He has been described as focused, hardworking, and keen when it comes to financial matters. He is the definition of a businessman, with the utmost intentions of delivering to others. With his look into financial matters he knows that mezzanine finance is an alternative type of business finance which he may look into if he decides to start a business.
Marek Jansin, business finance major, has worked his way to become the current treasurer of ASO, but for Marek, it’s just the beginning.
After first joining ASO, Marek was mentored by the previous and current ASO presidents who helped him find his place as treaserier.
“When I first did ASO, Isha and the previous president Efren Lopez were the first people I approached, and they were the ones who mainly mentored me,” Jansin said. “Through them I learned the basics, and because I was a business finance major, becoming treasurer made the most sense.”
Jansin hopes to pursue a career in business finance, and sees ASO as a great stepping stone in his pursuit.
“I think working with ASO really gives me that experiences and helps me understand how organization’s finances work,” Jansin said. “I plan to transfer to USC as they are known for their business program, and I even hope to do something similar to ASO over there and also become treasurer.”
When first stepping into his new role as treasurer, Marek recounts the initial difficulties he faced.
Jansin said that the constant influx of emails everyday was something he needed to get used to.
More challenges that Jansin would face would of course involve managing the proper use of the budget given to him.
“Balancing our budgets has also been fairly challenging, our working budget is about 200,000 dollars, but realistically our budget isn’t infinite,” Jansin said “So the most challenging aspect is figuring out who gets money and who dosent, as we have more requests than we could ever possibly offer.”
Because the funds are limited, Jansin would then go on to find ways to make the most of what they have, and be the one to determine ultimately where the money goes.
“I’ve also had a tough time getting used to telling people that unfortunately there was something about their proposal that we couldn’t honor, and also having to sit through paperwork to judge whether or not we should fund something,” Jansin said. “We can’t support everything unfortunately, and I wish we could, but we have to make these sacrifices.”
While also managing the budget, Jansin must also has to partake in other ASO duties.
“Because we have a brand new senate, Isha and I have made it a very good point to train these new senators, and that’s because we hope they will eventually take our positions when we are gone,” Jansin said. “Next semester the President, vice president, treasurer and club council president are all going to be vacant, so we definitely have to get them up to speed to become the future leaders of this college.”
Isha Pasricha, the current ASO president, believes that Marek has been a great help by bringing in a new angle to the senate.
“Im so happy that Marek stepped up as treasurer as hes been a great support system I’ve had here in ASO,” Pasricha said. “I genuinely believe that he brings a really fresh opinion opinion to the senate and we do need that diversity as there are so many different kinds of people with so many different kinds of beliefs.”
Isha then goes on to say how Jansin is completing his duties, and also continues to be the backbone of ASO.
“So far he’s been doing an outstanding job at replying to emails and leading our fiance meetings and I love discussing things with him as he will bring up a point or something I might have missed,” Pasricha said. “I’m so happy to have him as a partner because as president it gives me a lot of faith to keep operating in a productive and positive direction.”
ASO advisor and Dean, Juan Carlos Astorga, sees Jansin as a great choice to take up the position of treasurer.
“When he decided to run for the position in spring i was really happy because i knew he was a very focused and dedicated student that was going to bring a lot of professionalism to the process of not only balancing the budget for ASO but also being very open to any ideas or proposals to increase engagement of students on campus and to offer opportunities for our students to participate,” Astorga said.