In her role as ASI president, business administration senior Ashleigh Spragins worked on increasing club funding, was a voice for students during the St. Patrick’s Day alternative event discussions and served as a student representative in discussions on the Cal Poly Maritime Academy integration.

Associated Students Inc. (ASI) is the student government body on campus that connects students to their college experience through programs, services and facilities. ASI also hosts events on campus to bring the community together. (Presidents serve 1-year terms, and Spragins was the president during the 2024-2025 academic year.)

Spragins, who currently represents the Orfalea College of Business on the ASI Board of Directors, is also involved with her sorority, Delta Gamma, where she has held many leadership roles, including this year as the director of alumni relations.

Pursuing a quantitative analysis concentration, Spragins said she has used a lot of skills she gained in business classes in her daily extracurriculars. We sat down with Spragins in order to learn more about her time as ASI president and her interests.   

What was your day-to-day life like as ASI President, and how much time did you dedicate to this position last year?

 A day-to-day looked like waking up, going to either an 8:00 or 9:00 meeting and quite literally running from meeting to meeting and building to building on campus, going to class in between. Oftentimes in the evenings, especially closer to the weekends, there was a handful of events that I would get to show up to, such as ASI events or university-wide events, and anything of the sorts, whether that had to do with committee or an initiative that the campus was pursuing.

What were some of the most challenging parts of your job?

It was most definitely long hours, even though they were very fun, and I was very passionate about what I was doing. It’s a challenge to balance being a full-time student, alongside working forty plus hours a week on the things that matter most to you. I would say it was the school-work balance, that's for sure,. It pushed me harder than I've ever been pushed before, and I'm grateful for what it did because I feel ready to go conquer any job at this point.

Did you experience burnout and how did you overcome that?

I truly loved what I did. I truly loved getting to serve the students, getting to represent them, getting to research them, and getting to share their opinion was so impactful to me. I think that that's what was my motivation, and I knew that I only had one year to keep going. I think the times when I experienced burnout was probably as the quarter got closer to the end of each time because I knew that finals were coming around.

"For anybody that's looking to find themselves in college, I think the best thing that you can do is involve yourself in as much as you possibly can until you figure out what you love and who you love to surround yourself with."

 

                                                            Ashleigh Spragins

How were you involved with the Maritime integration?

I was the primary student lead, representing Cal Poly students, and I had a counterpart that was representing Cal Maritime students. And that was research, research, research. I researched Cal Poly students, figured out what they cared about in regard to Cal Maritime and was able to  really share that student perspective. I also had the opportunity to serve on the search committee for the vice president of the Solano campus. I got to be on the search committee for Corey Cook, who is now in that role, which was really exciting to get to have that opportunity to search for somebody that is going to have such a big impact on their time or the Cal Maritime students' experience and that whole campus experience. 

And then my final thing that I  got to do was serve in student government as the main liaison to the Cal Maritime integration. And so I was again, hearing from student government members who are their own representatives of their students, and I was getting to share with them all the updates that I might have had, and we also changed our Articles of Incorporation to be ready for the Cal Maritime students. Then, I was able to recommend a shared governance model in terms of what does it look like to be a student government that represents students on two campuses now rather than one. 

What were some of Cal Poly’s needs?

I think that Cal Poly students have a unique position to get to learn about this industry, about Cal Maritime, but about the maritime industry, and how it helps support our economy and support our daily life in terms of supply chain. It's a very fascinating environment to be in. And I think students at Cal Poly have a lot to gain from being interested in being inquisitive about it and now have a resource that they can tap into that's right there. 

Did you feel like you used skills from your business classes in your time as ASI President?

A hundred percent. The Orfalea College of Business prepared me better than anything else I could have imagined to be ASI president, and I think that we should have more College of Business presidents because it is such a natural progression being in such a corporate role that I got to network and just build.

What inspired you to run for ASI president?

I've been involved in the Inter Housing Council my first year in the dorms and then somebody from there told me to get involved in ASI student government. So I did. And then during my second year, when I was serving on the board, again representing the College of Business, I heard the opportunity to run for ASI president. I never really thought that I was someone that would run for ASI president. I wasn't involved in student government or leadership in my high school, but I think I had this natural drive to go for more and build more and have a greater impact. I think that what drew me was the opportunity to have a larger role to serve more people than I could have ever imagined, and I'm eternally grateful for the experience and the opportunity that I had to get to run. 

Where did that love for service and leadership come from?

I think that it's something that's always been a part of me. It's just who I am. I'm an older sister to two siblings. They're boy-girl twins, two years younger than me, so we're pretty close, but I was always the ringleader of the three of us, and that started my spark for leadership, and I saw what an impact it could have. My mom was also an elementary school teacher, and the opportunity that she had to develop them from so young and have such a large impact on their life was really impactful to me. 

And then I had the opportunity to get involved in volunteer coaching for my youth cheer program, where I served over 250 hours as a high school student.

In high school. I did just about as much as I'm doing right now where I tried anything and everything that I possibly could because something might be fun and something might spark my interest. I was involved in cheer. I did speech and debate. I did yearbook. I was part of the California Scholarship Federation, and then at the same time, I was coaching the youth cheer team. I was involved in the stunt team. 

For anybody that's looking to find themselves in college, I think the best thing that you can do is involve yourself in as much as you possibly can until you figure out what you love and who you love to surround yourself with. 

What drew you to business? 

I came to Cal Poly as a manufacturing engineering major, and then I decided that again, I had a love for leadership and management, and I figured that I was gonna end up in a management or leadership role,  so I figured why not start a little closer to that and give myself the opportunity to do so.

I feel eternally grateful to be in the College of Business. It's been such an amazing experience. This is my favorite building on campus. I literally smile every single time I walk in. Being inside the atrium on a sunny day, there's nothing like it. Waiting for class, just brings the life into me. 

What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of ASI and academics?

I enjoy playing the piano, even though I don't get to do so that often. I like to do painting, whatever form that is. I think acrylic and watercolor are my two favorites, but it's something I do at least every summer with my grandma and then kind of do by myself when I have the time, which is about never at Cal Poly. Letting my creative side out is what I truly am interested in.

I technically have been playing piano for 19 years. I am not that good at it. I really enjoy it, and I like the way that it makes you use your hands, and it's like using math because you have to do the counting, and you can separate counts and press different keys at different times. I think that you always get the same result pressing the same note.

[In regards to painting] I started thinking about the world in that way of how you capture something that's physically in front of you, turn it into colors on a blank canvas, which I think is a really good way to think about projects that you might be starting. It plays into that analytical aspect of quantitative analysis that I have. I think both hobbies play into both sides of my brain. 

Above photo: Ashleigh Spragins poses outside the ASI office. She is currently a member of the ASI Board of Directors and a past president. (Photo: Jahan Ramezani)

The Dean's Excellence Fund supports a variety of student extracurricular activities that provide additional learning experiences outside the classroom. 

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