Brian Affouan “very thankful” to be elected next UPEISU president

By John Ployer

On Wednesday Brian Affouan was elected UPEISU President for the 2020-2021 academic year (photo credits: Jiayu Su)

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UPEISU President-Elect Brian Affouan is very thankful for all the support and advice he has been given since his election Wednesday night.

In an interview with the Cadre on Thursday, Affouan says that he was still responding to the dozens of messages from people congratulating him on his election, including many people back home.

Similar to PEI, his home country of Mauritius is a small island where news travels fast.

“When they learned that I won they all made sure they congratulated me.”

Affouan learned he had won at the Fox & Crow Wednesday night. He says he got very anxious in the minutes leading up to the results.

“I think at that very moment is when I was the most stressed,” he said.

“I have done everything I could possibly do, all I had left to do was wait”

Affouan said that hearing that he won was one of the biggest moments of his life, with his friends being there with him making it even more special.

“It was the most overwhelming moment I had ever felt.”

He added that he really appreciates Mateo Blacquiere, who ran for president against him. Have Blacquiere in the running made him want to do better.

“I was really happy, I knew it was going to be really hard because I was running against someone I really respect. Running against someone I respect made me really want to try harder and be my best”

Affouan attributes his victory to creating good relationships with a lot of people and working with a lot of groups on campus during his time as a student.

Although he does not officially take office until the beginning of May, Affouan says that he is already preparing himself as best as he can.

“For me, it already started. Right now I’m just trying to get as many contacts as possible”

While clearly thankful for being elected, Affouan is more thankful to UPEI for giving him the confidence and enthusiasm to run in the first place.

“I was a very different person back home, I was very introverted. When I came and met everyone at NSO I tried to be as open as I could. After that I knew some place in my mind that I wanted to run for office, and this year I got the opportunity,” he said.

“UPEI has given me so much since I got here, and it makes me very thankful for choosing it.”