Madison Benedetti

Madison Benedetti knew she wanted a health-related major.

Russell Sage College offered strong health science programs, a competitive financial aid package and would allow her to apply the numerous college credits she earned as a high school student toward her bachelor’s degree. 

So, deciding where to attend college was easy. 

But she still needed to decide what to major in. 

She considered Psychology, then Nursing before she took an epidemiology class with Assistant Professor of Nutrition Science Eileen FitzPatrick, DrPH. “I loved it,” she said of the class that introduced her to the public health field. “I was like, ‘Yes! This is what I am doing.”

Madison is now a senior and more confident than ever that her decisions to attend Sage and study Public Health were the right ones.

Take her internship at local health maintenance organization CDPHP, for example. Her story of finding out about the opportunity illustrates what people mean when they describe Sage as a “small college strongly supportive of student success.” 

Madison spent fall 2020 pursuing several internship leads at health departments and community-based organizations, only to learn that the sites were not hosting undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Then, a connection put her in touch with former Russell Sage College President Susan Scrimshaw, a public health scholar who sits on CDPHP’s board of directors (CDPHP President and CEO John Bennett, M.D., is also a member of Sage’s board of trustees.) 

Through this network, Madison learned about an internship with CDPHP’s wellness advocates. 

Madison applied, landed the position and has loved the range of projects that she is involved in: she’s collaborated on surveys measuring member satisfaction with food insecurity interventions and community-based organization partnerships that help with scheduling well child visits, diabetes screenings and colorectal cancer screenings.

She’s also been involved in CDPHP’s COVID-19 vaccination programs. Madison has cold-called vaccine-eligible members when appointments open up at CDPHP vaccine clinics near them, assisted other members with securing appointments at state-run clinics and staffed CDPHP’s “super-clinics” at a local grocery store. 

These experiences, along with her Public Health coursework and Spanish minor, have prepared her for a wide variety of entry-level positions in community health, she said. She’s working with Sage’s Office of Career Planning to fine-tune her resume, craft cover letters and prep for interviews. She can’t wait to find out what the future holds.