Maddie Kling Joins Georgetown as ESCAPE Program Director

Maddie Kling, Georgetown’s new ESCAPE program director.

Welcome Maddie Kling, the new ESCAPE Program Director, to Georgetown! Maddie joins Campus Ministry from Boston College, where she was enrolled in a graduate program studying Higher Education Administration. 

“When I saw the job listing for the ESCAPE Program Director, I thought it was the perfect blend of student involvement, leadership development, and working with retreats. I thought ESCAPE was interesting and unique due to its incredible support from the university and goal of helping first-year students transition into the university.”

Born and raised in Hackettstown, New Jersey, the one occupation Kling thought she would always avoid was being a teacher. “My mom was a teacher for 33 years, and so I thought I wanted to do something different away from education.” 

By the time Kling began her undergraduate career, she was still unsure exactly what her career would be following college. Her major passions were education, psychology, and music, and so she decided to combine all three fields during her tenure at Bucknell University. At the end of her undergraduate career, she found her greatest interest to be in education. 

Kling became acquainted with the idea of Jesuit retreats during her time at Boston College. Even so, she feels that ESCAPE is special in its own way, and she is excited to share the journey with Georgetown students. “We’re all new to ESCAPE this first year, including myself. I’m delighted to be able to work with student leaders and first-year students to experience the retreat together.”

Looking forward, Maddie is excited about the possibilities of ESCAPE. “Next year is the 30th anniversary, and so I have many ideas to make the year special.” While she may have some of her own ideas to make ESCAPE even better going forward, she believes that ESCAPE should ultimately always maintain its focus as a place for students to reflect on their time at Georgetown and the paths that brought them here. 

“I want to keep the core and shell of what ESCAPE is and has been in the past. I think it’s really important because ESCAPE works so well due to its uniqueness. That being said, I am excited to bring my own flair to the retreat, and see what ESCAPE has to offer for both myself and Georgetown students.”

by Dustin Hartuv

Dustin Hartuv is a junior at Georgetown and a staff writer for Campus Ministry.