Taking over the presidency of the Associated Student Senate is a task not every student is up to.

Ruby Limon, a 21 year old broadcast journalist major, takes the reins over from Atty Garfinkel who is on maternity leave.

“I was so scared because I always look up to Atty,” Limon said. “She’s on top of everything.”

Limon said she believes it’s to her advantage that she comes from another culture because of the ethnic diversity of City College students.

“I’m really proud of my roots and my culture, and I can easily understand difficult situations,” she said.

“She comes from a diverse background which is good because there are so many Latino students at City College,” said Amy Collins, Student Program Advisor at Student Life.

Limon came to the U.S for the first time when she was only two months old with her parents, but the family didn’t stay long in the U.S., traveling back to Mexico a short time later.

Then eight years ago, when Limon was 13, her family moved back to the States.

She came across City College during her last year in high school, but not as a senior in search of higher learning.

“Me and my friends wanted to ditch high school,” Limon said.

“So, I told my mom we were gonna go to Santa Barbara to look for a restaurant for our high school prom.”

But instead of finding a venue, Limon said she and her friends ended up at the EOPS office at City College, where she was told about a summer school program for high school students.

If accepted, she was told that a student would receive $100 a week for attending.

“I thought, ‘Great!’ And I applied and was one of the lucky ones of 60 students who qualified,” Limon said.

That was in the summer of 2007, and Limon’s stayed in Santa Barbara since then.

Limon said she wants to achieve as much as possible, although she knows that one semester isn’t enough to see all the ideas she has come to fruition.

“I have two goals for this semester,” Limon said and smiled.

“One is to make students more aware of the number of student services there are on campus because students really don’t know about them.”

Limon mentioned all the scholarships City College has to offer each year, and she said she will encourage students to apply for them.

“I want to make them more visual for students,” she said.

As her second goal, Limon wants to bring City College’s student clubs together.

“I want to organize a fundraising event with everybody’s help and give the money to some kind of charity in town,” she said.

Limon said she knows that she has some big shoes to fill after Garfinkel, but she credits the school’s faculty advisors for helping her find the right fit.

“With the support of Dr Ben Partee and Amy Collins, I feel so much more comfortable now.”

“Ruby is the best decision I could make as a successor, and I wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t ready,” Garfinkel said.

It is a decision Garfinkel sticks by.

“Ruby is a natural-born leader,” she said.