Sophia Magill was short of breath when she sat down to talk in the lounge of the Alpha Gamma Delta house at 7:20 p.m.

She said it had been a long day — and it wasn’t over yet. Government of the Student Body debates awaited presidential candidate Magill and running mate William Rock in less than an hour’s time.

She woke up at 8:30 a.m. to a call from her brother, the vice president of a mortgage firm in California. Magill, the third of four children, said she feels lucky to have the support of her family in her various endeavors. Her mother, an English teacher, and her father, a farmer, taught her to reach for greater heights.

“I was raised to make the most of life, and to take advantage of the opportunities that are given to me,” she said.

She started young, winning ribbons and climbing up the ladder in her Charter Oak 4-H Club chapter, finally serving two terms as president of the Charter Oak Achievers before winning a seat as president of the county chapter. She recounted showing swine at fairs and spoke fondly of the bucket bottle calf, Bronze Marble Magill, she raised and showed when she was 10. In 2000, she reluctantly admitted, she even won the title of Pork Princess.

Leadership and public service, she said, just seemed to come naturally.

“It was just something I really enjoyed doing,” she said. “Something I was always doing, sometimes whether I realized it or not.”

So much that, in fifth grade, Magill was voted most likely to become president of the United States, a goal she hasn’t ruled out.

“You’ve got to aim high,” she said. “You’ve got to have vision.”

By 9 a.m. Monday, Magill has made her way to her first class of the day, a political science class. Magill, junior in political science, said she’d found her way into her calling after abandoning a major in business.

She said she doesn’t know what triggered her to switch majors, although a trip to Kenya after her freshman year helped point her in the new direction.

“It gave me an insight into the purpose of my life,” she said. “We did service projects, worked with children, built cattle shelters, went to schools and educated people. I was loving every minute of it. The people there, as far as tangible items, had so very little, but such hope and such joy. It made me think of all that could be done.”

At noon, she made her way home for lunch — a luxury, she said, due to the wide variety of tasks that consume her day. She used the opportunity to return five or six phone calls her before returning for her next class, Political Science 385: Women in Politics.

Magill is not the first female to seek presidency of the GSB, nor would she be the first to take office. Still, she said she wants to be viewed as a person first, and a woman second.

“I think with any person, you need to break them down into specifics and their qualifications,” she said.

“But I do feel that as a woman, I’m very intuitive and understanding. I think I portray that very well. I just happen to be a woman, but I’m very proud of that, too.”

By 2 p.m. she’d gotten to the Collegiate Panhellenic Council Office, the organization that she represents on GSB. From there, she made her way to the Veishea office, where she began the long process of returning the 50 or so e-mails she receives per day.

“My WebMail account is always getting overloaded,” she said.

At 3 p.m., it’s class again. She gets out just in time to working on what she calls a “time crunch.” By 4:25 p.m., she finishes meeting with one of her two campaign designers, who’d given her the final design for the table tents she’d be placing around campus. The tents must be approved in Friley Hall, stamped by GSB election commissioner Clint Fichter, and taken to the university copy shop by 5 p.m.

Magill made it, but there were other duties awaiting her before she made it to the debate. Most of her days, she said, are like this, with few moments to spare.

“There’s days that I just sit on the couch at midnight and breathe and think about how busy I’ve been,” she said. “But then I think back on all the things I’ve gotten done today, and it’s totally worth it. I don’t think a person’s day is worthwhile unless they spend some of it doing something for someone else.”

But, she said, being president of GSB would not add to her busy schedule, but give it a different direction and purpose.

“I think what the president would be doing are things I’m doing now, except with different circumstances,” she said. “That’s one plus I have — I’m used to being highly active, dealing with lots of people. Why not do that for GSB, and for students themselves?”