From Long Meadow, Mass., senior Noah Kalman is a member of the Konosioni Senior Honor Society, former vice president of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) and student supervisor for the Digital Learning and Media Center. Being a part of Link Staff, however, has a special meaning to Kalman.

“I would say [Link Staff]’s the thing that has made me love Colgate so much more. I love all that I do, but I don’t know. It is a diverse and great group of leaders from all corners of campus that comes together with energy—some people are screaming sort of energy and some people are more low-key. It’s just such an interesting mix of people and we all just have such an important purpose,” Kalman said.

After spending 12 years as a camper and camp counselor at Camp Tevya in N.H., Link Staff was a natural progression for Kalman.

“I think in a way [it’s similar]. [In] Link Staff, you want to be their friend, so it is like a camp counselor in that way. You want to be their friend, you want these people to have a good time, but you also want to be a mentor, a role-model, and get them through what they’re doing as a group,” he said.

Kalman is a sociology concentrator, double minoring in political science and film and media studies. Undeclared for his first year, Kalman started feeling pressure to declare halfway through his sophomore year.

“Truthfully, I was undeclared all my first year and then SophoMORE Connections happened. At that point, you sort of have to declare. I’m meeting all these alums in all these different career fields—history, sociology, political science, English. Whatever they [studied] doesn’t correlate to their career path, just sort of what they enjoyed,” Kalman said.  “I was like ‘screw it, I like these three things, I will concentrate in this one and minor in the other two.’”

Because of his membership in Konosioni, BDS and Link Staff, Kalman is deeply involved on campus. When giving advice about being a member of Link Staff, Kalman was, well, honest.

“You are never going to be everyone’s person; you cannot be that person for everyone. You also have to be vulnerable and be honest because people see through that very quickly. If someone asks you, you know, ‘I’m not big into drinking. Will I be okay?’, be honest with [them].  Life’s too short and Colgate is too expensive to just be like ‘Oh yeah, it’ll be fine.’ I’d say honesty and knowing that you’re not always going to be needed, but also you may really be needed and you have to be prepared for that [are the most important parts to being a member of Link Staff],” Kalman said.