Mady Chung-Lee ’27By Tess Miller ’27
Mady Chung-Lee ’27 has lived many lives at Scripps. Some of her time has been spent singing a capella, joining forces with the Student Investment Fund, working to implement the wellness vending machines around campus, serving up orders as a Motley barista since her first-year spring semester, and now Scripps Associated Students (SAS) president for the year.
When she’s not busy as the student body president, she’s still working at the Motley, crafting her senior thesis as a politics and Asian studies dual major, and making progress on her current cross-stitch project.
What inspired you to run for SAS president?
I heard a lot about past traditions that used to exist before our time here and how we lost so many through COVID-19. To revitalize certain traditions on campus and create new ones, I realized that the SAS president role assists with everyone involved in hosting these events. It was also important that I spent my time at Scripps involved in the work, tangibly supporting students during difficult times of social and political precarity. I thought that SAS would be the perfect place to mix all those interests and passions.
What are your goals for the Scripps community this year?
With Scripps celebrating 100 years, I want to highlight students who have been engaged in different activities on campus, uplift student initiatives, and create spaces for cross-collaboration across organizations.
How have your previous experiences prepared you for this role?
Because we’re such a tight-knit community, you meet so many people in different clubs. Being in an a cappella group or being in the Student Investment Fund and the Asian American Sponsor Program, you meet people who know other people, which can lead to collaborating on amazing events.
Last semester before the school year ended, I held an organizational forum with all the Scripps Clubs and Organizations (CLORG) leaders on campus. I was able to see all the moving parts of Scripps. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I hadn’t been overzealous when I joined all those different organizations on campus earlier in my time at Scripps. It’s served me well in this role.
What do you want the Scripps community to know about you and your leadership?
If there are tangible ways that I can support the student body, or if anyone has ideas for how to create long-term support for students who feel like their voice isn’t heard, I am always open and especially want to help support them.
Secondly, I want this to be a great year with the centennial. If anyone has ideas of what they want to see on campus, whether that’s forging new traditions or reviving old ones, please feel free to come to SAS with your ideas.
What’s the most challenging part of being SAS president and how are you navigating it?
I haven’t encountered any huge challenges yet in my role, but I think that speaks to how great the rest of our SAS board is. They make my life easy with how devoted and passionate they are about each of their roles. There are a lot of things that we want to implement on campus, but we only have so much time, energy, and space to do so. We have to find that balance of what we can and want to do within the limits of two semesters.
What is your favorite memory of Scripps?
Scripps is so beautiful. It allows students to embrace being on campus in a way that other colleges or universities don’t have because we live in this tight-knit community.
One of my favorite memories is picking oranges with my friends, and I made orange juice with them. That was really fun. It was quite literally the fruits of my labor drinking that orange juice.
What are your future plans after graduation?
I have been applying to graduate programs and fellowships, and I intend to move to New York City after graduation. I spent the past two summers there working for different PR firms. I love the city, how walkable it is, and the public transportation. And there’s a lot of Scripps alums there as well, so I know I’ll have a network and support system there!