Madison Hovey, Southwestern College

Madison Hovey has been an exemplar in servant leadership during her college experience. She has been involved in significant leadership roles on campus as a member of the Leadership Southwestern service-learning team and the Enactus business team dedicated to offering business solutions to address needs in the world. She is majoring in Business Administration with a minor in Leadership Studies. Her considerable volunteer experience through her organizational affiliations as well as her personal commitments has led her to an increased dedication and future career focus in the care of veterans. She has the direct experience of caring for a forgotten veteran; she has mobilized others to volunteer on behalf of veterans who live in the community; she has chosen residential care for veterans as a semester-long research project; and she has engaged a state-level institution in a veterans’ quality-of-life project. While she has and is contributing to the common good for veterans, her experiences and learning are also shaping her as she hopes to make her next steps through graduate school be ones that help equip her to make a broader contribution to improving care for veterans in the United States. 
-W. Richard Merriman, President

In high school, I befriended a man named Bruce who came into the local hardware store where I was working. Bruce’s wife had passed away and he did not have any children. As Bruce’s health declined, I started helping him more and more. Bruce was a veteran. In the beginning of college, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and my friendship with Bruce made it very easy to see that helping veterans might be a place where I could make a difference. I currently volunteer at the veterans’ home twice a week and have helped organize outside groups to volunteer. I have learned about how to interact with different people who each have different needs and with people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. I have also been able to see what the administrative staff does first hand. My next project is a quality of life facilities improvement for the state- run veterans’ home. All of these experiences have helped me make the decision to pursue a graduate degree in healthcare administration so that I can keep impacting the lives of veterans.
-Madison Hovey