The race for next year’s AMS presidency is on, with two students competing for the coveted top position.
Jana Amer, HealthSci ’26, and Nicolas David Brasset Duque, ArtSci ’25, are both in the running for the position of AMS President. If elected, they would act as the AMS’s primary external representative, sit on the AMS Board of Directors and Queen’s Senate, run the presidential caucus of faculty society presidents, and assist with overseeing governance in the AMS.
Amer and Brasset Duque sat down with The Journal to share their platforms, ideas, and reasons for running for President.
Jana Amer
Amer, a third-year health sciences student, is running for President to address what she believes is a key challenge: students’ lack of awareness about the AMS.
The presidential candidate first noticed the disconnect between undergraduate students and their governing body while working at the DrugSmart Pharmacy in the Queen’s Centre, where she observed many students being unaware of the AMS’s health and dental insurance plan through StudentCare.
According to Amer, her experience as the current social issues commissioner (internal) and vice-president (residence operations) of the Residence Society have prepared her for the role of AMS President, touching on one of her biggest takeaways.
“These experiences truly taught me that leadership isn’t about doing it all, but it’s actually a lot about empowering others on how to succeed and how to flourish within their roles,” she said.
Her campaign focuses on accessibility, collaboration, and transparency—or “ACT”—reflecting her vision for an AMS that acts for every student.
One way Amer believes AMS accessibility can improve is by transforming its website. She proposed an advocacy toolkit—an interactive diagram on the AMS site—providing students with a centralized resource to understand its operations, identify key s, and access important information.
Amer noted many students feel disconnected from AMS decision-making. She aims to address this by expanding forums, surveys, and office hours to improve communication between the executives and the student body.
For transparency, Amer wants to focus on building trust through clear and consistent communication, adding she would like to publish monthly updates of what’s going on in the AMS and short one-minute assembly recaps to inform the student body.
When asked how she would ensure students voices are properly advocated for at the upper istration level, Amer explained she’ll focus on making sure student concerns are being backed up with a combination of individual testimonials and factual data. She emphasized the importance of speaking with a solution-oriented approach, rather than outlining problems with no fixes.
“You deserve an AMS that listens, acts, and delivers. My promise is that I will lead with heart, I will lead with empathy and an unwavering commitment to making sure that student life on campus is better.”
Nicolas David Brasset Duque
According to Brasset Duque, a year-and-a-half ago, he had never heard of the AMS and wasn’t aware of how students could make their voices heard on the decisions that impacted them.
During his year-and-a half internship with Smith Engineering from 2023-24, Brasset Duque participated in town halls and spoke with University stakeholders, which showed him the power there was in student voices. His campaign pillars are engagement, advocacy, sustainability, and communication.
Brasset Duque is looking to increase engagement by opening up more slots for first-year intern positions in the AMS, especially under the executive roles.
The candidate expressed interest in starting an “AMS Digest Column” in The Journal, similar to Rector Niki Boytchuk-Hale’s “Rector’s Digest,” where he can update students on what’s happening within the AMS—not only to provide valuable information about the society, but to humanize executives to the student body.
Brasset Duque says he made his second pillar, advocacy, a key part of his campaign to students in need, including equity-deserving groups, those facing housing and food insecurity, and individuals with accessibility needs.
“These groups of students that [are facing housing and food insecurity] are underrepresented and [they] will be consistently mentioned whenever policy is being implemented. I want to make sure that these groups of students are included in the conversation,” Brasset Duque said.
When it comes to sustainability, Brasset Duque is interested in expanding the AMS Commission of Environmental Sustainability by starting a Repair Café, which he described as a location where students can bring broken items to be fixed rather than discarding them, and a glass and plastic depot to properly recycle reusable materials.
“Challenging times are ahead, I have to be honest. But we need students to organize, we need students to engage, we need students to be involved […] whoever is part of the AMS executive team, has a responsibility to ensure we as a student body are united.”
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