SUN is Naropa’s student government that acts as a bridge between faculty, staff, student groups, and the students themselves. It’s been a community resource for the last 25 years of Naropa’s history, beginning in the Fall of 1989, when over 30 students convened to develop a governing body for student life and form an organization that supports student advocacy on campus.
Since its inception, it has acted as a living organism being shaped by the current student leaders and student body. Each semester is a different iteration of SUN with similar goals passed between each cohort: support student-led groups, allocate event funding, organize community activities, act as a sounding board for student feedback, suggestions, and inspirations, and support and fund sustainability and justice projects, as well as much more.
It’s no small feat to decide to put yourself in the spotlight within Naropa’s bold and proud community that is teeming with diverse perspectives and experiences. It takes grace, compassion, organization, receptivity, and follow-through to take on this kind of leadership role. Naropa has been gifted with many wonderful student representatives who have passed through its doors, and in return the students who choose to serve receive hands-on experience and skills in leadership and organizational change.
As we enter Naropa’s 50th year, the current SUN officers are making particularly inspired strides in efficiency, transparency, and advocacy. Below are some officers weighing in on their current visions, how the SUN experience has shaped their time at Naropa, and what they see as the groundwork for positive change.
Max Gregor | SUN Co-Chair
The way I aspire to show up in this community comes from a sense of alignment with the mission of Naropa, the legacy leading up to this moment, and the potential for the future. I feel reverence for what Naropa has accomplished, and I have hope for what lies ahead of us. I’m lucky to be able to form relationships with professors who have been part of this legacy, even professors who were direct students of Trungpa, and who are currently trying to formulate the ways in which this applies to a modern and future context. I feel even more connected to this lineage because of the work that I do in SUN.
Being in SUN, I feel as though I am in an “in- between space,” where I’m not only a student, but I’m also not staff or faculty—there is a sense of a perspective shift without a role shift. The thing that we often say is that you get to see “behind the curtain,” and you may have some feelings about what you see there. I think that’s true—I don’t mean that in a pessimistic way, but there’s some sense of responsibility that comes with gaining greater understanding of the inner workings. Ultimately, we’re tasked with representing the student body. That is a big task with such a creative and diverse set of perspectives at Naropa. So, the question becomes, “how do we represent that diversity in relationship with Naropa’s values?”
In response to that question, I can say that one of the biggest shifts that SUN is making consciously as a group is being intentional about our particular form of governance. We’ve been organizing our own retreats and training around a consensus process—and as far as utilizing the consensus process, I think it’s a really interesting experiment. We try to genuinely adhere to it, and it’s an imperfect thing, but it’s an area where we get to test out some of what Naropa is teaching us about in a real way. I’m really proud of our work with this.
When we get together, we brainstorm ideas for our group focus based on discussions that we’re having, or what we’re hearing, and then we go investigate to learn more. We’re trying to understand how to do data-driven advocacy in a contemplative way. The orientation of the Student Union is towards collaboration, making the student experience better, and helping to establish Naropa University as a leading university in contemplative and mindfulness-based education in the United States and the world. With that orientation influencing every decision that we make, there’s a lot of potential for collaboration with the university as a whole and with other leadership bodies.
Celeste da Silva Cunha | SUN Co-Chair
Entering the role of Co-Chair alongside Max as a mature international student has been a learning opportunity after 20 years of administrative experience from various sectors in the corporate world. There is an element of joy and chaos that most student leaders are not prepared for when entering the Student Union of Naropa. We get to see things through a wider lens as students privy to faculty information, and sometimes things appear in a completely different context to what we imagined. Transitioning into the first leadership role I held as Treasurer, all officers were trying to make sense of the budget which lacked clarity and transparency. This became the first task I took on, which required rearranging budget buckets to see ways that we could simplify the expenditure, so all officers could understand how best to help students request and use all their funds, which included a new user-friendly application form and spreadsheet records.
As a consensus driven leadership body, it was important that all SUN officers understood what funds were available and how these could be best utilized for the collective student body. The aim of transparency for SUN is having access to information from the university which can be passed on to students. The consensus-driven process allows each officer’s voice to be heard, collaboration and contribution on how best to utilize funds to create fun activities and events that leave a lasting impact for students, and funding for projects that are sustainable for the collective student body that can be transferable to evolving officers. SUN continuously looks at ways that enhance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusivity. The Co-Chair role is one which requires self-management, commitment to team collaboration, and ensuring that decisions and amendments of documents or processes reflect group values. As student leaders, we all strive to make a difference in the areas where we can and offer support and direction to students when we see further collaboration and information is needed.
Ayleen Guzman | SUN Student Liaison & Student Diversity Officer
As the Student Liaison, I act as a communicator between the students, SUN, and the higher administration through educating about student groups, funding, events, workshops, etc. My responsibility is to ensure that all students feel resourced and settled within the academic year. As the Student Diversity Officer, my responsibility is to create visibility, accessibility, ease and uplift marginalized identities (specifically BIPOC) on campus. I do this through organizing BIPOC centered events, workshops, creating affinity spaces for BIPOC to fully feel supported and witnessed. I also initiate and engage in trauma informed conversations around campus to help the university align with its mission and values.
I have been in SUN for about two years now, and the longer I stay, the more I fall in love with being involved in the community. As the Student Liaison and MCIC’s Student Diversity Officer, I learn what it means to walk in sacred, heart-based leadership, and to be dedicated to supporting the organic growth of a conscious community. Through being in SUN, I have learned the gift of reciprocity. To me, a community is like a garden, when I nourish its roots and leaves, it nourishes me back with its summer fruits. In SUN and MCIC, I feel nourished. I learn about relationships, deep listening, and interdependency. I learn how to support and ask for support. I learn how to be a teacher and a humble student. I am grateful to be a part of the student union, and I am looking forward to many future blessings.
Jamie Peachey | SUN Virtual Liaison
Becoming a SUN Officer began as a mission to make the online experience for myself and fellow classmates a more seamless and consistent experience. Coming from a college with over 35,000 students and being just a number in the revenue stream, I was ready for a battle. After joining SUN, I was pleasantly surprised to find open-minded people willing to listen, take in recommendations, and actually implement them sometimes within days. I have never been part of a school that cares so much about what the students think. I was able to take a step back from my posture of having to battle in order to get things done, and instead I got to watch, listen, and learn. Every time I would meet with an administrator, staff, or professor, I found myself in awe of their genuine gratitude for my opinion, and that I’m treated like a person and not just another number or issue. Not only are the people that work here compassionate towards the student body, but they are also accomplished individuals. Naropa is currently being led by what I would say are some of the leading minds in compassionate training.
As a psychology undergraduate, I am so grateful to be a part of this community of talented and inspiring individuals. My position in SUN as the Virtual Liaison has become part of my bodhicitta path. Having been welcomed with compassionate loving-kindness, I find my SUN position to be another vein that feeds the beating heart of love that I have for Naropa University. Every day I look forward to finding ways to connect the online and in-person community. Connecting with students is just as much of a learning experience as working with administrators and professors. There is so much knowledge and talent within the student body, and I love being able to bring everyone together. This semester we are launching Canva.com for all students, which will create more opportunities for everyone to see what I already know: the students of Naropa University are lights of compassionate awareness and will ultimately help spread peace and understanding throughout any community fortunate enough to have them.
