Homecoming 2023 is set to be filled with fun events of all sorts, from competitions to parties to the ever-popular parade. Kicking it all off, the announcement of CMU’s Homecoming Maroon Ambassadors.

Students will vote to select their Gold Ambassadors during homecoming week, with Ambassadors being at the front-and-center in the parade. Without further ado, it’s time to roll out the maroon carpet for this year’s cast of seven Maroon Ambassadors!

Jeel Patel

Jeel Patel is a senior at CMU. She has been involved on campus throughout her college career.

“I’m really excited. I wasn’t expecting to make such a big impact on campus, so I guess I’m really honored to be selected,” Patel said. “I really enjoy my time at Central and so I’ve really wanted to give back and I’m so grateful that I have been able to.”

Patel is involved in several organizations on campus, including:

Vice president of Marketing for Program Board,
Outreach committee chair for Sexual Aggression Peer Advocates,
Creative director for Faith in Femininity,
Social media coordinator for the Honors Program
Impact mentor for the past three years.

“I really enjoy meeting new people and just getting to connect with people," Patel said. "I meet so many different people on a daily basis, and I think it just makes being on campus so much better. I walk somewhere and I see people I know, and it brightens my day and lifts my mood up.”

Sarah Gum

CMU senior Sarah Gum made it her goal to be as involved on campus as possible since her freshman year.

A student of social science, she has been part of the Student Government Association (SGA) at CMU, a campus ambassador since her freshman year, a campus tour guide and a president of the social sorority Phi Sigma Sigma.

Gum has also been a Leadership Safari guide and a leadership advancement scholar. Over the Summer, she served as an orientation mentor for incoming freshmen and transfer students for the College of Education.

“Being a maroon ambassador this year, my goal is just to be as inclusive and welcoming to all students on campus as possible,” Gum said. “All I hope is that people know who I am by a smiling kind face ... I’m just really excited to represent CMU this Homecoming.”

Carolina Hernandez-Ruiz

Carolina Hernandez-Ruiz, junior, is an international student from Spain. She is a double major in neuroscience and finance.

Hernandez-Ruiz is a part of many of organizations on campus, including:

The honors program, where she is also part of the honors console
SGA, where she is a senator for the College of Business
International Students Service Liaison
Member of the Academic Senate
Inclusion assistant in Celani hall
Member of the medical fraternity Phi Delta Epsilon
Part of the Michigan Finance Scholar program member
Part of the Wall Street Journal club

Like the rest of the ninees, Hernandez-Ruiz was anonymously nominated by one of her peers. She found out that when she received an email from CMU. Now that she has made it through the process of being selected as one of seven students, she feels honored to be in the situation she is in.

“For me, it is completely an honor, I'm not even from (the United States); I'm a first-generation college student," Hernandez-Ruiz said. "I never thought of coming to the U.S., and then ... studying here, and doing those things. And also being an ambassador ... is an honor because only seven students get elected every year, and we basically represent Central.”

Sophia Scarnecchia

Sophia Scarnecchia is a senior from Ann Arbor who is majoring in heath and physical education. She works multiple jobs on campus, while being the president of CMU Spectrum, the main LGBTQ+ organization on campus.

While working her job as a lifeguard at the Student Activities Center (SAC), a women who participated in the senior citizens group told her that she would like to nominate her for the position as a Maroon Ambassador.

“One of the ladies there came up to me and she was like, 'They're starting to collect candidates, to nominate for Homecoming, and I wanted you to know that I think you’re a good candidate, and I really want to nominate you,'" Scarnecchia said. “That's where it started."

Scarnecchia feels that her work has gone noticed.

“For all the ambassadors it shows that our work had gone noticed," Scarnecchia said. "The more I think about it, the more I realize how big it is (population of CMU). Yes, there are seven of us, but there are 20,000 people at CMU.”

Ku’Juana Quinn

Ku’Juana Quinn is doing a double majoring in Political Science, Sociology: Social and Criminal Justice, as well as having two minors in Philosophy and Leadership and a certificate in Cultural and Global Studies. After graduating, she plans on going to law school.

“I put on a lot of Multicultural Academic Student Services (MASS) office events," Quinn. "I use my current events as a way not only to educate my residents in (Woldt Hall) but I expand it out so that everyone on campus is able to learn different things. I feel like that's something we’re missing that I’m able to use … the role I have to share the wealth.”

Quinn is part of many programs on campus, including being:

Inclusion assistant in Woldt Hall;
Peer facilitator within the Institute for Transformative Dialogue;
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workgroup chair within the Sarah R. Opperman Leadership Institute ;
A campus ambassador;
A Leadership Advancement Scholar; and
President of Student Advocates for Prison Reform and the Incarcerated (SAPRI).

Quinn also redrafted the leadership advancement work group to include more diversity within the program and the events they put on for students. When she joined, there were few people of color in the program. She said she wanted to make it a more welcoming space for herself and other students of color.

“One thing people might recognize most is Leadership Safari redrafted the whole entire identity activity," Quinn said. "It used to be a bead activity. … It made a lot of people who had underrepresented identities feel exposed because they wouldn’t have any beads on their bracelets because they didn’t have the privilege. … We did a different activity about identity and made it so everyone could feel like they could explore their identity.”

Ashley Harvey

Ashley Harvey is a senior at CMU from Freeland, Michigan who is majoring in biology: ecology, evolution and conservation.

Harvey is involved in several activities and on-campus organizations, such as the Honors Program, Student Government Association, Faith in Femininity and marketing coordinator in a research lab.

Being a Maroon Ambassador, Harvey said "is a chance to represent CMU and share what makes this school feel like home to me."

Harveys’ role as Maroon Ambassador is an accomplishment and opportunity that she plans to use to represent CMU’s values and students, on and off campus.

“I wanted the opportunity to represent CMU and connect with CMU students and alumni,” Harvey said.

Gabriela Terrones

Gabrielle Terrones is a senior majoring in early childhood education and special education. She has been a residential assistant in Woldt Hall for three years, as well as involved in clubs for Hispanic and Lantix students such as La Gente and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

When Terrones received the email notifying her of nomination, she was surprised.

“I was aware of the ambassadors, but I’m still not sure how I got nominated,” she said. “I’m honored to be chosen. I like the appreciation and that people are thinking of me, and think I’m qualified enough to be nominated.”

To Terrones, being a Maroon Ambassador means that she's a well-rounded person.

“This year people (nominated) are heavily involved on campus, and I respect the reason they’re here,” Terrones said. “To be able to be a person that others can see are being helpful in the community and on campus, someone that wants the best for CMU, that’s what matters.”

Central Michigan Life staff writers Courtney Boyd, Hunter Gudyka, Spencer Noggle, Hadlee Peters, Eden Phillips and Lauren Pocica contributed to this report.

Maroon Ambassadors of 2023

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