George Salama was sworn in as sophomore class president on Wednesday. Here is a transcript of his nomination speech, as well as the answers to questions posed to him by Legislature:

Good afternoon. My name is George Saloma, and as you know I am running for sophomore class president.

I would like to start off by thanking Mr. Chair and the legislative body for giving me this opportunity this evening.

I would also like to let you know a little bit about myself.

I am from Egypt. I am 20 years old. I've lived here in the US for two years now. This is my third.

I grew up in the Middle East around the Mediterranean region. Because of my father's job I was lucky enough to live in several countries in that area. I lived in Greece, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and now I am here in the US.

For the most part I attended American schools wherever I lived. My graduating high school, which was in Cyprus, was about 120 students, so I was lucky enough to be deeply involved with school activities.

I was the junior class president of the Student Council in my junior year and I was the Student Athletic Association president for my junior and senior years in high school.

I am now currently involved with the Model United Nations here at UNCC, to where I think I have learned a lot of valuable skills.

During my two years here at UNCC, I've learned that the only way to make a difference is by putting yourself in a position that allows you to make a difference. And for that reason I chose to study political science with a minor in economics. And for that same reason I am here before you today running for sophomore class president.

I assure you all that your vote for me won't go to waste. I am going to do everything in my power to do all my duties as sophomore class president and I hope that I can contribute in a positive way to achieving the goals of this body. And I would like to thank you all. I look forward to working with you.

(Question posed by Legislature: What is one thing you would like to change at UNC Charlotte?)

There aren't enough students who are involved here at UNCC.

It's not that they don't want to be involved, it's just that they don't know what's going on. If they did know what was going on then their chances of getting involved would be that much greater.

I think what's really important is that we involve as many people as we can.

Because we are here to learn, UNCC is offering us an excellent opportunity by the diversity that it offers and all the different nationalities and kinds of people that are here.

I think the only way to make use of that for us and the whole student body is to involve as many people as we can. The main thing I want to see is to get more people involved.

(Question posed by Legislature: What are some campus-related concerns you have?)

I think one of my biggest concerns is something that affects me everyday at UNCC and that is parking.

I was here at the last meeting, and I learned quite a bit about parking here and why things are the way they are.

Although I see that there are reasons for how things are right now, I still don't really think that is the answer. I think there's got to be a way for us to get what we want.

I think if we work hard enough for that, I think we can do just that.

If we all come together and get enough people to say that we want such things like what Christina was saying about space for people at Martin Village because we pay that much for parking.

That's what we should do, because this is are money. We should get as much as we can out of UNCC.