous administration's efforts to increase promotion of and create new spirit-centered programs. Their main hope for Viking spirit is that it creates a warm campus atmosphere and aids senator engagement. The pair, along with the help of the ASA Senate, has been able to expand on the Ole Advantage Athletics Program and build an Ole Advantage Arts Program, both of which reward students with prizes for going to related events. In doing so, they've created partnerships with Pepsi and several other local companies.

"We've been innovative and creative with where we're getting our prizes from, most of them being donations," said Nyawanda.

The crux of their plan though lies with timeless values, which honors the principles that ASA was originally founded on, as well as furthering their commitment to lead by example and cultivate a community that portrays their vision for the future. This pillar was designed to promote courage, civility & curiosity, diversity, equity & inclusion and stewardship.

"One of our committees is Diversity, Equity & Social Justice and right now, they do a lot of work planning the Diversity Summit," said Nyawanda. "So we look for innovative ways to expand the work they do, kind of key pillars like that that we think are important and can be expanded on campus."

Now, their focus is on expanding what they call the "Augie bubble" on campus, with hopes of interacting more with the world outside of Augustana University.

"We're launching a project where we're giving students the opportunity to come up with a project that engages with the broader community to make sure that Augustana is making a lasting impact," Nyawanda explained.

If it weren't for ASA, Nyawanda and McKeown agree that their community reach would be much smaller. Without it, they wouldn't have received the help made possible through their connections on campus.

"If I was just taking nursing and Spanish classes without extracurriculars, there would be many people in areas of campus who I never would have engaged with at all," McKeown said. "College is so much bigger than your major - you have the rest of your life to do what you're studying."

"In ASA, you get access to not only people you can connect with in Sioux Falls, but also the budget to do something impactful," Nyawanda added. "If I was just on campus, I'd be focused on my major and classes, but now I can be focused on making an impact on my community."

Without one another, they said they wouldn't be able to execute their strategic plan.

"I think Igen has the perfect balance between leadership and friendship," McKeown said. "He leads by example with all the work that he does, but at the same time, he makes it a really fun place to be, and everyone wants to participate."

"Maggie's like the type A to my type B. She's very organized," Nyawanda added. "She's always there as a friend to everyone - working the rules through her personality - so the meetings can still be fun and engaging."

Overall, they hope that their administration can leave an impression on others who follow in their footsteps.

"My hope for the future of ASA is that everyone can remember why they do it and why they started," said McKeown. "We all ultimately have the same goal for Augie."

To learn more about ASA and its strategic plan, visit augie.edu/ASA, ASA's website or @augiestudassoc on Instagram.