Maddie McKean (Chester Springs, Pa.) is a senior on the women's swimming and diving team. She is a neuroscience major with a minor in education studies. 
 
What is Community Friends and how did you get involved with the group?

 
Community Friends is a one-on-one mentoring program that pairs Middlebury College students with school-age children (6-12) from Addison County. Mentors and mentees spend two hours each week hanging out together and can also participate in organization-wide events that are hosted several times throughout the semester. Typically, Community Friends has around 100 matches. 
 
In high school, I volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club every weekend and when I got to Middlebury I was looking to get involved in a similar mentorship program. Unfortunately, with my swim practice schedule, I could not participate in traditional after-school programs since I had practice at that time, but luckily my Middview leader from my Community Engagement trip told me about Community Friends and how I could schedule our meetings whenever worked for me and my mentee. I applied for the program my first semester and got matched with my mentee Emma and we've been matched for four years now! She's 14, so she technically aged out of the program, but she and I still try to meet or talk on the phone weekly. I loved the program so much my first semester that I applied to be a coordinator and became the Lead Student Coordinator (LSC) my sophomore spring and have been in this role ever since. My role as LSC consists of interning at the Center for Community Engagement for six hours a week to help run all the logistics of the program and lead our team of 10 coordinators in recruiting new members, communicating with school counselors, checking in with current pairings, planning events and trainings, and making new matches.
 
What is one of your best memories you've made through Community Friends?
 
My best memory from Community Friends is when I and my mentee were interviewed for the Community Friends 60-year anniversary story project. During our interview, she described me as another older sister to her and talked about how much she looked forward to and enjoyed our time together. She and I had never taken the time to sit down and reflect on our time together and it was just a very special moment. She ended up telling the interviewer that she loved me which then made me cry and her getting embarrassed by me. I always think of that moment as a very special time in our match. 
 
Tell us a bit about your neuroscience research and thesis.
 
This past summer I worked as a research assistant in Professor Cave's neuroscience lab. The focus of his research and my thesis is on defining the molecular mechanisms involved in neurodevelopment; specifically, those involved in determining neuronal cell fate.