Not many people would allow a homeless man to sleep on their porch during the winter so the stranger would at least have a place to spend the night. Many would be frightened by an unshaven, untidy man who only wants the comfort of a roof over his head.

However, Mike Valo, a senior in finance, is the opposite. He is always willing to extend a helping hand, regardless of the identity of the individual. This winter, Valo and his roommates allowed a homeless man to sleep on their house porch every night.

One of Valo’s roommates, Steve Mohr, a senior in human development and family science, said Valo is a compassionate person.

Seeing a person like the homeless man, who was in such a desperate situation, really affected Valo, Mohr said.

“Mike is really sensitive, and that just broke his heart,” he said. “He sat and talked to the guy for two hours one night. Some nights he couldn’t sleep knowing that the guy was on our porch, so he’d get up and give him a pair of his sweat pants.

“He’s become a lot less Mike-focused in the past few years. He’s a lot more concerned with everyone else,” Mohr said. “He understands what’s important in life.”

Valo’s knowledge of life is one of the reasons Keith Little, a first-year law student, decided to choose Valo as his running-mate for the Undergraduate Student Government presidency two years ago.

“He does a lot of what he does because he really has a heart to help people in some capacity,” Little said. “Deep down, I think he would feel he wasted a lot of his talents if he didn’t do all these things.”

Valo said he had always been interested in student government, but he never thought he would be involved with it. There were some scandals in USG at about the same time, but Little was still able to talk Valo into joining him as his running-mate.

“I had no idea I’d ever run a campaign for vice president,” he said. “Obviously we didn’t win, but we won the respect of (USG President) Eddie Pauline and his team that eventually won the race. They invited us to be a part of the Cabinet, because they liked what Keith and I were about.”

Valo now serves as director of the off-campus committee of USG’s Cabinet. He plans on graduating in June and has spent much of the year working with younger students to help them take over after he is gone. Valo also works as an adviser to Pauline.

Along with campaigning, Valo lists one of his highlights as an OSU student as being crowned the 2002 Ohio State Homecoming king.

“It was such a surreal experience, being in the stadium in front of 105,000 people and hearing your name announced as being on the Homecoming court,” Valo said.

“I was so excited for him,” said Jamie Valo, Mike Valo’s sister and a junior in biology.

“I thought he had a chance to win, but still, when they announced him as Homecoming king, I was excited for him,” she said. “I was proud to say that Mike was my brother.”

Along with USG, Valo is an active member of Campus Crusade for Christ. Valo first got involved with Campus Crusade because of a suggestion an OSU alumnus wrote in one of his high school graduation cards.

“After living a life that didn’t bring too much satisfaction, Campus Crusade became a bigger part of my life, because I saw that God was satisfying,” he said. “I want others who have experienced life for themselves — and found life not to be so satisfying the way that they’re living it — to be able to find the same thing.”

Since then, Valo’s involvement has increased tremendously. He has led a Bible study for four years, and he was instrumental in starting a greek meeting on campus similar to the Christian organization Real Life. He works closely with staff and students to provide leadership for Campus Crusade.

“I was excited about what had happened in my life as a result of being in a Bible study in Steeb (Hall), so I thought it would be cool to pass that on to other guys who were coming and were going to be there,” Valo said.

Little said a lot of Valo’s character comes from relationships he has with his family.

“You can’t talk about Mike and not talk about his family,” Little said. “Mike is extremely close with his whole family, and he treats his parents with an amazing amount of respect and gratitude, and rightly so, because his family is great.”

“Having good character is something he learned from our dad,” Jamie Valo said. “Wherever he is in life, character is the most important thing. It’s more important than any other success. Mike has certain convictions, and he’s not going to waver from those.”

Valo also takes a lot of pride in his basketball intramural teams. Both of his intramural teams are currently undefeated, and he was on a championship team a few years ago. He and Little were co-captains for the basketball team at Toledo Christian during their senior year.