Year: Junior
Major: Political science, and journalism and mass communication
Minor: History
Hometown: Orange, Conn.
Clubs/activities: Beta Theta Pi member, Promotional Director of the Colonial Army
Previous SA experience: Interim executive vice president, Academic Affairs Committee chair
If you didn’t go to GW, where would you go to to school?: Probably somewhere like the London School of Economics.
Dream job: Not to sound like a typical GW student, but I would love to serve in the U.S. Congress. I’d love to be in the House representing my district, the third district in Connecticut.
Carvings or Gallery fries?: Gallery because “they give you more. Mozzarella sticks too.”
Tinder bio: I don’t have one right now, but when I had one, it said: “Avid tennis player. I love being outdoors. I love learning new things, and I want to share my life with somebody else.”

This year’s only executive vice presidential candidate wants to include more minority students in meetings with administrators.

Junior Thomas Falcigno, who is running uncontested for the position, said his desire to help minority students comes from someone very close to him: his grandfather.

Falcigno’s grandfather, who emigrated from India, welcomed relatives from India to his two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment so they could find a better life in the United States. Falcigno said he wishes his grandfather, who died last month, could have been a Commencement speaker to share his story.

“He was such an inspiration to me, and I feel as though he would be an inspiration to other people,” he said.

Falcigno has served in the interim EVP role since senior Casey Syron resigned in January. He joined the SA his freshman year.

Falcigno said he plans to use his role to not only help senators pass resolutions and connect them with officials, but to bring students outside of student government – especially minority students – into meetings with officials.

“We need to increase the level of professionalism in the Student Association,” he said.

Falcigno said he would draw on his experience on the SA if he were to be elected. He served as one of the only students on the University’s calendar committee, which met about adding a fall break in fall 2016. Officials added that break in September, and Falcigno said at the time that it would be good for students’ mental health to have extra time to relax.

Falcigno said he hopes to implement other policies that could relieve students’ anxiety. He said that he and his team are “working out the kinks” with a policy that could allow students to retake a class from their freshman year for a new grade. He said he’ll meet with administrators to discuss the grade-forgiveness program before spring break.

“I hope that with my experience, the senate can reach its highest potential,” Falcigno said.