This celeb is guarenteed to make you laugh every time you see him. Either he’s giving fun tours on campus for newcomers, taking fun trips, going to concerts, or documenting everything on his favorite social media account, Snapchat. Yes, “Snap-to-the-Chat” is a movement, so be prepared when you see him. Meet Patrick!
Name: Patrick MaGee
Year: 2015 (Dec)
Major: Marketing, Hospitality Minor
Hometown: Richmond Hill, GA
Hobbies/Interests: concerts, traveling, eating, going out, “snap-to-the-chat!”
Her Campus: Why did you choose GSU?
Patick MaGee: I chose Georgia State because my first semester of freshmen year in high school, my Geography teacher told me there was a school in Atlanta that she thinks I should go to called Georgia State, and it’s in the city. So I was like okay, well, might as well. My senior year, they took us on a trip to go to Six Flags, all of the people who lived in the Savannah area, and I mean, I couldn’t beat that. So It’s great because it’s in the city but then it’s not that far away from home as well.
HC: What has been your most memorable moment so far at GSU?
PM: Probably introducing Steve Harvey in front of the few thousands of people that came. Even my grandma, she doesn’t go anywhere, but she drove from Albany, GA, which is 4.5 hours away. I like to think it was to see me, but it could have been to see Steve Harvey.
HC: What are you involved in on campus?
PM: Right now, I am a Welcome Center Tour Guide (1.5, shout out), and I am also a 1913 Society Ambassador, but other than that I feel like I’ve kind of retired. I use to be the Director for Speaker Series in Campus Events for two years, and I was an Inceptor (shout out to the 2013 team).
HC: How do you manage everything that you’re involved in plus wok and other activities?
PM: By the grace of God, lots of prayer, and calling my mom to tell her “mom, I need help.” Most people don’t know, but I have two internships that I do. One is with my hospitality minor, that required 20 hours of my week, and then the other one is towards marketing and entertainment, that requires like 10 hours of my week, plus the shows that we do. Plus I tour guide, and I still have to go to class. It’s a lot of scheduling and moving around pieces, but I make it work. Sometimes I can’t go out with my friends when I really want to so badly. I just have to decide what’s important.
HC: What is your dream job?
PM: To be a reality TV show character… but, if I was talking to my mom I would say, probably working in live entertainment and putting on good shows.
HC: Tell us about your Disney internship.
PM: The Disney College Program was easily the best decision of my life. At Disney World, they accept 3000-4000 students per semester, but at Disneyland there were only 235 of us living together. I was 1 out of 4 people (out of 30,000 applicants) who worked at the front desk at the hotels, and that’s my minor, so it worked with my studies a little bit, but I couldn’t turn it down. The whole experience was great, from the beginning, driving across the country by myself, to actually living there and meeting all of the people from all over the country. It was just great, it was a great time. When you say “yeah, I work at Disney” when you’re twenty-something years old, people are like what are you doing at Disney? But it goes beyond Disney, it was more so about relationships, building up networks and things like that.
PM: I think personally, the reason why I went was because I was involved with all of these things (on campus), but I wasn’t 100% happy here. I knew that I wanted to kind of step outside, and figure out who I am, who I wanted to be, and the young man that I wanted to become. I did that with this group of people. They love and accepted me for the young man that I wanted to be. The few people on my floor were my family. I’ve gone back four months in a row now to hang out with them because they really are my soulmates, my friend-soulmates. There’s always that one thing that you think you’re the only person, like this album or artist, I’m the only one that likes it, but then you go there and realize every single person grew up the same way and like the same thing.
HC: What was your favorite part of the whole experience?
PM: In general, I think it was just being with my friends, being in California. My grandma was out there, I was hanging out with my friends or grandma. The people on my floor, we all had different jobs, but we were all so close and went on different trips. I went to The Voice taping where I was on TV, we went to Vegas, we went to LA and hiked the Hollywood sign. We always went on different trips, I don’t think there was one particular time where I was like “man, this the best”, but it was a lot of different things.
HC: What would you say learned from the experience?
PM: I learned so much when it comes to professionalism and Disney, everyone is going to tell you that, but for me personally, it was like a personal journey. It was more about learning about myself, learning about what I like, what I don’t like, again who I wanted to be, things that I will and won’t stand for. I feel like being here on campus as a student leader, it put me in a box kind of sort of. But, when I went to this new place with all these new people and different backgrounds, I was just free to be who I wanted to be and it was super cool.
HC: Where is your favorite place to travel?
