Ever wonder what it would be like to be on the receiving end of a 9-1-1 call? Senior Bobby LeGaye knows. LeGaye is involved with Southern Madison County Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SOMAC) and the Hamilton Fire Department (HFD) as an EMT. LeGaye has been a volunteer for the HFD since his first year at Colgate.

“You carry a pager, and go if you can go,” LeGaye said.

LeGaye started by taking a basic fire course, then took the EMT course the fall of his sophomore year. By the spring of his junior year, he had reached Level Three in the courses, which is a step above EMT. In the HFD, you deal with mostly fire and gas emergencies, so you only see the patient for around five minutes. This led LeGaye to join SOMAC this past summer.

For SOMAC, there are assigned shifts, although you still can go if you want to. SOMAC allows for more patient time because they are responsible for transporting the patient to the hospital.

“The more calls you go on, the more comfortable you get,” LeGaye said. “[It’s] up to you, more or less, if the patient lives or not.”

LeGaye is also a brother of Phi Kappa Tau. Fraternity life is his favorite part of Colgate.

“It is a great group of guys, and when else can you live with thirty hooligans?” LeGaye said.

“The sense of community and the people you meet. You do not just feel like a number in the crowd here,” LeGaye said of his fraternity brothers.

LeGaye enjoyed this sense of community so much that he chose not to study abroad.

“I didn’t want to miss out on anything that was on campus,” he said.

You may have also seen LeGaye when touring Colgate as a prospective student.

“I like showing Colgate off to people,” LeGaye said. “Mrs. V is awesome, and so is Gary Ross!”

LeGaye is also the student manager of the Student Calling Program, in which students thank alumni for their support and ask them to donate. The Senior Class Gift Committee is also graced with LeGaye’s presence; they get seniors to donate by doing things like the Tollhouse Pie eating competition.

LeGaye is a computer science major, having found an appreciation for it in high school.

“I love the courses, the professors are awesome and there are no papers!” LeGaye said.

After graduation, LeGaye is moving to Portland, Oregon to work for Nike, where he has interned the past two summers. His advice for first-years? “Work hard, play harder.”