An Accidental Revenge Story
By Greta Stuckey
When Gabby Salko was a sophomore in high school in Huntington, New York, she was told by her guidance counselor that she had a small chance of graduating and little to no chance of getting accepted into college.
“In my freshman year of high school, I had a lot of things going on and that really took a toll on my mental health,” Gabby recalls. “I got to the point where I was going to fail out of high school if I didn’t start acting differently. Hearing her say that made me so angry, and I just became really determined to prove her wrong.”
After that definitive moment in Gabby’s life, she began to change her habits and relied on the support of her family to get through difficult times. With a laugh, Gabby says ending up at Marist was “kind of like an accidental revenge story.” She only discovered Marist when a recruiter came to her high school, but she had little confidence she would be accepted.
“Don't let other people define you,” Gabby says. “If someone tells you that you are not good enough, that isn’t true. You know yourself better than anyone.”
Just two years after being told she wouldn’t get into college, Gabby was accepted to Marist. It wasn’t an easy feat, and challenges were still on the horizon. During her senior year of high school, her stepdad, Lawrence Demeglio, passed away from cancer. Gabby credits her stepdad for helping her get into Marist. With his constant support, he never ceased to motivate her and keep her moving forward in hard times.
Eventually, Gabby stepped on to the Marist campus. However, she still wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to study. Throughout her last years in high school, she played with the idea of becoming a gynecologist. To her surprise, she would soon fall into political science, a major she has come to love. Gabby credits the Director for the Center of Civic Engagement and Leadership, Dr. Melissa Gaeke, for sparking her interest in political science.
Illustration by Sydney Kysar
It felt like any other day at Marist. Gabby was sitting outside of Dr. Gaeke’s office with her friend, Pamela Armas ‘20. Gabby recalls Dr. Gaeke opening her door and saying, “You girls are politically active, right? Would you like to come to this once-in-a-lifetime Harvard Conference to learn about civic engagement and voting?” Gabby and Pamela figured they had nothing to lose and thought the conference would be a great experience, so they accepted the invitation. Unbeknownst to Gabby, that conference three years ago would determine her academic path at Marist. It also led her to team up with Julia McCarthy ‘18 and William Shaughnessy ‘22, to create the successful campus-wide initiative, Marist Votes.
“We ended up going and ran into Julia McCarthy who ran an absentee ballot drive before the conference. There, Marist Votes was born,” Gabby explains. “Marist hasn’t set up the infrastructure to increase voter turnout and voter registration, so we came up with the idea of starting our own branch out of the Center for Civic Engagement. It focuses specifically on getting Marist students registered and ready to vote.”
Prior to coming to Marist, Gabby didn’t recognize how many college-aged students were not registered to vote for a variety of reasons. She was passionate about helping others gain their right to vote because someone had helped her when she turned 18. During her senior year, her government teacher helped register the entire class to vote. At the time, Gabby says she took that for granted.
Since founding Marist Votes, Gabby has spent the last three years working toward expanding civic engagement on campus through voter registration drives, absentee ballot drop-offs, and visual graphics.
“Gabby has been focused on creating opportunities for Marist students to not only express their voice, but also to engage with their peers to understand why it matters,” Dr. Gaeke shares. “These efforts have enriched the campus and will have a lasting impact. I have appreciated her efforts to expand the capacity of the Center for Civic Engagement.”
While balancing her classes and Marist Votes, Gabby also helped found the Marist STARR club — Students Advocating for Reproductive Rights. She was also the former president of the Marist Femme club. During her time at Marist, she also worked as an intern for a U.S. Representative and a member of the British Parliament. Following those internships, Gabby went on to intern with Michelle Obama’s voter registration initiative, When We All Vote. She worked with When We All Vote from the summer of 2020 until after the election in December, working both full and part-time during the Fall semester.
Julia McCarthy wasn’t sure if Marist Votes would live on after she graduated, but Gabby stepped up. “Gabby is a force — confident, smart, with great attention to detail. From Marist Votes to When We All Vote, Gabby has proven herself as a Gen-Z leader in the civic engagement space, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.”
Interning for seven months at When We All Vote was a fulfilling experience for Gabby. She and the team worked on training volunteers on how to help register others to vote. By the end of November, they had trained 45,000 volunteers. While doing this, she was also working with the Marist Circle to launch a collaborative voting website.
“The 10-hour days paid off and I left 2020 knowing I had an impact on increasing voter turnout across the United States, despite the grueling and harsh reality that 2020 brought for all of us,” Gabby says.
Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gabby managed to get students and citizens across the country registered to vote. Sometimes that meant she was on 10-hour Zoom calls, which happened on the day of the 2020 Presidential Election. Working throughout an election year in an ongoing pandemic, Gabby learned to be more flexible and is more equipped to handle unpredictable challenges that arise.
“Even though 2020 was a disaster, something good came out of it and more people were able to get registered to vote than ever before,” Gabby says. “Now that I’m a senior, I just hope that young women, especially in the Political Science Department, have the same opportunities to grow and have those experiences.”
As Gabby finishes her final semester at Marist, she is interning remotely for SKDK, a political consulting firm. There, she helps run and manage different parts of their clients’ campaigns, specifically for political clients. After the opportunities like Marist Votes and When We All Vote, Gabby’s future after Marist has become a little more clear. Both initiatives allowed her to see what issues she truly cares about and When We All Vote provided her with valuable campaign experience.
“I really wanted to take this opportunity in my last semester to possibly mentor other young women in the Political Science Department,” Gabby says with a smile. “I want to help young women, especially those who were told they aren’t good enough, find the passion in themselves, but also find the confidence.
Gabby advises, “If you are passionate about something, go for it. Even if it sometimes feels a little hopeless, don’t let that stop you from wanting to see a better future and wanting to help others get the tools they need.”
FOR THE RECORD UNCUT
OBJECT PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography by Bobby Oliver
For this year’s project, we asked our Changemakers to bring items that had meaning to them to the shoot.
“My raggedy anne doll is my most important possession. She was given to my by aunt the day I was born- she’s gone almost everywhere with me since
I have my favorite pot, which is called a caldero, as you can tell it’s pretty used-it’s the only pot that can cook Puerto Rican food correctly. Cooking is a huge part of who I am and what ties me to my family.
I have my ring collection, I started my collection with one ring I got for my high school graduation. From there, I’ve collected them in places like Paris and Scotland, I never leave the house without them.”