Emily Mackay was one of the 2014 winners of the Victoria Soto Memorial Scholarship and this summer we caught up with Emily to see how school life is going! Emily said, “College life is going great! I’m really excited to be moving off campus and into an apartment with some of my best friends this coming fall. I’ve loved every second of being at UMass and was amazed how fast such a big school was able to feel like home. While the campus gets very cold to walk across in the winter, the amazing people, great food, interesting professors and busy atmosphere, makes it worth it.”
Emily will be starting her Junior year at the University of Massachusetts in September. She is majoring in Communication Disorders with the goal of becoming a Speech Language Pathologist in an elementary school one day. Along with that, she will be receiving a minor in Education and Psychology. Emily has earned Dean’s List all four semesters at school so far and currently holds a 3.86 GPA.
Awesome job Emily!
In addition to her outstanding dedication to school work, Emily is captain of the UMass dance team, where she dances for all the home football and basketball games throughout the season. Her team also goes on to compete at the NDA Collegiate Nationals in Daytona, FL each April. Emily said, “After dancing my whole life there was really no question about whether or not I would want to continue it in college. Making the dance team at UMass really shaped my experience at school, from making friends to becoming involved on campus through volunteer work and sports events. Being a part of a team and having commitments other than school work actually helps me stay on track.”
One of the stories Emily shared with us was her involvement with “Henry Gets Moving”; an organization that spreads a positive message about eating healthy and living an active lifestyle to children. Emily said, “Through dance team I was able to help and get involved. The book “Henry Gets Moving” is about a hamster named Henry achieving his goals of changing his lifestyle to run in a big race at school. The dance team worked with other sports teams at school to teach kids sports and have a day of activity. The day ended with the kids and dance team performing “The Henry Hustle” at a basketball game at halftime. I got the chance to dress up in the hamster suit as Henry for the dance!” What a fun day and great way to get kids learning and moving!
As for what’s ahead this semester for Emily, she said, “This year I’m really looking forward to getting more involved at school. Now that I have two years under my belt, I realize just how fast college is flying by. I can’t help but feel there is more for me to do. I’m looking into various jobs and internships at school where I can learn more than I do in the classroom. I’m really excited to see what my junior year has in store!” We are so excited to see what is in store for Emily too! We know she will continue to do great things and we look forward to catching up with her again soon!
