Junior biochemistry major Madison Meeks was one of three students selected to ask U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris a question during her visit to the College of Charleston on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.
“The opportunity to meet and witness Vice President Kamala Harris on campus was surreal. To be afforded the opportunity to meet such a trailblazing Black woman and my sorority sister was heartwarming,” says Meeks, an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Leadership Fellow. “I am grateful to have been able to ask her a question regarding voting rights, which is an issue I am passionate about. Her words of encouragement and empowerment reinvigorated the fiery passion for social justice and civic engagement for me. I left her presence feeling enriched, empowered and emboldened. I’m a better person for it.”
It’s no wonder that Meeks received recently earned the George Watts Scholarship, which supports student leaders at the College. The president of the CofC National Panhellenic Council is also part of the College’s SCAMP (South Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation) program and a member of the CofC chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma, the Honors College’s Charleston Fellows program and the Bonner Leader Program.
“Nothing has compared to the way I’m challenged and the way I’ve become more conscious of being civically engaged as a Bonner Leader,” says Meeks, who grew up in the Mississippi Delta, a place where many efforts for the civil rights movement were birthed. “I grew up playing at Broad Street Park, the place where Stokely Carmichael first said the empowering phrase ‘Black power.’ Being in Charleston and understanding the importance of this place as a part of my history has been transformative. As a Bonner Leader, I’ve learned how to embrace that history and empower change while reanalyzing how language, place and lived experiences affect our daily lives.”
To learn more about Madison Meeks, check out the complete article by Amy Stockwell in The College Today.
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