Wednesday, April 15, 2015 // The Statement
11B
W
ith a quiet voice and kind
smile, LSA junior Olivia Rath’s
greatest accomplishments are
unknown to her, but her dedication to the
University community shines through in
everything she does.
“I saw something on Pinterest the other
day,” Rath said in an interview. “It’s prob-
ably stupid but it really resonated with me.
It said you don’t climb a mountain for the
world to see you, you climb a mountain so
you can see the world.”
Raised in Farmington Hills, Mich., Rath
is an Organization Studies and Program
in the Environment double major with a
minor in Spanish.
Among Rath’s involvement includes
Dance Marathon, where she is the rising
planning director, Graham Sustainabil-
ity Scholars, and an Organization Studies
Club. She works in two research labs and
coordinated a Culture Shift event.
Her highest priority on campus is Dance
Marathon, which Rath has participated in
for three years. She said the aspect that
appealed to her the most was the campus
unity she felt.
“I fell in love with it after my first year,”
Rath said. “It really unites the three parts
of campus — the academic campus, the
hospital, and the athletics, because we get
our venue from them.”
One of Rath’s other major accomplish-
ments from this year is serving as a Cul-
ture Shift Coordinator. Culture Shift is an
event created to be a platform for student
leaders to engage with each other on cam-
pus. This year, the issue the event high-
lighted was sexual assault prevention.
“It provides students with a common
academic ground on an issue and a space
for students to have a productive space to
have a dialogue about those issues,” Rath
explained. “We also work to include stu-
dents who wouldn’t otherwise be given
a seat at the table for these kinds of dia-
logues.”
Rath said, as someone who primarily
works behind the scenes for many of her
organizations, a Student of the Year award
has served as validation that her hard
work is paying off.
“It definitely shows that I’ve accom-
plished something,” Rath said. “I don’t feel
like what I’ve done is a lot because I see it
as a part of the campus experience.”
LSA senior Marissa Alaniz, who worked
as Rath’s director in DMUM, said Rath
was an essential part of the DMUM lead-
ership team.
Alaniz said Rath’s professionalism and
grace helped her easily find the balance
between delegating tasks and serving as a
leader. She added that Rath’s kindness and
patience made their work relationship a
supportive and friendly one as well.
“The behind-the-scenes nature of her
work often leads it to go unnoticed, but
Olivia has helped DMUM greatly in the
short-term and long-term,” Alaniz said.
“Her committee succeeded in working
with local businesses to acquire item dona-
tions for our silent auction at our Gala and
food donations for our Dance Marathon,
and she has laid the groundwork for her
position in the long-term in continuing to
elevate our partners’ support for DMUM.”
Alaniz added she is confident that Rath’s
passion and drive will benefit her greatly
in future endeavors.
Rath added that her experience at the
University has shaped the level of involve-
ment with campus organizations she has
taken part in.
“I’m the kind of person who goes to all
of the free lectures I can,” Rath said. “All of
the opportunities I’ve been blessed with —
I can’t imagine not using those opportuni-
ties, because it comes with the university
experience.”
Looking forward, Rath said she hopes to
work in sustainability development and is
open to any workplace where an organiza-
tion would intersect with the natural envi-
ronment.
“I don’t ever want to leave this place,”
Rath said. “I hope I’ll be able to find com-
munities that are as productive and help-
ful as the ones I’ve found here.”
LSA junior Sammie Lyons recalls a
quote by E.B. White for daily inspiration:
“I get up every morning determined to
both change the world and have one hell of
a good time. Sometimes this makes plan-
ning my day difficult.”
Lyons’ pursuit to make the people
around her happier and better off are
exemplified through her involvement
on campus. Along with being a diversity
peer educator at Mary Markley Hall, she
is the development chair of Dance Mara-
thon, actively involved in MRun, and the
president of Campus Cursive — a student
organization that sends love letters to
individuals in effort to empower and uplift
them. She also works as the undergraduate
chair for the student campaign committee
in the Office of University Development.
For Lyons, she understood that her
limited time at the University would be
shaped not in a classroom, but through the
work she did with her peers and commu-
nity.
“Most of the learning you’re going to
get from this education is going to be
your work on campus,” Lyons said. “It’s
not going to be you looking at a computer
screen writing a paper, or reading a text-
book. It’s going to be about the events you
put on for your organization, it’s going to
be learning how to communicate with
other people and understand how to empa-
thize with other people.”
Specifically, Lyons finds her motivation
through community service and philan-
thropic work.
For most of her time on campus, her
primary involvement has been working
with Dance Marathon. DMUM is a large
student-run organization on campus that
helps raise money and awareness for pedi-
atric rehabilitation therapy at local hospi-
tals. Furthermore, Lyons has been part of
Alpha Phi Omega, the professional frater-
nity devoted to community service, par-
ticipated in an alternative spring break at
an HIV/AIDS resource center in New York
and helped found Campus Cursive.
Lyons says her involvement in the com-
munity and serving others is what gives
her motivation in life. She describes her-
self as someone “made for others.”
“Who we are as people is defined by the
relationships that we’ve had,” Lyons said.
One of her motivations for helping
the University community came after
the death of her grandfather, who she
described as a supporter of her work and
a prominent person in her life. She said he,
along with thirty-three other family mem-
bers, attended the University and made
her feel at home here.
Currently, Lyons spends a lot of her
time working as a diversity peer educator
in Markley. In her position, she advises a
multicultural council for freshmen and
addresses instances of bias. She mentors
over 1,000 freshmen and helps create a
welcoming, respectful community for stu-
dents of all identities.
Though this follows her theme of striv-
ing to help communicate with others and
empower them, she says it has also chal-
lenged her the most in her time on campus.
Specifically, Lyons noted an instance
where she made a comment to a peer that
she did not mean harm by, yet caused unin-
tentional pain to this peer. She said the
instance help challenge her own precon-
ceived thoughts, and taught her how great
the impact she can have on others is.
“It helped me see that the language I
use is so powerful,” Lyons said.
When she isn’t working, Lyons says she
enjoys rock climbing, playing the piano,
and running.
After graduating, Lyons will continue to
help make a difference in the community
by joining the Peace Corps and then head-
ing to medical school. She said the best
thing students on campus and in the com-
munity could do is to leave their comfort
zones, and learn to love all other people
without an agenda.
“Meet people to meet people, don’t meet
them with an agenda,” Lyons said. “Be
willing to change the blueprint that you
might have set for yourself.”
By Carly Noah, Daily Staff Reporter
By Allana Akhtar, Daily Staff Reporter
AMANDA ALLEN/DAILY
ZACH MOORE/DAILY