By LAURA BORRELLI
Sports Editor
Students come from all over the world to come to The College of Saint Rose, but senior Kayla DeMicco has lived in Albany most of her life. DeMicco had known that Saint Rose was the place for her since elementary school.
While attending the Albany School of Humanities, DeMicco took a field trip to Saint Rose. DeMicco recalled her 10-year-old self telling her parents, “I wanna go to Saint Rose because I like their ice cream and french fries.”
Years later, she familiarized herself with the campus again in high school. This time around she didn’t fall in love with the french fries or ice cream; it was the quad with the flowers blooming and the small campus size.
DeMicco said she loved that the campus was close to home. DeMicco was very shy in high school and she saw Saint Rose was a small opportunity, like a stepping stone, to getting out of the comfort zone.
After visiting the communications department and meeting communications professors like Elizabeth Richards and Cailin Brown she felt comfortable.
Being at her accepted students day was the first time she didn’t feel nervous doing something by herself, and she said it was “groundbreaking.”
DeMicco majored in communications with a concentration in journalism. During her time at Saint Rose she loved the small class sizes, and “valued that one on one attention teachers were able to give [her].”
The professors she had genuinely wanted to get to know her and she loved seeing them in the hallways. Specifically Brown, a former associate professor of communications, made an impact on DeMicco’s years at Saint Rose.
Brown told DeMicco about The Chronicle, Saint Rose’s newspaper. Being a part of a newspaper was something she never did in high school, but she always wanted to get involved.
DeMicco started going to Chronicle meetings in freshman year. Her sophomore and junior year she was the opinions editor and her senior year she was co-executive editor. She said The Chronicle helped her grow not only as a student but as a person and writer.
The Chronicle staff gave her confidence to believe in herself and her work as a journalist. The Chronicle staff had become a DeMicco’s family for her years and Saint Rose and gave her many good memories.
DeMicco said she loved how involved she was in the community and how important she felt reporting current news and how her stories impacted campus.
DeMicco mentioned that in 2020, The Chronicle received the award for Club of the Year from Student Association and a writer for The Chronicle had a story written about the Counseling Center providing chest binders for transgender students that received national attention. The recognition for The Chronicle proved to DeMicco how much power a small newspaper has and how they can influence the community nationally.
“Kayla DeMicco is a gem,” wrote Brown, who was the advisor for The Chronicle for three of years DeMicco’s four years at Saint Rose,in an email. “Both in the classroom and in The Chronicle newsroom, Kayla offered her thoughtful and compassionate insight at Saint Rose.”
Brown wrote that DeMicco was a respected member of The Chronicle staff. She was grateful to have such a “kind and loyal human” as a student.
Throughout her years at Saint Rose, The Chronicle was one way DeMicco stayed active on campus. She was also a part of Identity, a club on campus that encourages and helps provide a safe environment to come out and express your identity. She was in the club for two years, and one year she served on the eboard as the Public Relations person.
While a part of this club she dealt with communicating with others, advertising, and managing social media. DeMicco saw this as a good learning experience and it taught her how important student voices are.
“You have to interact with strangers in the real world. It helped me do that,” said DeMicco. This opportunity helped DeMicco expand her comfort zone.
The best thing about being a part of Identity was being able to plan and be behind the scenes for events on campus, specifically the Drag Show. It was rewarding for DeMicco to see other people enjoying themselves at an event they created.
DeMicco was also a commuter assistant from the middle of her freshman year to the end of her sophomore year. This was a volunteer experience that DeMicco helped first year commuter students navigate their way through the campus community.
DeMicco was very active in attending and participating at the Student Association meetings weekly. While being active on campus, DeMicco has a lot on her plate off campus, like working at Barnes and Noble.
DeMicco was able to balance everything with a great support system. Her friends helped keep her grounded. Especially her junior year adapting to virtual learning and losing all her jobs was extremely difficult for DeMicco.
Emily Paolicelli, a student at Saint Rose, has known DeMicco since their freshman year. They have been on The Chronicle staff for three years together and are co-executive editors together this year.
“Kayla is the most bubbly, positive, and friendly person in my life. I would describe her as the human equivalent of a golden retriever, and I know she’d take that as a compliment,” wrote Paolicelli in an email. “She will go to the ends of the earth to make sure everyone is happy and everything is well.”
Paolicelli said DeMicco has always been a super kind and supportive friend. DeMicco assisted Paolicelli in applying for a job at Barnes and Noble, and Paolicelli said she is grateful for her help. She is glad that they will be co-workers even after she graduates.
“At first I was sad Kayla was graduating, but now we’re about to be co-workers again. I’m glad that instead of a ‘goodbye,’ it’s only a ‘see you later,’ at least for now,” Paolicelli wrote.
Another friend of DeMicco’s since freshman year is Sydney Manning. Manning described DeMicco as one of the caring people she knows. They met in a communications class.
“I see how much success she has had at The Chronicle, and it makes me feel like I can achieve my most significant potential when writing because I see how much she has succeeded. She’s a fantastic journalist, and I hope to be half as good as her one day,” wrote Manning in an email.
Manning said that she believed DeMicco left her mark on Saint Rose through her journalism. Their Journalism II class covered stories about how hard it was to access information on campus as student journalists as well as the health center’s state during the fall 2019 semester.
“These stories are important because they affect the students on campus, and Kayla’s reporting helped improve the stories,” Manning wrote.
DeMicco wanted to be involved and make her college experience great. She took advantage of the opportunities Saint Rose provided and made the best out of every opportunity.
“I am definitely glad I chose Saint Rose,” said DeMicco.
Throughout her years at Saint Rose she was able to break out of her shell and achieve her goal of being more vocal and active in the community. Saint Rose provided a space for DeMicco to challenge herself in a healthy way. She can take what she has learned from Saint Rose to help her ultimately reach her goal of becoming a co-anchor on the Today Show.
DeMicco knows that it will take a lot of hard work to get there but after graduation she will continue to look for jobs in journalism as well as think about going to grad school to pursue a masters degree to further her education.
