Baker University’s multicultural organization, Mungano, recently elected four new officers to take on leadership positions in the organization for next year.

Mungano’s new officers are as follows: sophomore Kelly Vaughan, president; sophomore Jacinta Deruso, vice president; freshman Nicole Baumgartner, treasurer and freshman Kendra Scarbrough, secretary.

Baumgartner said the election process consisted of an application, a speech in front of the group members and a question-and-answer session. Following the questions, ballots were filled out.

“We had to tell a little bit about ourselves, why we wanted the position, how we were involved in Mungano and where we would like to go with our position,” Baumgartner said.

Mungano member Jessica Beckem said she thinks the new officers have a lot to offer.

“I think they will help to diversify Mungano, and we’ll be able to do a lot of community service because Kelly is really passionate about it,” Beckem said.

Freshman Turkaila Beauvoir said she attends Mungano meetings regularly. She said she knows each of the new officers as friends.

“Each one is a very unique individual,” Beauvior said. “Their personalities alone will show in the position they chose.”

Vaughan said she will be in charge of helping oversee the organization, running meetings, making sure planned events follow through and representing the organization in the community.

Baumgartner said she will be in charge of fund raising, making sure the money is in order, coming up with new ideas and supporting her fellow officers.

“It carries a lot of responsibility because I’m in charge of all the money that comes in and out of Mungano,” Baumgartner said.

Vaughan said some of the events planned for next year include a welcome back bash for returning and new members, a fashion show led by Scarbrough, with donations going to the Lupus Foundation and the annual date auction, which will be moved to April.

“One thing that we as officers would like to see is more group outings and more reaching out and community service,” Vaughan said.

Beckman said she thinks the fashion show will be fun and exciting.

“It’s something we didn’t do this year, so it’s new to me,” Beckman said.

Beauvior said she hopes the new officers will establish more stability within the group and keep members coming back.

“I want to see more members that start at the beginning of the year stay until the end of the year,” Beauvior said.

Beckem and Baumgartner each said they would like to reach out to other groups and get more people involved. They think being diverse in that sense is very important to the organization.

“For one, you wouldn’t have an organization without members and then you would need the support of other organizations to provide big activities for the Baker students,” Baumgartner said. “The community needs to know what the organization is, who it represents and how they can help out.”

Vaughan said she looks forward to her experience and making a difference through her leadership in diversity.

“(I would like) to help Mungano flourish into a better organization on campus,” Vaughan said.

Mungano meets every Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the basement of Harter Union.