Joshua Pinaula wants to create an educational environment where students feel involved and inspired to change the world.
“I see a lot of problems in the world and really don’t have a lot of answers,” he said.
Last year Pinaula served on Santa Rosa Junior College’s Associated Students Senate as vice president of organizations for Santa Rosa campus, and was recently elected next year’s Associated Students president.
Pinaula came to SRJC in 2007, but was diagnosed with cancer during his first year and left to receive treatment. After therapy, he decided not to return to school but work instead. After some time, while working the graveyard shift on an assembly line, Pinaula realized he wanted to do more with his life.
“I was doing something that did not help the world – or that did not help me feel like a full person,” he said. He decided to go back to school in 2011.
This time around, he would make change happen by becoming more involved. He joined the Atheists and Skeptics Club, hoping to find a place where people questioned the systems in place the same way he did. “If that wasn’t what they were all about then I would make them,” he said.
The club introduced Pinaula to the Associated Students Senate. Although he did not win his first time running for a senate position, he believed he could still be a force for change. While running, he noticed inconsistencies in the election code and began editing it to make the code more effective. This year Pinaula, the senate and the elections coordinator worked together to edit the code even more for next year’s elections.
“It was exciting to work with someone so organized and passionate about students following their interests. He brings out the best in those around him and is truly an advocate for bettering the SRJC experience,” said Omar Paz, outgoing Associated Students president.
“Again, I don’t have all the answers to how to fix the world,” Pinaula said, “but I know that involvement and getting involved is the thing to do and that education solves most of the problems in the world.”
He appreciates the presence of clubs on campus. As the vice president of organizations for Santa Rosa, he has been very involved in overseeing them. “It’s practical and actual experience,” Pinaula said. Students can learn how to move effectively in the world by being involved and working with various people with different outlooks. According to Pinaula, that is one of the goals of education.
This year Pinaula helped foster more than 70 clubs and also formed an Inter-Club Council trust out of the money left by clubs deactivated within the last few years. He also helped create by-laws that will allow clubs to act more independently from the senate.
Despite his full schedule of classes and senate work, Pinaula finds time to unwind by exploring, hiking and playing video games. Always full of ideas, he considers studying video game design. If he had his way, he would create educational video games where people wouldn’t feel like they were learning but just enjoying the game.
Now, Pinaula is focused on creating a better campus life for SRJC students. He has big ideas for next year, including discussing an SRJC application that allows students to stay connected to what is happening on campus without being there or having to log onto a computer.
“I just want the best,” Pinaula said.
