Gina Galanou isn’t one to sit around with friends and complain.

The president of the Johnson County Community College Student Senate is more likely to try to get involved and fix the problem.

Galanou, 19, was elected to the post in the fall after the former Student Senate president didn’t return for the fall semester.

It is a post well-suited to her can-do spirit.

“I feel the Student Senate has so much potential to do so much for our students,” she said. “Student Senate is there for the students.”

Galanou, who’s from Athens, Greece, arrived on campus for the fall 2010 semester as one of the college’s international students. With a father who was a military attaché representing Greece, she’d moved around a lot, and attended high school in Canada. She discovered JCCC when visiting her uncle who lived in Kansas.

She thought about attending the University of Kansas, but decided to start at JCCC to get a feel for the American system of education first and to gain fluency in English.

Her first week of class, she attended an International Club meeting.

“It was a wonderful experience,” she said. “The people were in the same situation as I was in.”

Jeremy Walsh, then the secretary of the Student Senate, did a presentation about the Student Senate for International Club, and that’s what inspired Galanou to run for the Senate.

The Student Senate includes five executive officers, elected in the spring, and 25 senators-at-large, elected in the fall. The group meets weekly when classes are in session to allocate funds for student organizations and provide government representation for the student body. The senate also works with JCCC’s Center for Student Involvement to provide guidance and support for student organizations.

“I fell in love with the structure,” Galanou said. Not content to limit herself to just attending Student Senate meetings, she got involved with several committees.

When the presidential vacancy came up this fall, she realized she met the necessary requirements, so she ran for the post.

“It’s a good opportunity to grow as a person and to help people,” Galanou said. “I wanted to get the Student Senate’s name out there to students.”

Galanou would like the Senate to build on a foundation of service projects that started in 2010. A trick-or-treat event for children from the JCCC community drew 60 youngsters in October, and photos with Santa in December served as a fund-raiser.

New for the fall 2011 semester was JCCC Gives, a project that connected the college community’s kindness with people in need. Employees and students nominated other employees and students who could use some assistance with the holidays, and then students and employees helped fulfill the wish lists.

Galanou also sees the Senate taking on some issues of interest to students. For example, she’d like the Senate to advocate for healthier food in the college’s vending machines.

Galanou plans to study psychology and pharmacy, and is working on an associate of liberal arts and sciences degree at JCCC. In addition to her Student Senate involvement, she’s a member of the International Club, the Academic Excellence Challenge team and Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for students attending two-year colleges. She’s also a student engagement ambassador.

“I’m in college to be involved and be busy and that makes me happy, as long as I’m helping people,” she said.