Bridge to BU: Bridging Between Communities By Tavishi Chattopadhyay

With the second half of the semester starting, the student government candidates have started their campaigning journey.

Bridge To BU, one of the slates for student government, prides itself on being composed of students from various diverse backgrounds who want to bring together the Boston University community. 

Tony Wu started the slate because he saw the potential of student government as a vessel for initiating change and enabling students in campus affairs.

Matthew Feliciano, Zakiya Majeed-Landau, and Hanna Yima “naturally” joined him on the slate. 

Feliciano is Bridge to BU’s Presidential candidate. He’s a junior in CAS studying Political Science and Economics and plans on going into law in the future with a focus on advocacy work. 

On campus, he’s involved in various activities, including being the internal Vice President of  Alianza Latina, BU’s Latine student union, director for Academic Affairs, and a member of the Student HUB advisory board. 

He spends his free time playing and watching basketball. Despite being from New York, his favorite team is the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

His dedication to the team started when he first saw them play on TV during the NBA Finals in elementary school. He had gone into the match rooting for LeBron, but as the game continued, he started rooting for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were regarded as the underdogs of the match. 

Feliciano grew up in New City, New York, with a tightly knit group of friends he had known for most of his life. His childhood was filled with family members who encouraged him to keep pushing forward without letting him forget his accomplishments. 

He fell in love with Boston and BU after touring the campus because of its location, how it had kept its “campus vibe” despite being a street, and its history with advocacy. 

Feliciano had felt BU had accepted him and his principles of advocacy and self-identity. He said looking back on his decision, he “chose right.”

“I was very honest about my goals and how I wanted to empower my community,” he said. “I wanted to go to a university that would empower me to reach my goals.”

When Feliciano was initially approached to join the slate, he hesitated to take on a role in the student government’s executive branch, let alone president. However, as he continued to talk with Wu, he realized that the positive reinforcement he got from his family was also present in the emerging slate. 

“Not only did I feel like it is a place where I could accomplish more, but I felt like the people around me [were] always going to be there to support me,” he said. 

Feliciano credits Wu as one reason Bridge to BU feels so supportive and as a major factor in his decision to take on the role. 

Wu is a junior and the slate’s candidate for Vice President. He is double majoring in Political Science and Data Science.

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Wu grew up in a large Asian American neighborhood

“[New York City is] my home, it’s my blood,” said Wu.

Wu has long been involved with civic engagement and voter outreach, which is part of the reason he created the slate. He worked on 15 campaigns and is the chair of the BU Votes team, which facilitates voter registration and civic engagement at BU.

These experiences, plus his work in the student government before this campaign, have taught him the goal of government. 

One of Bridge to BU’s core objectives is community, and for Wu, the government should work for the community.

“It’s not about the 200 or whatnot people in student government, “ said Wu. “It’s about the work that we do, and it's about the people that actually benefit from the work that we do.” 

Community is one of Bridge to BU’s core objectives for its campaign. The other objectives are outreach, response and empowerment. 

Majeed-Landau knows first-hand what the meaning of the word ‘community’ is after living in different communities throughout her life.  

Majeed-Landau is a sophomore majoring in International Relations and running as the Vice President of Internal Affairs.  

She’s lived in multiple countries throughout her life: England, Spain, Egypt, Singapore and Pakistan. 

Majeed-Landau loved meeting new people in each of these countries and immersing herself in the cultures. This affinity had shown her the importance of community, especially in a college setting.

“I think having lived in so many different cultures and being immersed in so many different communities, I’m always very conscious about building community because it’s not always the easiest thing to do when you’re in a new place,” said Majeed Landau. 

Her experience as an international student transitioning into college further demonstrated the importance of community to her. “Coming in as an international student, it was a little difficult to navigate BU,” said Majeed-Landau. “So I really wanted to change that for other students coming in.” 

Empowerment and response are another pillar of the Bridge to BU campaign, one that Yilma hopes to touch upon in her role. 

Yilma is a sophomore on the Pre-Law track, majoring in International Relations and plans to pursue immigration law. 

She calls BU an “accidental fate working its way into [her] life.”. 

Yilma is Bridge to BU’s candidate for Vice President of Finance, and she wants a component of her work to focus on DEI.

She noted that DEI has been a “central and important passion” of hers because her high school gave her the tools to navigate being in a predominantly white institution. 

She wants to prioritize equity, especially for marginalized voices on campus. 

“Everyone deserves the funding to have the events that they want to have and the communities that they want to have,” said Yilma. “Our clubs and organizations are what allows people to feel at home here.”

Bridge To BU wants to carry on the “inclusive and inviting” environment that Breakthrough BU, the previous administration, had created. However, they’d like to build on building communication between students and the student government, through their core principles of outreach and response. 

“I want us to meet students where they are and meet face-to-face with them,” Feliciano said. “I want it to be a lot of those fast-changing responses. I think this is what’s going to set us apart from any other slate that’s ran in the past.”