By Annette Pinder
Last month, when Niagara University held its annual College of Arts & Sciences Day of Recognition to honor students for their academic, community, and leadership achievements, among them was Buffalo Healthy Living Magazine editor, Madeleine Kates.
In addition to being recognized with awards for Outstanding Achievement in Biology and for Honors in Psychology, Madeleine was also presented with her Bachelor of Arts degree as a triple major in life science, psychology, and environmental science. Madeleine’s exceptional achievements were even more meaningful because of her status as a non-traditional student. In fact, Madeleine has had to complete nearly all of her college coursework fully online due to a serious medical accident that occurred midway through her senior year of high school.
As Dr. Timothy Ireland, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Niagara University noted, “While it left her unable to participate in normal college activities and in-person classes, it didn’t extinguish her dream of going to college and earning a degree.”
I am constantly in awe of Madeleine. In addition to her academic accomplishments, Madeleine works tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of others. She developed an innovative hand brace for which she has a patent pending, and worked tirelessly at the start of COVID to make hundreds of cloth masks for charitable organizations. As if all this isn’t enough, in addition to editing medical manuscripts for health professionals, Madeleine edits nearly every article that appears in Buffalo Healthy Living Magazine.
Madeleine’s exceptional grades earned her membership in three different academic honor societies: Delta Epsilon Sigma (the national scholastic honor society for students at Catholic universities); Beta Beta Beta (Biology Honor Society); and Psi Chi (Psychology Honor Society).
