The Path to Success

Graduating senior Cassidy Whitaker will be the commencement speaker at this year’s undergraduate class graduation. Cassidy is a political science major with a minor in journalism, she has also been heavily involved around campus during her tenure here at Saint Leo. Some of her involvement around campus includes Editor in Chief of the Lions’ Pride Newspaper, Vice President of Pi Sigma Alpha: National Political Science Honor Society and a member of Alpha Sigma Tau National Sorority and has had the opportunity to pursue many internsiph and fellowship opportunities with organizations outside of campus, helping her prepare for a promising career.

Q. What does the speech mean to you, what has prepared you to get to this point, what can you reflect on that helped you write the speech?

What has helped prepare me is the years and years of writing experience that I have. I love writing so much, it has always been one of my passions since I was a kid. That passion really came out in high school. I had never written a speech so it was actually a new challenge to write something so different.  Speeches are so symbolic, it is like storytelling. It was cool to challenge myself in a new way like that and to try something different and experimental. Definitely what had prepared me is the years of practice I’ve had with writing. I can’t even put into words what it means to me that my senior classmates voted me in for this. I went to last year’s commencement that Ammar was the speaker at, and he’s a great friend of mine, so watching him stand up there, representing not only his senior class but his school, and seeing him tell his personal story, and getting the chance to share all of these inspiring words with his classmates, because we are on the brink of their adult and professional lives, so cool. As much asTo get to do something like this is truly going to be one of the greatest honors of my life thus far. I love being in leadership roles, helping people out, getting up in front of people and talking even if they don’t want to hear me. I love that, however, I haven’t spoken in front of this many people. I am certainly very nervous but I think the nerves will set in more as it gets closer because as of now I am overwhelmed with school work so I am pretty distracted. But once that’s over I’m going to be a lot more nervous, but more than anything I am excited.

Q. What has your experience been like working for the Lions’ Pride, did you experience any growth?

My four years here with TLP have been amazing; it has been very challenging. The paper was the first thing I got involved with here on campus in August of 2014 and here we are in April of 2018, so I have been here for a very long time. I’ve always considered our job more of an academic position, it’s very time consuming, very tedious, you have to be willing to be challenged. You have to put yourself out there. This job in terms of growth, I’ve certainly learned a lot, just in terms of how shy I am. I don’t consider myself to be shy anymore but when you conduct an interview talking to someone that you’ve never talked to before while covering a story that you have no idea about, you are forced to observe and take decent notes. All this while talking to people you may be scared to talk to, that’s very challenging but it’s good because it really helps build your self confidence and it helps with your communication skills.

Q. What would you say is the strength of Saint Leo as a school from your freshman year to now?

It has to be the faculty. The faculty we have here, in particular the ones I have had a chance to work with over the years, are just incredible. It really is one of the benefits of going to a small, private school like Saint Leo. The one on one time you get with your professors is great, our experience here is so much different than any other school. I wouldn’t have had that experience anywhere else. I’ve had the privilege of developing these really close relationships with these people, and not only do I care alot about them, but they care about me as well.

The opportunities you have here are incredible. The faculty, they are the ones who help you earn certain opportunities like internships, fellowships, special programs and even down to something as simple as doing a directed study with a professor. I had the opportunity to do my only directed study with Frank Orlando, we did it on gender and politics and it is something I am very interested in. The basis is how to get females to run for office and basically how well they perform when they run for office. You wouldn’t have that experience anywhere else.

Q. What would you have done differently in your four years here?

My first and probably most important change would be to have been more involved my freshman year. My first year at Saint Leo I had a really rough time, I was not very involved. I spent more time at home than I did on campus, and I didn’t make a whole lot of friends, except for my freshman roommate who was great and I’m still friends with today. Other than that, I really did not put myself out there and that is truly one of my biggest regrets at Saint Leo. I cheated myself out of an entire year, out of my four years here, and college is not a long point your life, so I lost as a freshman.

Q. What advice would you give to underclassmen to succeed and thrive during their years at Saint Leo?

I like this question but I also hate it because everyone always says the same thing, however what I’m going to say is true, you have to get involved. You can’t be one of those students who just goes through the motions, goes to class and goes right back to their dorm. You have to be a part of something, that’s how you make friends, accomplish things, build your resume and give back to the school. Another thing I would say is to develop relationships with your faculty. We have some of the most incredible educators here at Saint Leo; they all genuinely have so much passion and care about our students so much.

Q. Looking back on the past four years, what were some of the key moments of your college career?

There was a lot. Doing a fellowship with a program called ICUF (Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida) was huge. I was picked for this program by my advisor and political science teacher Frank Orlando, he picked myself and one other student and we completed it for our junior and senior years. It is basically an advocacy program for the FRAG (Florida Resident Access Grant). Basically we do advocacy on campus, we were tasked witha lot of assignments through both years, with letter writing aspects wrting hometown representatives including those in the Pasco delegation. Just to be able to not only represent this program, but represent Saint Leo with this was the coolest thing. To be able to not only have represented this program, but also represent Saint Leo was the coolest thing. I’ve done a lot over my years but my political science program has been one of the best aspects during my time here at Saint Leo. My professors, the people in my program that I’ve gotten a chance to work with. I love this program, it is my passion and what I want to do in the future. I’m really going to miss something just as simple as being in a classroom with these people. I couldn’t have asked for a better program or a better group of people to work with.

Q. What are your plans for after school?

I am currently in the job search process. I am sending my resume out to a lot of different people, and organizations. The jobs I am applying for now are basically legislative staff positions. I think there is a lot out in front of me that I can get in on, it’s just the luck of the draw, getting that one position that’s going to help get your career in motion. I want to go from there. I like serving people, and I think that’s what draws me to this field because contrary to popular belief, politics is about helping people, and that’s why I love this field so much. A lot of my political inspirations have loved the service, loved helping people, and that’s what I want to do.