With each spring comes election season in Aggieland. A time where a group of hopefuls risk it all and take they’re shot at obtaining some of the most coveted leadership positions on campus. Most students don’t realize election season has begun until they see the collage of flyers hanging from every inch of every single bulletin board on campus, see people walking around in “vote for…” T-shirts and pins, have candidates knocking on dorm doors explaining their platforms, your Facebook is invaded with “Vote for…” group invites and messages, and we’re tagged to flyer pictures by people you spoke to once or twice. However, the process begins way before all of that. Months and months go into planning for the few weeks of campaigning we actually see. To fully experience and understand the whole election process, I followed Jasmine Gurley – candidate for Miss North Carolina A&T – on her journey to the ballot.

Gurley is a 20-year-old junior from Prince George’s County, Md. Gurley is a Journalism & Mass Communications major with a concentration in Public Relations. She has spent her three years at A&T being very active. She’s a member of the swim team, honors program, Metro Aggies, and has also held the position of Miss Sophomore during the 2009-2010 academic year.

“Being a part of all of these different things around campus has allowed me to build up a lot of relationships,” Gurley said.  She says Chancellor Martin and Mrs. Martin and Dr. Rasheed are like family to her. I’ve also been inspired by a lot of people, including Ngozi Opora, Miss A&T 2009-2010, who I served under as Miss Sophomore. All of it made me really want to have an affect on the university. I feel like I could give the students what they really need from a Miss A&T. I want to address the issues and revitalize A&T,” said Gurley.

The decision process was not an easy one for Gurley. Miss A&T is one of the highest leadership positions a student can attain on campus, and after suffering a loss in last year’s election for Miss Junior, Gurley found herself hesitant to put herself out there again.

“It was a difficult process because I wasn’t sure if I was really up to the responsibility and if I wanted to put myself in that kind of position,” she said. “But after talking to some friends I realized that this would be an excellent opportunity for me to give back to the school that has given so much to me and caused me to be the person I am today. So that solidified my decision.”

Gurley’s competition included Alexis Sutton, Brittni Bennet, and Jenni McLendon. Each of them had different platforms, strengths, and weaknesses.

“My campaign slogan is “Service with a S.M.I.L.E. (Service, Mindset, Intellect, Love and Excellence) and I want to focus primarily on service (the 1st letter, and primary duty of Miss A&T). I want to have a monthly service event and a program that reflects it. One month the focus would be Service, then the next Mindset, and so on. Then we’ll repeat it next semester,” said Gurley.

Gurley’s prior experience with campaigning proved to be a strong point. That combined with her public relations background gave her arguably one of the best-run campaigns in the election. “It was kind of like a third times a charm situation. I learned a lot the last two times. Flyers are effective but they get drowned out by everyone else’s flyers so I had to think, ‘how am I going to make myself stand out?’ So the first thing I thought of were the lawn signs, and the strategic placement of them. I put one at the top of the Village stairs, one by the Strip, one outside the Union, one outside of McNair because the engineers have told me that they feel like people don’t reach out to them, one outside of Barbie because a crazy amount of people live there. Also, on both sides of the Cafe because there is a regular heavy flow.”

Gurely also utilized her supporters by making them all advertisements via buttons. “Having buttons is like having a 100 walking billboards around campus. And after I had a good amount of them passed out all I heard was ‘I saw your button the other day, or Team Gurley we all have buttons! etc.’ It made people ask, ‘who is Jasmine Gurley?'”

Gurley also wanted to make sure people knew what she was about, she accomplished that with business cards. “I had all the general election information on one side and on the other side I had a breakdown of my platform. That way they could see what I’m really about without having to see my face. Because Miss A&T is more than a face, she has a purpose, and I wanted them to know about mine,” said Gurley.

