Seven questions with Madaket Rzepka ’26, field hockey

Madaket Rzepka ’26, originally from Reading, Mass., is in the midst of her third season on the Middlebury field hockey team. In this edition of Seven Questions, she explains how she landed at Middlebury, what it’s like to be part of such a successful program and how Middlebury has changed the trajectory of her life.

Jonathan Buchholz: How did field hockey lead you to Middlebury?

Madaket Rzepka: I was at the College Connection Showcase at UMass Amherst in Massachusetts, and I met Coach DeLorenzo there. We talked in the parking lot after the showcase for two hours. I thought she was a really amazing coach with a great coaching philosophy. I knew I was really interested in Middlebury after that. I had been reaching out to Middlebury before the showcase, but I really didn't want to go because my mom went to Middlebury, and I wanted to choose a different path. But after I met Coach DeLorenzo, I knew Middlebury was definitely on my list, and I came for a visit.

JB: What is the pressure like on a team as successful as Middlebury’s?

MR: When I was a freshman, I was really intimidated because I was coming into an environment with all these national champions. I felt a little bit out of my league, but as you grow up through the Middlebury program, you just have access to amazing coaches and amazing teammates, and you're playing against the best competition you could possibly face. You're growing and learning every day along with them. So, you're welcomed into this culture where it's a growth mindset: Everything's about getting better. It's not a competition like you against this other person. It's about how I can compete with the version of myself from yesterday. We're not here to win every game. We're here to create the best game of field hockey possible. We want to raise the level of play, and we just love playing field hockey and we love making great passing patterns and elevating the level of play and that's really what it's all about.

JB: Are there any ways that the team kind of tries to give back to younger field hockey players?

MR: We run fall clinics, spring clinics and I believe a summer clinic. The local high school uses our field and we try to go watch their games and support them through that, but we also do a lot of work with the Yellow House.

JB: How has being at Middlebury shaped what you are interested in post-college?

MR: I came into Middlebury wanting to study neuroscience, but I took a chemistry lab my freshman spring, and I thought no way this is for me. My first year seminar was “The True Believer” with Professor Don Wyatt, and we read Eric Hoffer's book, “The True Believer: Thoughts On the Nature of Mass Movements.” Through that first year seminar, I was able to apply to the Rohatyn Global Scholars (RGS) program. I wasn't really politically active in high school or that interested in global affairs, but when I came to Middlebury I got to try something I had wanted to get into in high school and now I have the opportunity. 

JB: What are you thinking about post-graduation?

MR: I really want to go down to D.C. I am really interested in the State Department internship right now. Through RGS, I was exposed to the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and I took Professor Jeffrey Lewis's J-Term course on nonproliferation tools in tech. I was an undergraduate researcher for the Institute that following spring, and this fall I’m working on researching the missile facilities and capabilities of North Korea. I'd love to continue working in the intelligence field, counterterrorism, and national defense. I'd love to work for the State Department or the Department of Defense. 

JB: Is there any advice you would give your former self?

MR: Try everything. I think joining RGS was the most impactful thing I could have done with my time at Middlebury. I've been opened up to every resource that is imaginable here. I even did language school this past summer, studying French, and I was so scared to go abroad before that, and now I feel so prepared to go abroad and everything comes back to joining RGS as a freshman. Just pursue everything that's at your disposal because if you don't search for it, you're not gonna know it's there – there is so much available to you in college. 

JB: Where's your favorite place to get work done? 

MR: Haymaker Bun Co.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.