Madalyn Radlauer!

Tell your life story in 3 sentences.
I grew up with my parents and younger brother in New Orleans doing my best to avoid the humidity and debauchery in the city center. I started out as quite a tomboy and played lots of sports, but by high school I participated in extracurriculars such as music and theater. Now I'm a perfectionist and a tezzy hoping to expand my knowledge of chemistry (and a lot of other stuff) in my time at Stanford.

How did you get involved in dance?
When I was a three year old I did the required three months of ballet for little girls, but my lack of natural grace sent me away from dance and to gymnastics and then jumprope. When I started doing musical theater in the summer after seventh grade I realized that if I wanted to sing more I needed to be a better dancer, so I started taking courses. I started with several months of ballet and then switched to a "musical theater dance" class that played right to my needs. I have made a concious effort to be more graceful, but so far, it's failing. In fact, my mom was shocked that any group would pick me to dance, I'm hoping my performance does not make that shock viable.

What do you do besides dancing?
I love music, and especially singing. Plus, like Caitlin, I like spending time outside, hiking, skiing, camping, snow-shoeing, sledding, tubing, backpacking, making snowmen and having snowball fights. (I go to Colorado to do those things every year in summer and winter with my family.) I also enjoy playing golf and tennis. Most of all I like acting like a seven-year-old and being unconditionally happy.

What are your life goals?
I want to be a chemist/biochemist and do medical/clinical research. I think it would be neat to be a college professor and have a research assistants. To achieve this I'll need to be in school for a very long time. I want to someday have a family and take them on backpacking trips in the Rocky Mountains.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
I would fly.