A celebrity is not always someone who drives fancy cars or is the star of your favorite movie. Celebrities aren’t even always older than you; they are not always professors or graduates. Sometimes they are students, just like you and me, who should be recognized for their dedication to their studies and to their school.
This week’s Campus Celebrity is Sasha Padilla, a junior biochemistry major who is as involved on campus as she is in the science labs. Not only has Sasha taken on a difficult major, but she has become part of residence life as a Resident Advisor (RA), has joined the Women’s Honors Society on campus (VEGA), is part of Greek Life as a sister of Alpha Sigma Chi, holds down a job at Cooper Dining Hall, and is on the Honors advisory board. She also teaches Honors 150, which is a class for current freshmen in the Honors program to help them get acclimated to college life.
After spending the summer up here at Oswego as a research assistant for a professor in one of the science departments and to go through RA training, Sasha never stopped moving. How does someone so involved find time for studying, or even just for seeing friends?
“Time management is key,” she says. “I literally have to schedule every moment of my day to make sure I get things done.”
But the work is rewarding, and she somehow manages to juggle it all. Being an RA isn’t as easy as everyone might think, and she says that even your RA can have problems.
“It’s difficult because not everyone is going to be happy, and I’m not going to be liked by everyone.”
She also says that finding time to study is a struggle due to her job and her duties as an RA. Her next big hurdle coming up is exams.
“[I’m] seeing how my first few tests/quizzes go. This will determine how I may or may not need to alter my schedule in order to balance every aspect of my life.”
The best celebrities are those that we can relate to on some level, but who also do things that make us stop and say, “Wow, how do they do that!?”
Sasha Padilla is a celebrity because of how many responsibilities she can juggle and still find time for things like this interview. It’s how she can teach a class, but also find time for her own. She flits around campus with a backpack on her back and a mission in her heart. A celebrity could be that person right beside you who you may not know, but who has gone above and beyond for the school, their fraternity, sorority, or club, or even for their job. Many times, they go quietly unnoticed by everyone but their organization or friends.
I will leave you with some advice from our Campus Celeb this week: “Always remember to take a moment to breathe. Getting overwhelmed is easy when you are involved in several things at once. So whether it be hanging with friends or watching Netflix by yourself, you should always put your personal mental health first.”
So no matter what you are involved in, remember to take time for yourself and your friends, because even celebrities need to recharge their sparkle before rejoining the stars.