PM: I would have to say probably back home to California. Grandma is there, my mom and my dad grew up there, that’s where my closest friends are from Disney. I’d say domestically, there, internationally, I went on a study abroad UK trip. That was really great as well, so I definitely want to go back to London.
HC: Who is your role model?
PM: There are quite a few here on campus. Definitely James Supreme. His professionalism is soooo crazy, like how are we the same age but like… he’s so out of this world. It makes sense why he was in 1913 Society as a freshman. I’d have to say Ajahn Richard. We met in FLC freshmen year, first semester, and ever since then we’ve been close friends. Her story is just like, wow, like it’s so crazy. I love Haddie, she’s so great. She has stuck with SGA and Student Judicial Board, even though it has nothing to do with her major. But she was still Queen Chief Justice. And Brianna Harris. Her work ethic and her GPA is just like how? I see you out and about, and balance all of that stuff. It’s crazy. So those four.
HC: How do you want GSU to remember you?
PM: I was here, I lived, I loved. No, I’m just kidding. I want GSU to remember me as professional when I needed to be. The Speaker Series was my pride and joy, I love it so much, but at the same time I knew how to have a good time. You could always expect a laugh out of me, even while the job was getting done. I just had a good time and I really cared for this university, and still do.
HC: What advice would you give GSU ‘19?
PM: GSU ‘19!? Dang! They’re going to have hoverboards. My sister is a part of GSU ‘19, so I would tell them just live in the moment. Take a lot of pictures because they make great #throwbackthursdays for senior year. If there’s a club you want to go out for or try, do it, go for it. I feel like every year was like a lesson for me. My freshmen year, most people don’t know about this, but it was mainly like depression. I came from Savannah, no one else from my high school came here, I was all alone. I lived in Commons building B, all the way at the end of the hall, by myself, it was terrible. I was learning to just grow, be happy and start getting involved. I think Sophomore year was categorized by rejection. I was rejected from the Welcome Center, although my friends got hired, I was rejected from 1913 Society, although my friends got hired. It was really like looking back, seeing what you did, understanding” hey, it might not be all my fault, it might be extraneous circumstances.” Just learning to grow from that. Build upon what you possibly can build upon. Junior Year was about finding happiness. Looking at myself and saying this is what I like, this is what I don’t like, this is what I want to change. Senior year… a lot of people expect you to have your life together, but it may be I’m just here because life is forcing me to be here. If it were up to me, I’d still be at home watching Rugrats right now. So just understanding although society has expectations of you and for you, you still have to live up to your own expectations and do what makes you happy. If you’re graduating and you want to work at some place and it makes you happy, then go for it. You only get one life. When I was a student leader, I kind of felt the need to live up to everyone’s expectations. Then when I went to California, everything I did goes on without me. I know that’s sad, but that’s the real world. I was living up to what I felt all of these people thought that I should have done, but at the same time I just wanted to live a life for me. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. That’s why you see me on Snap-to-the-Chat, doing what I want to do, and make the most of this college experience.
Quick Quiz!
Who is your favorite artist?
Lana Del Ray. I went to her concert, and waited there from 11 a.m. and she didn’t come on stage until 9 p.m. (by the way, I downloaded her debut album when it came out at midnight, so i was a fan when she only had like 2 songs.) While she was performing on stage, I said “hey Lana, you want to come down off stage and take a selfie with me?”, she was like “I’m performing right now, but when I’m done I will.” She went down to the audience at the end of the show, walked passed all of these people and found me in the audience. I was like “look, Lana, girl, I want you to know I’m a real fan, if you take this picture with me, every time you come to Atlanta I will be at your show.”, and she was like “yeah, that’s fine, you’re so sweet.” She kissed me on the cheek, she rubbed my face and everything, and then right after that she announced she was playing at Music Midtown. I was like I have to go, and the only reason why I flew home from California last semester was to come to Music Midtown.
What is your favorite restaurant?
Mary Mac’s is pretty good. If you ever need to recover, I’m not saying from what, just do like I did, go to Chipotle, grab you a burrito to go, and just lay in the bed and drink lots of water. And I’ll leave it at that.
What is something not too many people know about you?
I was born with an 11th finger. It didn’t have a bone in it, it was just kind of rubber plush I guess, but it had a fingernail and bended backwards when like my mom would put on my clothes. When I was first born, you could wrap a rubberband around it, and they said it would have fallen off, but since we waited so late to have it removed, I had to get surgery. So I had 11 fingers, but now I have 10 to count this money.