Madyson Ramsay enters second year of leadership
The younger sister of former URI Student Senate President Austyn Ramsay, Madyson Ramsay recently won reelection as the Vice President of that organization. Photo from uri.edu.
After serving her first year as vice president of the University of Rhode Island’s Student Senate, Madyson Ramsay, a junior political science major, was recently re-elected for a second term as vice president.
Going into this year’s elections, Ramsay was on the fence about running again for a second term as vice president. She said that it can be hard to juggle everything, but ultimately she decided that she would run again as she felt that she is a good fit for the role.
“I really did love the position last year, and I felt like the position was really for me,” Ramsay said. “I really love leadership positions and really love working internally with the members.”
On top of her role in the Senate, Ramsay has taken part in numerous other committees at the University, such as the Presidential Search Committee and the Honorary Degree Committee.
At the last Senate meeting, Bolu Taiwo, the new president of the Student Senate, was confirmed along with Ramsay. During her first term as vice president, Ramsay served alongside her older sister, former President Austyn Ramsay.
She, along with many other veteran senators, finished her tenure in the Senate after the last meeting, where new senators were confirmed. Because of this, Madyson Ramsay felt it was important to stay in her role as vice president.
“We’re losing a lot of really veteran senators and so I felt like we needed somebody in that position who was well versed in the position and could really get the job done,” Ramsay said.
Transitioning into her first term as vice president last year was not easy, as she came into the role right as COVID-19 sent students home for the remainder of the academic year. For this reason, there were a lot of adjustments Ramsay had to make immediately.
From this experience, she gained a new sense of understanding and flexibility, which are skills she will be taking with her in her next term. While Ramsay believes we must still hold ourselves accountable, she believes now is the time for understanding.
Ramsay felt as though these adjustments that she and the other senators made because of the pandemic allowed them to grow as people and senators over the past year.
“We’ve learned how to get things done when we really have little resources,” Ramsay said. “We’ve also had to be really creative.”
Ramsay hopes that during her next term, there will be more in-person events and more people will be back on campus to attend those events. She said that she has been looking forward to being able to hold in-person events again since there have been so few over the past year.
Sarah Margolin, the director of information for the Senate last year, said that she and Ramsay worked great together in her time as a part of the Senate and that she was a pleasure to work with. She felt like Ramsay did so much for the University and students during her first term, and is sure that she will continue to do so in her second.
“As the first Afro-Latina VP at the University of Rhode Island, Madyson is a force to be reckoned with and an inspiration to all,” said Margolin.