EMU junior and scholarship winner Nina Freeman gives back to the community

Nina Freeman considers herself to be a perfectionist.

"I do absolutely hold myself to the highest standard in everything that I do," she said in an interview with The Eastern Echo. "But I definitely find myself spread thin a lot of the time."

During her time at Eastern Michigan University, Freeman has had a number of responsibilities. A secondary education mathematics major, she serves as the student body vice president. She also took on the roles of advancement student ambassador for the office of alumni relations and vice president of the Adoptee Club. She is a recipient of the presidential scholarship and was given the Eagle Ambassador Award at the 2025 Student Gold Medallion Awards.

A current junior, Freeman grew up in Madison Heights. She said she came to EMU because of the scholarship opportunities.

"I was very fortunate to be able to receive the scholarship that I had applied for," Freeman said. "At that point, I think it became a bit of a no-brainier to come here just because, I did really like the tour when I was here."

Receiving that scholarship, she said, motivated her to give back to the university.

"It's such a huge, momentous gift," she said. "I just know that if I didn't have this scholarship, I would be paying significantly more to come to college, exponentially more even. And so, all of this time that I have now that I'm putting into student government or putting into other opportunities or organizations across campus would have probably then been used to go and work a job. ... Now, because of the opportunity I've been given, I do not have to do that."

Priya Ghotane, a former student government senator and fellow presidential scholar, brought Freeman to her first student government meeting. Freeman recalled being excited about student government after talking about it with Ghotane. She would later be elected as a senator in 2024. During her time in that position, Freeman said she wrote a resolution to create two free book exchange boxes across campus.

"The idea for it came from my front yard," she said. "My grandma gifted my mom a little library years and years ago, and so I've always had one."

The process to get the boxes installed involved collaboration with the grounds department and Halle Library, Freeman said.

"It really was only efficient because I think we had good communication between everybody involved, and then everyone was just really happy to help," she said.

It was that efficiency that caught the attention of another senator, Jack Booth. Booth told The Echo in an interview in September 2025 that seeing the way Freeman worked to get a resolution passed early in the term, and the way she treated others in student government led him to ask her to be his running mate on a presidential ticket in the 2025 student government election.

"I was kind of caught off guard," Freeman said. "I was like, 'I'll get back to you. I'll think about it.' But then, eventually, I think after seeing the little library resolution completed, I did say to myself, 'OK, maybe you don't have a reason to have this imposter syndrome. Maybe you don't have a reason to count yourself out.'"

Booth said Freeman is a hard worker.

"She's always willing to show up, stay late, and do what she needs to do to get the job done, which has been really good," Booth said of Freeman. "She's done really high-quality work, and she really encourages the best from everybody that she works with. She's really great at facilitating other people in power to step up and do their jobs while also giving them the guidance that they need to be successful."

Booth and Freeman won the election by a 48-point margin, according to results posted on the student government website. In her current role as vice president, Freeman said she feels pressure from the power that student government holds in its budget and connections to the university administration.

"Sometimes I don't feel like I have a moment to breathe," she said. "And you just got to push through the day, do as much as you can, for however long you can."

Freeman said that using the services at EMU's Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, helped her manage the pressure.

"I love going to CAPS. I have a therapist at the counseling center, and I'm happy to have this shared because I really think it's an amazing resource. In those sessions, I'm able to reflect on, 'OK, maybe this is where I'm overextending myself, or maybe this is something that's not productive for my life right now,' and so that's been a great tool for me," Freeman said.

Freeman is also one of the founding members of the Adoptee Club at EMU, which she started with her friends during her freshman year. She was adopted from China.

"I definitely, before coming to college, had this worry that, maybe I didn't find an adopted community or an Asian community in high school that I really was able to resonate with," Freeman said. "I did have like a few friends who I think had very similar backgrounds, and I really appreciated that, but it wasn't like a full-fledged community. ... I think we all came together, and we were looking for similar spaces in college where, maybe, we didn't have this in high school, but we can now connect with a wider range of adoptees, whether it be a domestic adoptee or kinship adoption or international adoptee."

In speaking about her own experience, Freeman said, "It comes in waves. Sometimes I think about, like, 'Wow, I'm adopted. I've never met my biological parents.' People don't know it by looking at me that I'm adopted, necessarily."

Freeman said she believes having representation for people who are adopted is important.

"Sometimes growing up, I got a reaction where I would tell someone I was adopted, and then they felt like, terribly sorry for me. ... I get that. It's a weird situation if you never run into it," she said. "Probably ... if I was in the opposite position or on the other side of things, I would do the same thing. But just creating that awareness that being adopted hasn't put me at any sort of disadvantage in life; I think it's only given me a sense of anything that's meant to be, will be. Things will work out."

Reflecting on people's reactions to her adoption, Freeman talked about the red thread of fate, a concept originating from Chinese mythology.

"The red thread is supposed to connect any two people that were destined to meet, regardless of where they start," she said. "So, I feel like that always resonated with me; like, ok, things will work out. You've got this far."

In November 2025, the Adoptee Club hosted one of its Fleece for Foster Care events, which was sponsored by student government. Participants gathered at McKenny Hall one evening to create fleece tie blankets, then donated their work to a foster care closet.

Freeman said student government does not want to show favoritism towards any organization, and Ryan Padilla, the president of the club, was responsible this year for securing the funding from student government.

"I was very hands-off when it came to this event this year," she said. "We were able to take student government funding and then buy these fleece blankets that we give students service hours to come and make. We had food, which was really fun. Food, music, and then at the end, they get donated to a foster care closet that's in Ann Arbor. I think it's just, like, literally getting our name out there, people remembering that this community exists."

When asked about the upcoming election for student body president, Freeman said, "I have decided that I will run next year. I'm not sure who I would run with, but I definitely will be running next year. I'm really looking forward to it. Again, it's something that when I first got into this and was first asked, 'Oh, hey, would you want to be vice president?' I was like, 'What do you mean? That's not me. You could ask anyone else but me.'"

"But I think every single day, I learn more and more about what the processes looks like behind the scenes, ... the nitty gritty, this is who you need to call to actually get this done, or this is who you need to talk to if you really want to be connected with this," Freeman continued. "So, as I garner more and more knowledge, I feel more and more confident in my ability to effectively fulfill the role if I was to be elected."