Student officers shuffle into their seats Friday morning for their weekly Student Senate meeting.

Despite the early morning hour, Student President Dylan Raiman, 20, bounces to the front of the table to call the meeting into order with a shining smile and positive attitude.

As officer reports begin, Raiman spends a few minutes listing off the many tasks he completed, along with the meetings he attended the previous week.

“I have been on the senate for two years now and Dylan is the best president I ever had,” said Yeihoon Choi, vice president of operations and finance. “He really cares about every student at SBCC.”

While taking 16 units, Raiman keeps internal measures in order, guides the student officers and attends at least five meetings every week. He has shaped the student government into one of the most prominent organizations on campus even with his busy schedule.

“The organization I inherited was, for all intents and purposes, a mess,” Raiman said.

With that in mind, Raiman’s plan was to work solely on the internal part of the student government during his first semester to make it more stable.

“Last semester was all completely about restructuring and reorganizing,” he said. “I did this on purpose so that this semester we could have that robust ASG that everyone is talking about now.”

One of the restructuring efforts that he completed was creating more specified, goal oriented positions for the student officers. Before he was president, he was one of nine people with the position titled “senator.”

Through reorganization, he created positions like secretary, parliamentarian, and commissioners of events, academics, marketing, fundraising, philanthropy and sustainability.

“I saw myself as a president who was going to do a lot of work for future years, he said.

As the positions were made, he formed committees under the positions where the student body is encouraged to join, regardless of if they are already on the student government.

“I am proud to say that with Dylan’s guidance we have been able to further the development of the ASG and increase its visibility,” said Josh Villanueva, vice president of internal affairs.

Other accomplishments throughout Raiman’s presidency include rebuilding the student government website, and creating the idea to put out a monthly newsletter to keep the students informed about what is going on in the student government.

Raiman is not only student government president, but also an active member of Phi Theta Kappa and the Honors Program, and the secretary of the organization 2020 A Year Without War.

Raiman admits that he was not always this good at managing his time, and that the vice presidents on student government helped him grow out of this.

“This is a real character flaw of mine. I can be a bit of a perfectionist,” he said.

Though Raiman was born in Beverly Hills, California, he later moved to Malibu, California, where he attended Agoura High School. When he was a junior he served on the student government as the commissioner of community service.

There, he was put in charge of planning the cancer fundraising event, Relay For Life.

“I poured my entire life into this event,” he said. “My grades were in the toilet, my friends were alienated from me, my family didn’t even know who I was anymore.”

The event ended up being very successful. They raised a total of $150,000, were named the largest Relay for Life in the state and the most successful student-run fundraiser in the world, he said.

While the event was taking place, Raiman was also running for student body president at his high school. He ended up winning the election, but because his grades dropped, the administration kicked him off the student government and took away his chance of becoming president his senior year.

“After this terrible experience, I told myself that if I did not get, and keep, a 4.0 GPA, I would not be a part of student government at Santa Barbara City College,” he said.

Raiman’s first semester at City College was a time for him to work on getting to his GPA goal. After succeeding, he ran for a senator position on the student government the first day of Spring Semester.

After 2 months in the position, Raiman ran for student president for his final year at City College.

The philosophy and political science double major was accepted into University of California, Berkeley, last Friday. He plans to take a year off of the student government to focus on his academics and then join it during his second year.

After graduating, Raiman hopes to run for national office.

Raiman expresses his hopes for future student government’s as the new President-Elect Charlotte Donnay Rochard prepares to take office July 1 for the 2017-2018 school year.

“The greatest power and significance that a president can have is to help reinterpret the role of the ASG on campus,” he said.

“I would hope that my successors in future years will see it as I have, that this organization is unique on campus, because it doesn’t just plan great events. It is the voice of the students.”