Most people would feel exhausted after glancing at senior criminal justice major Katarina “Kat” Hernandez’s résumé and calendar.
With 11 leadership positions spanning Associated Students (A.S.), XCentric! San Diego Dance Crew and more, it’s no surprise that Hernandez has poured her heart into community service during her three years at San Diego State.
Now, Hernandez faces her latest challenge: serving as the 2024-25 Associated Students President.
Hernandez’s journey to this prominent position is marked by unwavering commitment to leadership and community service. As GreenLove Representative, Hernandez spearheaded advocacy efforts for sustainable practices on campus. Hernandez represented the voice of thousands of SDSU students as vice commissioner of operations and the good neighbor chair.
Beyond A.S., Hernandez has also been involved in SDSU Mock Trial, Women in Business and more. She cites her varied involvement as the catalyst for her presidential campaign.
“I feel like I have a huge net of things I’m involved in on campus,” Hernandez said. “I’m not just involved in Associated Students. I’m around a myriad of students with different niches that I’m interested in, and I get to talk to people so often.”
One would be remiss to think that Hernandez can be summed up by her leadership positions, however.
Hernandez has an obsession with K-pop, an obsession that fuels her artistry as a dancer. If she had to narrow down her favorite group, she said, “I really like the group ATEEZ. I really mimic my dance style after them.”
Dance fills the majority of Hernandez’s days off, and she’s constantly thinking of moves for XCentric!, the dance team she founded last year.
“I think I take a lot of pride in my creative process with my dance team,” she said. “It’s [XCentric!] the first thing I’ve ever founded. I’ve been a part of so many different things before, but this is my child.”
Hernandez’s creativity and passion extend far beyond dance and into her vision and goals in her role as this year’s Associated Student president. With a holistic understanding of the diverse population of the SDSU student body, she has outlined several key priorities for the upcoming academic year.
This year, the Associated Students executives have chosen the theme of “the S.E.A.” to guide their planning.
“S.E.A stands for ‘Safety, Equity, and Accessibility,” Hernandez said. “Those are three things that all five of us are extremely passionate about.”
Hernandez recognizes the challenges that come with having a different executive board come in after each year, with many projects or initiatives becoming waylaid or tabled indefinitely.
“Sometimes projects will start, then they’ll stop. Then they’ll get forgotten about for a couple of years, then someone else will pick it back up years later,” she said. “It’s important to look at what we already have and collaborate with as many campus partners as possible.”
Hernandez’s team has taken on creating a comprehensive resource guide that covers all of the resources SDSU has to offer, from the Economic Crisis Resource Team (ECRT) to Title IX, and more.
“There’s no resource guide where everyone can see every resource we offer on campus, because there are just so many,” she said. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s completely inaccessible and it’s not serving students.”
Part of Hernandez’s drive to increase accessibility to resources on campus is due in part to her own challenges as a student.
“I’m a guardian scholar and a foster youth,” she said. “I wouldn’t be on campus if it wasn’t for the resources that SDSU has to offer.”
For incoming students, Hernandez encourages them to be brave and take action on and around campus.
“There is so much power in representation,” she said. “I know it’s discouraging to get involved in places where you feel you’re not represented, but that’s all the more reason to do it.”
