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ASUCI announces election results, Alondra Arevalo elected as incoming president

  • Writer: Camelia Heins
    Camelia Heins
  • May 4
  • 4 min read
Photo by Camelia Heins / Staff
Photo by Camelia Heins / Staff

With the highest voter turnout since 2017, 22.38% of undergraduates elected Associated Students of UCI’s (ASUCI) president, executive officers, student advocate general and senators for next year, as announced during the results ceremony held in front of the Gateway Study Center on April 30.


UCI’s undergraduate student body elected Alondra Arevalo to serve as ASUCI president for the 2025-26 academic year. Arevalo, a third-year international studies and public health policy double major, received 1,623 votes, a majority out of the three candidates running for the presidential position. According to Arevalo’s speech on April 30, she will serve as ASUCI’s first Latina president. 


“This is a title that I’m not holding lightly,” Arevalo said in her speech. “I will strive in everything I do to ensure that I’m doing the best I can to advocate for the students. You guys are my priority.”


Arevalo campaigned on progress, advocacy and campus transparency through the Anteater PACT slate, including collaborating with the UCI Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships to relay student concerns and creating more funding opportunities for Registered Campus Organizations. She has previous experience in ASUCI’s Senate as an at-large senator and the Senate president pro tempore. 


With 1,423 votes, Victory Ogbonnaya, a second-year mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering double major, was elected as next year’s internal vice president. 


The ASUCI Senate impeached Ogbonnaya’s former student advocate general role on May 1; however, the Judicial Board will make the final decision on whether Ogbonnaya is permitted to hold the elected internal vice president role next school year.


Third-year political science and sociology double major Jared Castaneda will serve as next year’s external vice president with 1,854 votes.


The 2025-26 ASUCI academic affairs vice president will be Summer Phan, a second-year biological sciences major, who received 1,537 votes. Next year’s student services vice president will be Patrick Maranon, a third-year chemistry and biological sciences double major, who received 1,161 votes and won by 53 votes in the most narrow office president race. 


“With us, our office, holding such large events with such great turnout, it’s really exciting to be able to lead the team [that’s] going to facilitate all the logistics, all the hard planning that goes behind that,” Maranon said in his speech. “But seeing how great these events eventually will turn out is really inspiring and really encouraging for me to take on this role.”


First-year undeclared student Serene Li was announced to serve as the student advocate general. Li has previous experience as the City of San Mateo’s first youth commissioner.


“As my city’s first new commissioner, I look forward to bringing that same passion, power and responsibility to addressing all students’ needs and concerns at UCI as a new student advocate general,” Li said in her acceptance speech.


The following individuals were elected as at-large senators: Amelia Nguyen, Lauren Jernigan, Gabriel Mutsvangwa, Temitayo Akande, Oliver Wise, Nasser Ssenyange and Karsten Schubert. Elijah Waller was elected as the arts senator. Samantha Salazar and Spring Momeni were elected as biological sciences senators. The business senator next year will be Angelina Delfin and the education senator will be Ravdeep Singh.


Two individuals, Dylan Richcreek and Ethan Hatch, were elected as engineering senators. Jose Solis Ramos was elected as the humanities senator. The information and computer science senators next year will be Pragya Jhunjhunwala and Riya Sri Rallabandi. The nursing senator will be Tiana Luong and the physical sciences senator will be Krishna Saraogi. 


Rachel Bhargav will serve as a social ecology senator with one vacant seat. There are also vacant seats for the pharmaceutical sciences senator position and the public health senator position.


The three social sciences senators will be Naomi Paskowitz, Jayla Pete and Jasmyn Schubert. The international senator next year will be Sofia Gomez-Inowe and the transfer senator will be Sam Beknazarova. 

Fifth-year Asian American studies and political science double major Jun Jang spoke to New University about his term as ASUCI’s elections commissioner this year.


“We’ve tried a lot of new things this year in particular and I’m honestly happy to say that I think all of them did work out,” Jang told New University. “It resulted in the highest turnout we’ve seen since 2017. This is also the most candidates we’ve had since 2020, so a lot of significant milestones for us — a lot of good wins.”

Jang discussed the transition from previously serving in advisory positions for the elections commissioner before stepping into the role itself.


“I’m very happy with my term and I’m excited to see who steps into my shoes next year and the year after that, and hopefully they’re able to keep up the 20% turnout,” Jang told New University.


Jang discussed the importance of ASUCI elections, describing how they serve two areas: electing representatives who speak for the student body to the UCI chancellor, the UC president and congressional representatives, and signaling to UCI administration what students want through referendums.


“I think elections are also a really good sign for students to show the university what our priorities are as students,” Jung said.


Camelia Heins is a News Staff Writer. She can be reached at cheins@uci.edu

Edited by Karen Wang & Jaheem Conley.

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