Name: Tom Kaczmarek
Year: 2015
Hometown: Amsterdam, NY
Major: Finance
An outgoing and humorous Siena Senior, it’s no wonder why Tom Kaczmarek is so heavily involved on campus. Between working on a live radio show at Siena’s very own WVCR 88.3 the Saint and being Student Body President, Tom is driven and ambitious with everything that he does for Siena College.
Her Campus Siena: What extracurricular activities are you involved with on and off campus?
Tom Kaczmarek: As far as on-campus goes, I am the Student Senate President here at Siena College. Basically, the student senate is responsible for reaching out to administrators, faculty members and voicing the concerns of the students, so working on different initiatives and projects that help everyone maximize their Siena experience. It’s a big position and a great honor. Also, I host a radio show here on our college radio station, WVCR — TK’s Wonderwheel. You can check it out every Friday night at 9PM! Those are the two big ones and they take up a lot of time but they are a lot of fun!
Her Campus Siena: How did you get started with WVCR?
Tom Kaczmarek: I was on a tour when I was interested in coming to Siena and they just happened to pop us in through the radio station. I met the station manager, Darrin Kibbey, who is such a fun guy. We got talking to him for about 15 minutes and on his door he has a pictures of him with different celebrities and I saw a picture of him with, the now late, Billy Mayes and we talked about that and I was like, “This is a place I want to be. Anywhere that has anything to do with Billy Mayes!” So that’s how I got my start at WVCR and I’ve been down there since my Freshman year. It’s a lot of fun down there.
HC Siena: When did you start doing your live show?
TK: I started going live in our specialty show about a year ago now. It’s a lot different doing a live radio show. We get a lot of kooky people from Siena calling up at 9PM on a Friday night with a lot of interesting requests and topics. It’s never a dull moment. Never. A. Dull. Moment.
HC Siena: What are some of your hobbies?
TK: We used to do this thing with people on senate and SEB, and it was the “Who’s Who?” of student leaders, right? We’d fill this thing out, and we all thought it was so we could get to know each other, and at the bottom it was like, “name one fun fact about you.” I was joking around and I wrote, “I can juggle chainsaws” not knowing that they sent it out to all of the faculty and administrators. I get a call from admissions going, “Hi, I’m so-and-so from Admissions and I was reading your profile.. Oh my god, I can’t believe that you can juggle chainsaws! We’re doing a new feature on the website, do you think you can juggle some chainsaws for us?” By this point, I was completely caught in a lie and I didn’t even back away from it so I said, “You know what? I’m currently working on learning. Let me get back to you when it pans out and I would love to.”
HC Siena: How has that gone for you?
TK: Still working. Never give up on your dreams. Chainsaws are a lot heavier than I thought so maybe that’ll be one of my future hobbies!
HC Siena: So word on the street is that some of your real hobbies include hammocking and freestyling, could you talk more about this?
TK: Where’d you hear about freestyling?! Come on! Okay. As far as hammocking goes, yes. My freshman year RA had lofted his bed and he put a hammock underneath and from day one I thought it was an awesome idea and I vowed to do it some time, so I’m up in Macloskey Square and I brought a hammock back with me. I’ve been known to spend some nights on it under the stars. It’s a beautiful experience. Hammocking is near and dear to my heart and I love seeing other people occupying my hammock and enjoying it.
Freestyling is something that comes with the radio territory so every once in awhile we go back into the production studio, lay down some funky beats and pretend to be rappers. Big shout out to Kris Payne who is abroad in India right now — one of the best freestyling rappers I’ve had on my show.
HC Siena: Have you noticed the hammockers increasing over campus?
TK: I’m not trying to say I’m a trendsetter here in this hammock industry what’s really cool — 5 below has $5 hammocks. They’re kind of a plastic-y material but they still get the job done. Lounging for $5 — you really can’t beat that price.
HC Siena: Do you think that you could possibly freestyle for me right now?
TK: How about this Friday on live air I will? You can even come down to my show and freestyle with me!
Stay tuned to WVCR 88.3 the Saint Friday at 9PM to hear Tom freestyle on his live show!