One of Drexel’s main philanthropy events of the year, Wing Fest, is put on annually by a dedicated team of sisters from the Phi Mu Sorority. This year it was led by Michael Marie Pavone. Hailing from Mechanicsburg, Pa. as a 20-year-old marketing and business analytics major with a minor in retail, Michael is Phi Mu’s recording secretary and philanthropy chair. She was lucky enough to be chosen for this position for Wing Fest’s 15th year, making the event even more special.
When elected as the philanthropy chair, Michael was on the younger side within the chapter at the age of 19 and recalled that being honored with this position “may truly be the most rewarding thing [she has] done to date” since it was all due to the girls in her chapter trusting her to pull off this event. She was also excited to have the ability to give back to sick children and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Michael has a close family relationship with CHOP, as many of us do, this has only helped to motivate her to do everything she could to pull off a successful event.
Although this position is great and Michael loves the responsibility, there are some occasional hardships that come with such an important position. Three days before Wing Fest, the forecast strongly suggested rain for the day of the event. Instead of panicking or giving up, Michael worked with event services to find an adequate alternative location to host the event to keep everyone safe and dry. This location change meant that the decision to scale down the event and have only certain activities fell on Michael. However, “it ended up working out for the best,” Michael said, as “the day was focused more about why we were there (for the kids) and not to see who [could ride] the mechanical bull the longest.”
Pulling off a task like this is not easy, and Michael credited her success to her time management skills. She uses three calendars to keep everything straight and also relies on reminders on her phone to keep everything organized. She also said that her management skills have been significantly impacted by her expansive involvement with Phi Mu. Ironically, she hadn’t even considered joining a sorority when she came to Drexel. It took some baseball tickets and begging from her parents for her to finally give Night on the Row a shot. After bonding with a Phi Mu sister, she realized that sorority life wasn’t so bad after all and ended up becoming her pledge class president.
After graduation, Michael hopes to find a career in public relations with aspirations of starting her own business five years later. “I believe in doing the time and learning about corporate culture before you deep dive in,” she said. Her experiences with Phi Mu have also provided her with some influential experiences that she will carry with her throughout her career. She has definitely developed strong leadership qualities as well as the ability to look at others and recognize their strengths – and utilize them properly. Motivation is another important skill to hone as a leader, since, as Michael said, “you can’t force people to do something [and] you can’t force them to care, but you sure as hell can motivate them.”
Michael will take the world by storm someday as a great leader, and Her Campus at Drexel cannot wait to see what she accomplishes.