First Runner-Up
Michael Gale
University of Florida
Senior in Zoology
3.72 GPA

“There’s such a value to just sitting down and being with people,” says Michael Gale, 22. It’s a statement that really characterizes this University of Florida student. Whether seeing to his Student Government responsibilities, helping a student in the honors residence hall, meeting other honored scholars at national awards competitions, playing saxophone in the band, or teaching kids about wildlife, Gale enjoys the time to connect above anything else. Even in his pursuit of the Florida College Student of the Year Award, he’s made greater connections than most as one of only two students in the program’s 16-year history to be a finalist two years in a row.

“He’s able to approach lots of arenas and be active with all of them,” says Dr. Michael Rollo, associate vice president for student affairs. “He’s an RA with the honors residence, he’s active in Honors Ambassadors, he’s active in Reitz Scholars, he’s deeply committed to environmental education, he’s been a guide at the Museum of Natural History, and he’s interested in not only learning and working in these groups but also sharing that learning with others.”

Gale’s responsibilities in SG have grown during his time on campus, from his first position in 2001 as the environmental cabinet director. “I represent a very non-traditional sector in SG, promoting environmental advocacy,” Gale says. But in addition to bringing better recycling, a greener policy, and a huge Earth Day celebration to the UF campus, Gale has moved into a role that watches over people as well. “Environmental leadership at UF is at an all-time low,” he says.    ”I’m working to create an Environmental Leadership Institute that will foster leadership in the young environmentalists on my campus.”

Rollo says Gale’s a very visible leader, even though he’s not student body president. “He makes sure things are happening in SG and does a lot without the visible title. He’s willing to do the work without the recognition,” he says.

In his current role as involvement cabinet coordinator, Gale supervises the seven cabinet directors whose areas are seen as involvement-oriented—areas as diverse as career development, school spirit, and women’s affairs. “Student Government is such a monster and people can get involved in so many ways—you don’t have to be Greek, don’t have to be president of an organization, don’t have to be in senate—to get involved, and I love showing people how they can get involved,” Gale says.

And although biodiversity may be a buzzword in the environmental sector, Gale also looks at the human issues of cultural diversity. “I don’t think we’re approaching campus diversity issues correctly,” he says. ”Students at UF aren’t connected to the wonderful venues at our Cultural Complex, so together with the student body president, we’re creating a new group of student ambassadors to promote the complex.” All this makes Gale sound like he’s all about SG, and although it’s one very active area of his student life, there’s much more. “Some people think Michael Gale is just this ‘SG guy,’” Gale says. “To me, I’m the ‘zoo guy.’”

He spent the summer at the Baltimore Zoo as an administrative intern in the education department. “I’ve spent my whole life so far working toward a career in zoo and aquarium advocacy, and this was my first real chance to work in a zoo,” he says.

But he spent as much time with people as with critters. “He was always ready to jump in and help out in any situation because it immersed him in how an education department worked and what the visitor’s experience has the potential to be,” says Kathryn Foat, curator of education at the Baltimore Zoo. “Because he’s so skilled in communication and is a very independent worker, I could define the task and send him on his way to investigate content and create the experience the visitors will have.”

When let loose from the cages, Gale helped work on the new exhibits for the zoo, making sure that the interactives, educational materials, and exhibit text really reached the visitors of the zoo, especially children. “One of the interactives I designed was called ‘Tools for Stools,’ and it shows the tools that the veterinarians use to analyze the feces in this discovery drawer for kids to pull out,” Gale says. “I tried to make it funny, especially the name.”

And although Gale enjoys spending time with a good snake as much as the next zookeeper, he spent as much time in the zoomobiles and the camp program, working directly with the kids who will benefit from the zoo. “He’s going to do great things in his career—he just gets it, he understands how to work with people in diverse settings, he can fit into the flow, and he has the skills to finish what he sets out to do,” Foat says.

Even at home on the UF campus, he seizes the simplest opportunities to share information about zoo and aquarium advocacy. “When Michael got into conversation with the manager of the bookstore and heard about the aquarium they were putting in, he was like, ‘This would be a really good opportunity to put in some information about those fish so that people could learn something—I’d like to talk to you about ways to present the information appropriately,’” Rollo says. “Michael is always thinking, always on, always thinking of ways to share information.

It’s no surprise then that Gale won the Morris K. Udall award in 2002, a national award earmarked for students dedicated to a career in the environmental sector. “I tease him about someday having a Crocodile Hunter-type TV show, and he always says,’I’d love to have a TV show!’” Rollo says. “He’s always looking for new ways, new things to promote the environment.” But in the same year, he also took home the Harry S. Truman award, one that focuses on students dedicated to public service. “I think he sees himself in the role of a policy maker,” Rollo says. “He can see himself down the road as a leader who can speak about environmental issues and get people excited.”

Gale brings as much energy to his work in leadership as he does to his work in environment, but he came away from both awards with more than scholarship money or something to hang on the wall.  “There are all these non-fiscal benefits to the national awards,” he says. “The best part is meeting all these other scholars. It was such a great experience to be surrounded by all these passionate environmental advocates. In environmental activism, you spend so much time trying to explain advocacy to other people, but in this group [the Udall winners] they already get it, everybody’s an expert, and just hearing what others are doing was great. I could just connect with them and learn and listen.” This year, five students won both awards; Gale was one of them. “We laugh and call ourselves ‘Tru-dalls’, but it makes you realize there are these communities of scholars. We work together and look out for each other—we need to do that for each other since we have a shared vision of what we want in this world.”