Aside from the typical campaigning tactics, candidates also had to look to the Internet when campaigning. The election process at NC A&T went virtual this year. The application, forms and information packets were all available on orgsync.com for students interested in running for a position. Candidates were allowed to use Twitter and Facebook to campaign. For the first time in A&T history all voting took place online. A server  was created solely for this endeavor. Students were able to log on using their banner ID and DOB to vote. The process was meant to make the election more accurate. It ensured voters would vote within their actual classification based on the amount of credits they have and that they would only be able to vote once. The obvious fear was that the server would crash. A fear that was well founded considering the server for the online housing process crashed in February. However, the viral election ran smoothly.

“Campaigning online it’s extremely important because you reach out to a lot of people that way and get a lot of support. But I also feel like people will rely on it as a crutch. The Internet is a good idea though, especially for online voting, especially on a day like today [it rained during runoffs] where people may not feel up to coming out and voting in the union. But we don’t want for it to get too far in the future where people don’t get to have an interpersonal experience with the candidates,” said Gurley

Gurley and her competitors managed to stay on the ballot the whole time, allowing the traditional Miss A&T Forum to go on as planned. The forum is a chance for the student body to find out what the candidates really have to bring to the table, pageant style. “The whole week leading up to the forum I was really calm. Everyone else was really nervous during practices and I would tell them to calm down its just practice. Then the day of the forum everyone is telling Jasmine to calm down, it’s just a forum; ‘you were cool all week what happened?'” explains Gurley.

After a couple weeks of campaigning and the forum, it was finally Election Day. “I loved election day! It was beautiful weather and I was fully prepared. I had my tent set up, my posters up, I got to talk to people and they got to see more about me. I had my poster board of pictures of me, my friends, and family so they could get a glimpse of my life, I had my posters explaining my platform and what I have done. I got to tell them what I wanted to do as Miss A&T. It was a lot of fun with all the candidates out there, and the music coming on, it was a good social gathering,” gushed Gurley.

Finally, after 6 p.m. the moment came to announce the winners. With four candidates for Miss A&T, a run-off was expected. “When it was time we went inside, Alexis and I were just holding hands waiting, and then they announced our names we screamed at the top of our lungs. We started jumping around in circles, she started screaming Team Gurley, and I started screaming Team Sutton. After that all I could say was ‘praise Him!’ for like 5 minutes straight,” said Gurley.

I sat down and interviewed Gurley the night before the final winner was announced. Upon reflection, she shared her favorite and least favorite moments from the election process. Least is right now, having to wait a whole night before finding out the final results. “My favorite moment would have to be the dorm storming because its so cool and talk to people and see what your about, and allow them to put a real live face to your campaign. People would say ‘oh your Jasmine Gurley!? I saw your poster! I saw your buttons!’ and I don’t even know who the person is but the next day they’re Team Gurley, its just such a great feeling. I really enjoy when the students would grill me and ask me questions and I really appreciate that because I don’t just want you to give me your vote I want to earn it. I spent 30 minutes being grilled by these 2 guys and I loved it. And they are now 2 of my hardest working campaign members. If I become Miss A&T that’s something I want to continue to do on a regular basis. Like not even having a reason just dorm storming and being like ‘you good.'”

At the end of it all, Gurley knows she couldn’t of made it through the election season alone. “Team Gurley rocks my socks. They go so hard. My campaign manager was Dana Hawkins, my twin, other half; I appreciate her and the whole Team Gurley so much. I would tell them every night how much I appreciated them. When people come through for me it means a lot, because I’m used to being left hanging so when people come through its just the most amazing feeling ever. I love them. All those people who go hard for me whether I know them or not,” said Gurley.

Finally, I asked Gurley how she would react if she lost. “If I lost, I’d just know it wasn’t meant to be. God has a plan, the winner has already been picked, and I keep telling myself that. Either way, it’s not the end of the road for Jasmine Nichole Gurley. Not winning miss A&T doesn’t mean I still can’t make a difference. Even if I have a title, I’m still Jasmine Gurley.”

The next day at noon, Jasmine Gurley won the election and became Miss A&T 2011-2012.

• Sylvia Obell