Student government was dealt an unexpected and sudden blow when Vice President Charles Caguioa resigned in the middle of his term in Feb.

Chosen by current ASCC President Miles Aiello and approved by a majority of ASCC Senate, Joe Nino answered the call of duty and jumped into the role of vice president for the remainder of the spring semester.

Nino, who is a kinesiology major, has been active in student government and will be transferring to Cal State Long Beach in the fall.

The road to where he sits now, in a comfortable office chair in the vice president’s office, was a difficult but ultimately rewarding one.

“I have Crohne’s disease. I’ve dealt with it since I was 16 and it’ s been really hard for me.”

Crohne’s disease, according to activebeat.com, is an immune-deficiency disease in which a person’s immune system attacks the intestines. There is no cure, only various treatment options.

“After graduating high school it was really hard to maintain a consistent attendance at school, so I kept dropping out of classes. It was really hard to complete my courses so I literally applied and went to every community college around and I never actually finished a class. I just kept dropping because it was really hard for me to stay healthy.”

Nino used to take up to 16 pills a day to try and maintain the disease, but even with that amount of effort, nothing seemed to work.

Finally, one day he decided to take a different, more holistic approach to his treatment.

He changed his diet to one similar to the paleo diet and has since felt better, with almost a complete disappearance of symptoms.

“I started to feel better and I decided I wanted to go back to school […] just being able to come back to school, being healthy again, being able to take that time off after high school and changing my life through diet and health, it gave me a new perspective on what I wanted to study.”

Having come far from his days of being unable to get through a class, Nino said, with humble matter-of-factness, that he believes he was the best person to step in as vice president.

“Jumping in, there was really no training process,” Nino said of the transition, “luckily I had enough experience in student government and kind of figured everything out about how to run the show […] it was a little difficult catching up on everything, taking care of everybody’s legislations, making sure everything is accessible, transparent and online.”

Aiello, who acknowledged that Caguioa’s departure put him in a difficult position, also knew that Nino would be well equipped to handle the ASCC Senate as it was left; somewhat in distress and divided.

“He jumped in senate at a point where it was very hostile and at certain points it seemed to be personal,” he said.

“Joe has done a remarkable job at facilitating senate, at making sure that all senators get heard, while still respecting them and their opinions. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome and the way he has been expressing and portraying his vice presidential duties.”

This hostility mostly stems from the student affairs assistant positions in which both the ASCC president and vice president were hired to fill in the positions, while the positions were not open to other students.

“I knew it was a controversial issue and when I stepped in,” Nino said, “I let the senators know that if any position was ever offered to me, because I know this has been a big deal and I don’t want to upset anybody, that I would not be accepting the position […] because it’s really not worth it to me, I’d rather just get to business and get going onto things the actual students need.”

True to his word, Nino does not hold the paid student affairs position.

Despite tackling his new duties with self-assuredness, he does miss being able to voice his opinions and concerns during senate meetings.

“[After] becoming chair of the senate I don’t do that [now] because that wouldn’t be right. People look up to me, so if I say something it might sway them, however they decide to vote, so I don’t want to show any bias toward any topic. That was the hardest part for me.”

Nino looks forward to his upcoming transfer to Cal State Long beach and inspired by his experience at Cerritos, is even considering running for student government there.

“It’s been really interesting. There are a lot of things I’ve learned […] you feel a lot of people looking up to you and I just want to be the best person for the students. As an overall goal I always have the students in mind. There’s a lot to it.”