Get to Know Your Student Government: Vice President Kara Burnham

Kara Burnham, 20, Naples, Philosophy – ASNIC Vice President

Favorite Color: I tell people my favorite color is Teal just because this question comes up so often, but I really genuinely don’t have favorites of anything except movies.

Favorite Movie: “Waking Life,” because I’ve watched it a dozen times and every single time I watch I keep getting more and more stuff out of it, and every single person I show it to; it changes their life.

How NIC should look a year after leaving student government: There are a lot of things I didn’t notice about student government until I started getting involved with it, and I definitely feel like it’s a process that sometimes involves so many hoops to jump through that people basically lose faith in their ability to make changes in the school […] I would like it to not be that way. It sucks because a couple of the things that I would really like to see change are giant, and those are the really hard things to change. For instance, it’s hard for students to transfer from here to anywhere except U-of-I, which I’d like to see change.

Inspiration to join student government: Dave McKerracher [Previous NIC Student]. I sort of still feel surprised that I’m elected as VP because for the longest time that felt like something that “other” people did, the infamous “other” people. […] And then Dave was really involved while I was in Philosophy Club, of which I was an officer, and I realized, “Hey, I have a knack for this.” And I thought everybody might, but it turns out not everybody steps up to plate simply because they’re not willing to. […] And “other” people are only “other people” if I let them be, which Dave made me realize. A lot of people have great opinions and ideas, and kind of just general complaints that they don’t do anything about, and I was one of those people until I realized I could actually just get out and do something about it.

Celebrity Crush: Not really, I had one when I was younger. Mark Wahlberg was my celebrity crush. […] But I don’t have normal crushes really any more. I’m a sapiosexual, which means you’re attracted to a person’s intelligence.

Favorite bands/music: Almost all music, I love music. Last weekend I went to a Brand New concert […] I listen to some classical music, instrumental music without any words in it, I listen to classic rock, heavy metal, rap, hip hop, I listen to not country—the only things I don’t listen to are country music, religious music, and top 40 music usually. […] But modern day country is pretty much top 40 hip hop in my opinion.

If A.I. could equal our free will and chose to take action against our society, would it be OK to press a button turning them off: In the case that it posed a threat to me, I think it’d be OK to turn that off. […] It’s like when your parents tell you, “Hey, I brought you into this world and I can take you out.” We made you, and then you’re revolting. That was your decision, your bad.