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Newly-inaugurated USAC President Anica McKesey has drawn from her mother’s influence as wel

It was during the winter break of her second year as a political science student that Anica McKesey, the new undergraduate student government president, realized changes had to be made in the world – starting from her descendants’ country of Belize.

With several family members still living in Belize, McKesey makes trips to the small, coastal Central American country every year.

But during her visit to the country in her sophomore year at UCLA, McKesey was shocked for the first time by what surrounded her.

In the biggest and most industrialized city in Belize, Belize City, McKesey said she saw sport utility vehicles being driven on unpaved and unlit streets and families struggling with inadequate health care but watching MTV.

People prioritizing material luxuries over health care and family showed her the negative influences of the United States selling the “American Dream” to poverty-stricken countries, McKesey said.

Similar misguided priorities are even apparent on the UCLA campus, McKesey said.

People around campus walk around like robots concerned with what they wear while their fees are being increased, she said.

“Students need to have an understanding of (their) role as students, an understanding of their ability to effect change ... and an understanding of how much knowledge is at (their) fingertips,” she said.

Her desire to make changes in her environment was one of the driving forces that led McKesey to run for the Undergraduate Students Association Council presidency.

This drive was also apparent throughout McKesey’s childhood, said her mother, Dorla Williams.

“Anica has always been a doer; if she believes that changes need to be made, she will dive in and make them,” Williams said.

Williams added that McKesey always liked challenges, and she is not surprised that McKesey became USAC president.

In elementary school, McKesey would be sent to the principal’s office because she would tell her teachers that their classes were not challenging enough, Williams said.

“She always rises to a challenge. ... I trained her that way,” Williams said.

McKesey said her strong work ethic comes from her mother – also her role model.

Coming to the United States from Belize at age 16, Williams raised McKesey and her younger brother mostly by herself while moving around the cities of Los Angeles and Riverside.

Despite the many economic hardships her family encountered, McKesey said Williams always prioritized academics for her children to be able to succeed.

“I made sacrifices so that my kids can succeed,” Williams said. “I had some difficult times, but looking back on it now, I would do the same things over again.”

McKesey said her mom has also taught her to be humble but to make sure that she is always doing good work. People should not be able to say she could have done more, she said.

McKesey plans to bring all her experiences to the USAC table throughout her term.

“My experiences taught me not to take things for granted,” she said.

USAC passing a resolution encouraging UCLA to hire sub-contracted workers at their meeting Tuesday exemplified this principle, McKesey said.

Students often take for granted the people who cook for them, who clean their campus and who stack park their cars, she said. She believes it is important that wages and working conditions improve for these workers.

When not attending class, organizing programs, or heading USAC meetings, McKesey can be found dancing in a club, watching her favorite television show “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” or just spending time with friends.

She also said she likes to listen to Nas and recite her favorite movies along with one of her closest friends, Robbie Clark, last year’s cultural affairs commissioner.

“She is a strong individual that knows exactly what she wants ... and she’s fun when she wants to be,” Clark said.