Matt McKeown has always been drawn to politics.

Since serving as senior class vice president in high school, his love for government only grew over the years. Now a junior political science major, McKeown serves as the Missouri Student Association vice president alongside MSA president Kelsey Haberberger.

“Student government was just something that I always thought about doing,” McKeown said. “I’ve always been drawn to it just by the sheer fact that it is possible to change things and be able to get student feedback and see what they want changed and what they think should be addressed.”

McKeown transferred to MU from the University of Dayton in Ohio when he was a sophomore. He said he didn’t see his former university as having all of the necessary tools for his success because it was a smaller campus.

He said he found a home by joining MSA.

“It’s really great to be able to work with so many different people at this university,” McKeown said. “I’ve been able to meet a lot of awesome people and see how people really care about this university. It’s been really rewarding to me just to see how much people love Mizzou and how they’re all coming together to work towards a better university.”

After former MSA President Mason Schara resigned over the summer, Haberberger appointed McKeown, who was then Chief of Staff, to vice president.

McKeown said there is always a rewarding side to his job, such as hearing students talk about MSA’s different actions like the Enough is Enough campaign.

“There’s a kid in one of my classes who has a button on his backpack (for the campaign),” McKeown said. “I’ve never met him before, but it just made me really happy to see that that actually is reaching students. It’s still in the very beginning stage and we’re still hoping to reach a lot more students with Payton (Head) and Brenda (Smith-Lezama)’s incoming term, as well.”

Though MSA is a big part of McKeown’s involvement, he also participates in a number of other organizations on campus. He participates in Mizzou Alternative Breaks and serves on the Judicial Peer Advisory Council. He’s a Student Union Ambassador and a Kinder Scholar.

Along with MSA, McKeown said MAB is one of the most rewarding organizations he is involved with. He went on his first MAB trip the spring of his sophomore year.

“With MAB it’s so rewarding, especially this year for me because I’m a site leader,” McKeown said. “I’ll be able to see the look on my participants’ faces and see how rewarding it is and share that week that you have together and see that difference that you’re making. It may just be a small difference in that community, but you’re able to make a difference within that group of people.”

McKeown’s high level of involvement doesn’t come without difficulty, though. He said it’s a balancing act between various organizations, his duties as MSA vice president and his schoolwork.

But because of this, he has learned how to effectively manage his time, which he considers to be one of the biggest challenges.

“Things will come up and you just have to adapt and know that if one little detail changes, it’s not going to completely shift or alter something,” McKeown said “Being able to work with that and be adaptable to those different situations is really important. I think learning that is really valuable because I’ll definitely be able to use that moving forward.”

In addition to McKeown finding out more about himself throughout the roles he’s played in different organizations, his peers, such as MSA Chief of Staff Mitch Moonier, have also taken interest in what they can learn from him.

“He practically lives in the (Center for Student Involvement) and dedicates most of his extracurricular time to students, which I would say exemplifies his selflessness,” Moonier said. “I’ve gained a lot of respect for him because of his initiative to become involved as a transfer student. It just goes to show that it does not take much to make an impact on campus. All you need is the drive and personality, which Matt definitely has.”

Senior Sandy Patel met McKeown on an MAB trip and said he is “a fantastic people person.”

“His kindness drives him to be a successful leader,” Patel said. “In the last year I’ve seen him grow more than I’ve witnessed any other friend of mine grow. Although his time in MSA was short, he left a fantastic legacy. He’s the epitome of a successful, kind leader that everyone should look up to. He does not do things for titles, or status, his heart and passion drives him to those roles.”