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Clement originally came to the college to attend the now-defunct Applied Communications Program, but he says he feels like he left Camosun with a Masters in Communication, thanks to his work with the CCSS.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt provided me the ground and the support to go and try things, and that was super cool because I had the resources and the staff,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was really the best part about Camosun, bar none.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most influential person for Clement during his time at Camosun was, surprisingly, not a teacher; instead, he points to CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte as an inspiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was really a great teacher of the political system, and I have a lot to thank him for because he showed me a great deal,\u201d says Clement.<\/p>\n
Turcotte remembers Clement fondly and says the former external executive displayed \u201cforethought and leadership\u201d in his work on campus events, as well as efforts to further campus life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoyed working with Matteus,\u201d says Turcotte. \u201cHe was always trying to push forward initiatives that benefited students. He is a natural and effective politician and I wish him well at the Cowichan Valley Regional District.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clement says that his invaluable education on political systems came from his dedication and hard work with the CCSS.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, I was a really active member of the CCSS; I wasn\u2019t just an armchair politician,\u201d he says. \u201cI got in and they said, \u2018Hey, you have a $1.5-million budget and your job is to lobby on the behalf of students.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Clement says he learned several valuable lessons through his work with the CCSS, lessons that he carries with him today in his political work with the Cowichan Valley Regional District.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne lesson learned was consulting with the public and finding out what they really want, because instead of looking into a crystal ball, you need to go out there and talk with people and engage,\u201d says Clement. \u201cI also learned about the importance of going to the table with money. If you go to the table asking for something and you don\u2019t have money, people aren\u2019t usually willing to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clement isn\u2019t the first Camosun student to benefit from hands-on experience through the CCSS. Rachael Grant, the CCSS\u2019 current external executive, can relate to Clement\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing part of the student society often means learning about the details within types of decision-making processes,\u201d explains Grant. \u201cFor example, with transit, we would ultimately be searching for what would be positive for transit and students, and we gather research and advocate on behalf of students in areas like transit and pass it on at the municipal level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clement and Grant agree that they have benefited from their time with the CCSS and will continue to benefit from all they have learned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI even joked with one of my friends and said, \u2018Go to Camosun, take your three classes of what you want, but join the student society.\u2019 Really own something, and take on a passion and learn how a bureaucracy works,\u201d says Clement. \u201cYou can actually effect real change and that\u2019s a very, very cool feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive is now a director for the Cobble Hill region in the Cowichan Valley Regional District. Elected in November, 32-year-old Matteus Clement was CCSS external executive for two years between 2009 and 2011. He says that during his time with the society he gained more experience than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-21-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10106,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104\/revisions\/10106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}