Mackenzie Akin

When she started out her college career in the State University of New York system, Mackenzie Akin was thinking she’d major in English. But that focus never really clicked with her. “Something else was calling,” she says. But, she couldn’t quite hear what that call was saying.

Mackenzie only knew she needed to make a change, to get things figured out. She came back home and enrolled at a local community college.

Then she ran into her old high school physical education teacher and the volume of the call finally got turned up loud enough so she could hear. 

And that’s how she came to earn her B. S. in Physical Education at Russell Sage College and get certified to teach Physical Education and coach interscholastic sports.  

“When I arrived at Sage, I felt like I was a freshman again,” Mackenzie says of the excitement she felt at having arrived where she knew she was meant to be, doing what she was meant to do. “I got to know everyone quickly. Everyone was so welcoming. It became a second home to me.”

It also allowed her to reach her full potential.

Mackenzie had been the salutatorian of her high school class. She became salutatorian of her Sage class as well.

“The professors here get to know you really well,” she says. “They want to make sure that you’re successful.”

Currently, Mackenzie is getting her master’s in Sage’s School Health Education program, which means she’ll be able to teach health as well as physical education.  That’s the full package for her, because she thinks helping students learn how to be fully active and aware of healthy habits will make her feel great about her job.

And she’s feeling quite positive about her job prospects. Because her professors teach locally and are ready to share their connections. Because through Sage she’s observed and worked at six local school districts. And because she was encouraged to join the New York State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, where she’s made even more connections.

“Sage is one of those places,” Mackenzie says, “where if you reach out you really do get so much given back.”