Despite her recent election to Student Assembly vice president, Janelle Ruley '00 does not plan for a career in government.
"Government interests me, but it is not my passion," she said in an interview with The Dartmouth yesterday.
Ruley was elected Assembly vice president Tuesday night after former Assembly Vice President Nahoko Kawakyu '99 stepped down from her post last week.
Originating from moderately sized Livermore, Calif., 19-year-old Ruley said her decision to become involved in the Assembly was a result of her working as an intern for a presidential candidate last year.
"I also got involved in [the Assembly] because it is similar to what I did in high school," she said. "I enjoy planning programs and activities for my class."
Ruley said she plans to major in history with a possible minor in government. "History gives me a lot of perspective on what the country is founded on, where it is going and why we are where we are," she said.
She said her aspirations of running her own business supersede any political career path.
The business "would work with corporations to develop leadership training and team-building to make corporations stronger," she said.
She said these plans are in her far future, and she also expects to participate in corporate recruiting.
While Ruley will be working in Washington, D.C. next term, she said she plans to stay involved with the Assembly next year -- but not as vice president.
"I want to make the Assembly more representative of the student body," she said.
She added that the Assembly's goal is to be the quintessential representative body, and currently "we're not doing that."
Ruley said she understands there is little time remaining in the term and does not plan to attempt any major changes to the Assembly or its goals.
"I saw that there was a need to keep the Assembly together and to keep things going smoothly," she explained.
Chair of the Assembly's academic affairs committee Jorge Miranda '01 said he thinks her election was appropriate.
"She knows the position as well as [Kawakyu] ever did," he said. "I think she's what the Assembly needs most right now."
Ruley said she is most proud of her work as co-chair of the Committee on Visions, which was created to gather student desires and goals for the College to present to the new, incoming administration.
"I would like to see [the Assembly] as not purely reactionary," she said. "I think the Visions project is one of the most proactive things that the Assembly has done this year."
Being involved in the Assembly is a difficult job, but friend and roommate Gretchen Mather '00 said Ruley can handle the task.
"I don't think she would have ever taken on any campus activity that she wouldn't have been able to give her utmost hard working into," Mather said.
Ruley is closely involved in the day-to-day activities of the College and has been a member of the 2000 Class Council and the Committee on Student Organizations. She said she has especially enjoyed Class Council and was one of the three co-chairs that planned Freshman Family Weekend last year.
When Ruley has valuable free time on her hands, she enjoys hiking, frisbee and sleeping.
"When I visited her out in San Francisco, we actually climbed the Half-Dome [mountain peak] at Yosemite," Mather said.
Ruley said she also likes writing down her informal personal thoughts on occasion, although she does not creative writing for any campus publications.
