Graduating student credits leadership roles for future success

As she prepares for graduation, Makaela Kirish, better known as Mak, is not only looking forward to an engineering career, but she is also reflecting on her past five years at RIT with her friends, a variety of experiences, and the leadership skills she has gained.

Kirish, of Freedom, Pa., is graduating with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, with a minor in communications. She recently accepted a position with L3 Harris in Rochester as an associate in category management.

She chose to attend RIT for its outstanding co-op and engineering programs, but she was sold when she first toured the campus.

“The energy and the excitement of the people here were great,” she said. “I saw the RIT Tech Crew driving around saying they were looking for students to join, and I looked at my parents and said that’s what I wanted to do.”

During her first week of orientation, she learned about even more ways to become involved, make friends, and broaden her experiences.

“With all the diversity of opportunities available, students aren’t being pigeonholed only doing things related to their degrees,” she said.

Kirish has held numerous leadership roles over the years. She served as vice president of membership and development in the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, recording department director with WITR, trainer in Tech Crew, lead audio engineer for the RIT Sports Network, undergrad research assistant for industrial and systems engineering, a member of the leadership team in Women in Engineering, and stage manager for the School of Performing Arts.

“I’m going to miss my involvement on campus and working for all these organizations,” she said. “It allowed me to be tangentially involved in so many events. It was so easy to do something cool and different every day.”

She credits that leadership experience for helping her land her new job.

“I’ve worked with so many different types of people and learned how to connect more with people and adapt my leadership style to support the people I’m trying to lead,” she said. “The positions I was looking at deal a lot with working with the production teams that are actually doing the assembly, making improvements in their processes. There are a lot of communications and collaboration needed to make that happen.”

Kirish said she purposely joined groups that were out of her comfort zone but soon embraced them. For example, being in a sorority was never on her radar before coming to college. She decided to join one in her third year at RIT.

“I thought being in a sorority was not really my style,” she said. But she had a revelation during a co-op in Minneapolis, living by herself for seven months. “I was sitting in my living room and thinking I’d done everything for my career, but not anything just for me. I needed to find a group of people where I could show up and be whoever I was, whether I was a mechanical engineer or an audio engineer, and they’re going to support me regardless.”

Kirish enjoys being outdoors, either hiking, backpacking, or kayaking on the Genesee River. She considers herself crafty and is known for her paper crafts. She collects mugs, and, her most recent passion is line dancing and swing dancing with friends.

Her advice for students considering attending RIT: “Take chances. It’s scary picking a college or joining a new club. But you’re never going to know unless you try,” she said. “RIT is a place where anything is possible. All the people I’ve met have taken unique paths. No two people are the same. The classes we’ve taken, the jobs we took on campus and clubs we’ve joined led us to different things. And the support from all of the faculty and staff to help us take our dreams to realities has been outstanding.”