As the Coordinator of Student Involvement and Multicultural Leadership, Naomi Daradar-Sigg is very involved in putting on all of these events for the OSA. Serious about helping students and promoting leadership, Daradar-Sigg also indirectly advises and supports all of the multicultural student groups on campus. Having immigrated from the Philippines to the United States when she was two, Naomi believes she has life experiences that are advantageous when it comes to her job.

“I can identify with being Filipino and being Asian-American and having strong ties to that community and that culture. But also having grown up as a kid in the United States, that was my culture too. I am part of and can understand both the American culture and the Filipino culture.”

With a bachelor’s degree in political science from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Sigg’s original plan was to become a lawyer. After applying to several law schools, she realized that she really enjoyed working with clubs, organizations and student affairs and was going to law school “for all the wrong reasons.” Instead of law school, she got her graduate degree, a Master of Science in College Student Personnel. After that, Daradar-Sigg met Julie Thornton, director of the OSA, at a conference. Thornton then hired DaradarSigg to her current post. Even though coming from Ohio to Missouri was “a big move,” Daradar-Sigg has no regrets coming to work at Washington University.

“The community at Wash. U. is so unique because the students here care about everything they do. I know a lot of schools talk about apathy, but apathy is not a big disease on this campus, especially with the students I work with. They have issues that they’ve taken up, they have passions that they want to do something about, and I really feel like I learn something new from students every day,” Daradar-Sigg said. “What I love about Wash. U. is the fact that the people I work with, the environment that this professional community has created, is one that’s like a family, that is supportive, but also one that challenges me.”

It was announced earlier this year that Thornton would be leaving with her husband Paul Thornton, who is the head coach for Washington University’s men’s and women’s track and field teams. Daradar-Sigg believes that the OSA is capable of moving forward and staying strong through such changes.

“With Julie Thornton leaving, we are transitioning, but it is important for us to continue to build strong relationships with student groups. We’ve got great students who work here, and I love having a lot of one-on-one interaction with them. We really care about the students and both their extracurricular and co-curricular experiences, and we just want the kids to feel like they got not only a great education, but that they also have the skills to make them good leaders.”

Daradar-Sigg believes that a huge improvement can be made to the OSA by just changing the name.

“Our name itself does not explain what we do and the caliber of things we do in our work,” Daradar-Sigg said. “I’d love to see our name change to something else. I also want people to know that they can come to us for a variety of things.”

Aside from changing the name, Daradar-Sigg also has a strong desire to make the other benefits of working with the OSA more well-known.

“I think a lot of groups don’t know that they can have a student adviser, so they don’t understand how much help they can get from someone who will always be an advocate for them. Also, we’ve got a great student library with many resources right here in the student activities hallway. There are videos, games, team builders and it’s all free. We will even help you plan programs.”

Thornton holds Daradar-Sigg in high regard. Thornton believes that “she is very deserving of recognition,” which is evident when Daradar-Sigg describes her tactics to encourage student involvement and multicultural leadership.

“I really like to get to know students and that’s the biggest thing that I try to do when I meet anyone. I try to build that relationship and get to know who they are, what is it that they want to accomplish, how they want to lead their group, what their vision is, what goals they want to set, and then I try to support them as an advocate for what they like to do,” Sigg said. “I’m usually the person students can dream big with, so when they come into my office and want to put together something huge, I listen to them and we think about how we can really make it happen.”