Melissa Madaio’s Colgate career has been so full of activity that her four years here have raced by. Now rapidly approaching the end, it is hard for her to believe that she will be leaving the place that she has considered a home for so long.

This year’s Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President, Madaio has been involved in SGA since her sophomore year. She also served on the executive board last spring. This year has brought plenty of challenges, but Madaio has found responding to them rewarding. This is particularly true of the case of the racist graffiti incident that took place last fall. Though that was definitely a rough patch, it gave way to the Unity Coalition, something that Madaio worked on with Dave Kusnetz, Mike Walden, Malik Wright and Jamil Jude.

“It was difficult and there were some speed bumps, but it was rewarding to make a change at Colgate,” Madaio said. “It was rewarding to see so many different people come together.”

SGA isn’t Madaio’s only time commitment. She also rowed on the Women’s Varsity Crew Team for two years and is a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority. She was a member of the Panhellenic Council during the spring of her junior year and last fall, during which time she served as Vice President of Recruitment. But Madaio enjoyed her responsibilities.

The sociology and anthropology major took a break from her many campus responsibilities the fall of her junior year to travel abroad to Prague, an experience she thoroughly enjoyed. Still, though she would never take back her time away from campus, Madaio said that she was “ecstatic to come back to Colgate.”

After graduation, Madaio is hoping to work in Public Relations in either Washington, D.C. or New York City. She spent last summer interning at a PR firm in D.C. and would like to continue in that vein of work.

Madaio is having mixed emotions as she counts down the weeks to graduation.

“One day I’m sentimental, the next day I’m ready to make the next step,” Madaiao said. “I feel ready because I think that Colgate has prepared me, but it still feels like home.”

Madaio’s “golden nugget” of advice is simple: “Get involved when you can because when it’s over, you can at least say you tried everything.”

It is clear that she followed her own advice. And though she has only a few weeks left at Colgate, Madaio’s involvement will provide her with plenty of memories of her time in Hamilton.