“The Truman and the Udall are extremely competitive national awards, particularly the Truman,” says Sheila K. Dickison, associate provost and director of the honors program. “It’s most unusual for someone to win both awards because they both have very different emphases, so that really says something about Michael’s strengths.” Having won the awards for 2002, he’s helping make sure that his school shines in 2003 by helping UF nominees prepare for the upcoming competition. “He’s very giving of his time—I’ve been impressed by how much time he’s given us helping prepare this year’s Truman candidates,” she says. “When he came back from the Truman, he wrote up an absolutely wonderful description of the competition from his point of view—it’s an excellent document and one we’ve used to help the students prepare.”

When he goes home to unwind, Gale goes home to Hume Hall, the new honors residence hall. Living in the honors hall seems like a logical step, since Gale has been president of the Honors Ambassadors on campus and works with the honors council on the national level.  But Gale serves as one of the Residence College Advisors, overseeing a floor of 33 undergrad honors students. “I think it’s good for me to be there since I know their experience,” he says. “Honors students do have a unique palette of issues and responsibilities compared to other students.” Gale was part of the hall’s policy development from the beginning, right down to the pet policy. “He’s worked very hard from the start, step by step, to see that Hume is successful,” Dickison says.”

“The students honors organization has done a great job developing programming for Hume, which has made it a phenomenal place to live,” Gale says. He does acknowledge that, even though he’s been an Residence Advisor for two prior years, this job is the next level. “Honors students are much more high maintenance,” Gale says. But the RCAs for Hume are not run-of-the-mill, either. “Those RAs were handpicked,” Rollo says.

“He’s a real people person,” Dickison says. “His interest in Hume shows that he has enough stuff to do, but he wanted to be actively involved in setting up programs and influencing the direction Hume goes in from the beginning.” Living in such a setting makes it more than a job for Gale, even though he spends the typical RA’s time advising residents and sorting out their personal problems. “There’s such a value to listening to their stories and being part of their stories as time goes on—that’s been my favorite part of this year is being a part of 33 amazing people’s lives and their undergraduate experience.” Being the voice of experience has helped him shine light on opportunities available on campus, and he’s encouraged his residents to get involved with such UF activities as Cicerones, Honors Ambassadors, and Preview Staff.

Being an RCA for the honors residence puts him in daily contact with the students who serve as his “constituency” as he serves on the National Collegiate Honors Council. “He started off as president of Honors Ambassadors, but then he thought it was really important to get involved with the organization at the national level,” Dickison says. “He got himself nominated from the floor at the convention and has been very active ever since. He wants to make honors programs better in general, so he gets involved at both the local and the national level.”

As the council undergoes some huge changes in its structure to establish a permanent headquarters and a permanent director, Gale is on the committee to help find the council a home. “I get papers with descriptions and this summer I’ll be touring sites and the committee will be doing evaluations of the sites, plus simultaneously evaluating the students’ needs for the facility,” he says. “We need to evaluate the entire infrastructure at one time to make sure we’re meeting students’ needs, bringing in enough revenue, and recruit and communicate as needed so that students are the most important component of the changes going on in this organization.” But being able to see a huge change through is a task he seems equipped to handle. “When he was president of Honors Ambassadors, he was always in my office a couple times a week with new exciting ideas and a plan to make them happen,” Dickison says.

But when there’s no SG meeting on the schedule, the Hume residents are all tucked in, and he’s not working at the museum or studying to maintain his 3.72 GPA, Gale works on campus promoting leadership in venues separate from his environmental work. “I’ve had a really exciting time spreading leadership training to other people and working in endeavors where I try to get other leaders to take new opportunities.” As a member of the Matthews Society, a group “dedicated to ethical leadership and service to the University of Florida,” he’s spoken to other groups on campus about his approach to leadership. “I love to talk about the elements that are important, the elements of passion and service, and especially the fact that scholarship is leadership since knowledge is power and power has the ability to create change,” Gale says. “The Matthews Society is really an elite group of student leaders who are called upon to help other leaders in other organizations to do their best,” Dickison says.

Within the South Atlantic Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls, on which he serves as director of education and programming, he promotes leadership, rather than just the task-oriented agenda of creating programs. “My goal was to educate these leaders on how to be a better leader by creating a phenomenal education experience for them. I actually changed my title from ‘director of programming’ to include education because it’s so important that we educate people, not just create programs for them.”

To feed his own need for growth, one place that Gale looked to was his own classes. “I know it sounds funny, but I really made time for faculty, to go to their office hours, to get involved in the research, to get to know their stories. I think some students are intimidated by faculty, but it should be the total opposite—people should embrace the wisdom in the faculty members.” This attitude doesn’t surprise Dickison, with whom he has worked closely. “When individuals meet Michael, they’re ready to give him a lot of responsibility once they get to know him because they can see he’s a person who doesn’t drop the ball and who has larger ideas,” she says.

Gale’s advocacy and leadership mentoring didn’t start as a college student. As the son of a park ranger, his choice to be environmentally aware came very early. “My dad just has such a passion for the environment and that’s where it all started growing up, and my mom supported herself through pharmacy school,” Gale says. “They’ve done everything to make sure my brother and I have had all the opportunities we needed to be successful and I owe everything to that—my work ethic, my love of the outdoors and animals, my passions and how deeply rooted they are.” And he looks now to see who else needs the opportunity. “I really try to put myself in the other guy’s shoes and see who we’re not reaching and what can we do to make that happen.”

“Most student leaders live in one world, but he lives in multiple worlds: in residence life, in Reitz Scholars, in honors, in band, in SG,” Rollo says. “He’s had more experiences here as an undergrad than a lot of people have had in 10 years. Most people don’t do half the stuff in their entire time here, but he’s made his mark in them all.” -SR

Contact Gale at divrsify@ufl.edu.