"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” The quote attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes is Madelyn Schmit’s favorite. For her, that experience was Rebel Homecoming.
Schmit was tasked with bringing Rebel Homecoming back after the pandemic hiatus. “I was the Homecoming Director on the Rebel Events Board (REB) in 2021. I helped plan the full week of events and programs for Homecoming. It definitely took me out of my comfort zone.”
In that discomfort, she found her passion — and a second major. “UNLV is where I found my love of planning events. I decided to add a major in hospitality management, concentrating on event management, and now I get to work on events for the rest of my life!”
In a full-circle moment just one year after Schmit’s Rebel Homecoming revival, she was crowned Miss Scarlet during halftime of the 2022 Homecoming football game. “Where else can you say you’ve been crowned homecoming royalty on an NFL field, other than here in Vegas?” Schmit asks. “I was excited that my fellow Rebels voted for me, especially because Homecoming is so important to me. I love it each year, seeing the community come out to celebrate UNLV, especially the alumni that come back to campus for the festival or to Allegiant Stadium for the game. It reminds me of the built-in community I have through UNLV.”
Schmit says many more uniquely UNLV experiences stretched her mind and perhaps those of other Rebels. As a new student orientation leader and tour guide, she connected with new students and helped them begin their journeys as Rebels, and as a member of REB, she engaged them throughout their collegiate experience. As a leader in her sorority, Alpha Xi Delta, and president of the UNLV Panhellenic Council, she welcomed hundreds of women to UNLV each year through Panhellenic Sorority recruitment.
“UNLV has given me endless opportunities to grow as a leader and through those experiences I’ve learned so much about working on teams and collaborating for a common goal.”
Rebel Homecoming inspired Schmit to explore the other ways alumni stay connected with UNLV. In her year and a half as the programs, events, and volunteer engagement assistant for the UNLV Division of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement, she helped bring alumni together to reconnect with each other and with UNLV year-round.
“I enjoy getting to know some of our alumni at our events. It’s cool to hear about what they were involved in and enjoyed while at UNLV and about what they are doing now. We have a lot of interesting and successful alumni.”
Schmit also did a stretch internationally, when she spent a semester studying in Bilbao, Spain. “I loved my study abroad experience, and I always encourage my friends and other students to do it if they can. I enjoyed the challenge of living in a new country and I met students from so many different schools. The best thing I gained was the friendships and connections.”
After graduation, Schmit plans to stay connected through the UNLV Alumni Association and with the Graduates of the Last Decade (G.O.L.D.) program and she hopes to take a leadership role in its programming. “I am going to create the Study Abroad Alumni Club as part of the UNLV Alumni Chapters and Clubs program to bring UNLV study abroad alumni together to connect and help UNLV students expand their horizons.”
This summer, she’ll move to San Francisco to begin a role in banquets and events with Marriott International. “I’m really thrilled, but I don’t think I’d even have this opportunity if it weren’t for the experiences I’ve had at UNLV.” Schmit says.
UNLV helped her find the voice within herself, and she’s looking forward to using it as she faces any challenges that life after college throws her way. “I don’t know where I’ll be or what I might be doing years from now, but I know I am a Rebel Forever.”
