{"id":168450,"date":"2026-02-25T11:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168450\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:29:08","slug":"david-douglas-zahn-and-titan-sanchez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168450\/","title":{"rendered":"David Douglas Zahn and Titan Sanchez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Presidential candidate David Douglas Zahn to the left and his running mate, Titan Sanchez, to the right. ORACLE PHOTO\/VIOLET VASQUEZ PIMENTEL<\/p>\n

David Douglas Zahn and Titan Sanchez met while living on campus at Juniper-Poplar Hall in fall 2024 and later became close friends \u2014 moving from hallmates, to roommates, to running mates.<\/p>\n

Zahn, 20, is a sophomore biomedical sciences major, and Sanchez, 19, is a sophomore political science major.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although neither candidate serves or has served in Student Government, Zahn and Sanchez decided to run for student body president and vice president, respectively.<\/p>\n

Both said they feel SG is not as present or engaged with students as it should be. Therefore, they plan to implement more opportunities for representation and advocacy if elected.<\/p>\n

Zahn said they have also heard SG\u2019s work environment is \u201ctoxic\u201d across the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat sets us apart from them is that we\u2019re not a part of any form of Student Government,\u201d Zahn said. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing in a new breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zahn and Sanchez said their campaign runs on three main points \u2014 advocacy, efficacy and engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to advocate for individual students, not just student organizations, but the students in those organizations,\u201d Zahn said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just stopping at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: OPINION: USF\u2019s On Top of The Palms restaurant is a hidden gem<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite their lack of experience in SG, both candidates said the organizations they are part of have helped them prepare for a leadership role.<\/p>\n

Zahn is part of the Boy Scouts of America<\/a>, a national volunteer organization that prepares children and young adults how to make ethical decisions through outdoor activities and service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned that not listening creates a huge divide between leadership and the people who are being led,\u201d Zahn said.<\/p>\n

Sanchez is a part of the Law Review<\/a> at USF, which is a student-run, peer-reviewed club focused on writing, researching and publishing analyses on legal and social issues.<\/p>\n

He is also an intern for the Office of the State Attorney in the Trial Transcript Library \u2014 a repository of available trial transcripts and cases \u2014 where he finds resources for Florida Assistant State Attorneys\u2019 cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically helping families of victims seek justice that they need, and using the skills I learned there, that\u2019s how we can help the communities here,\u201d Sanchez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zahn said that as Judy Genshaft Honors College students, he and Sanchez are held to different expectations than other students, and plan to uphold these standards both academically and professionally in SG.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a USF student and a member of SG is important to us because being able to represent students as a student is what any SG role is at its core,\u201d Zahn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: USF Student Government gubernatorial candidates discuss budget allocation<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Zahn and Sanchez said there are issues on campus that need to be addressed to improve campus life \u2014 such as a lack of transparency, representation and community between SG and students.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said they want to be more in touch with USF\u2019s student body, and they plan to do so in person rather than relying on social media and screens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zahn said he and Sanchez want to visit all USF campuses to listen and address student concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing passionate and upfront and in person is important because everyone knows Student Government is a thing, but they\u2019re not upfront, and they\u2019re not in person that you could go up and effectively voice your issues,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

Zahn and Sanchez said they want to connect with students to find a way to ensure voices on all three USF campuses are heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to be more one USF because we\u2019ve got two and a half<\/a> campuses right now, and in spirit we\u2019re already one USF, it\u2019s just different campuses,\u201d Zahn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said they both plan to be honest and transparent with students about what they can do and accomplish in their roles, and will do their best to achieve the most desirable outcomes \u2014 leading back to their goal of efficacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes down to us saying that we tried, this is what we can give you, we\u2019re sorry we can\u2019t get the rest and we\u2019re going to work harder at it,\u201d Zahn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zahn said the engagement aspect of their campaign aligns with the ticket\u2019s focus on individual students and their needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are the ones that make up the student organizations, so with that, we plan to mingle more with the actual students that make up these organizations and clubs rather than the heads or presidents of them,\u201d Sanchez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zahn and Sanchez said the ticket will stay true to their campaign if elected, as they want to bring a new perspective and new ideas to SG.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re new faces trying to shed new light,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cWe want to try and focus on the individual students who built these student organizations and made it better to make these campuses great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez said it is important for students to voice their opinions and use their voting power in these elections to achieve \u201creal change\u201d on campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe executive branch and all other parts of Student Government have effective change if we work really hard and can bring great things on campus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This article is part of a \u201cMeet the Candidates\u201d series for all tickets running in the presidential election. The Oracle will publish two articles a day as part of this series. Check the website for more tickets tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The other tickets running in the race are:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hunter Rabinowitz (student body president) and Mia Riley (student body vice president)
\nCaio Esmeraldi (student body president) and Maria Julia Mussa Martins (student body vice president)
\nTyler Williams (student body president) and Haran Mahesh (student body vice president)
\nMuhammad Kamil (student body president) and Linda Kahok (student body vice president)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential candidate David Douglas Zahn to the left and his running mate, Titan Sanchez, to the right. ORACLE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-168450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}