He got in the Husky costume. Volunteered spring breaks for Habitat for Humanity.

Joined a long list of civic groups. Testified before the U.S. Secretary of Education.

Spent last semester in Bulgaria, almost died. And this semester, there were internships at U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ Portland office and at the Maine International Trade Center.

It’s been four full years.

“I think that you get the most from a college education when you get involved,” Joshua Chaisson of Greene said last week, during his last day at the trade center.

Pressed whether he left time for fun, he said, smiling, it was fun.

The University of Southern Maine honored him at yesterday’s commencement as one of two outstanding seniors in the Class of 2007.

“Joshua, for whatever reason, never says ‘no’ and always takes on other things and always makes it work,” said Larry Bliss, director of career services and professional life development at USM. Bliss nominated Chaisson.

“He’s not after credit, he’s about getting it done,” Bliss said.

Chaisson, 22, an economics major, co-founded the new University of Maine System Student Government with a friend from the University of Maine at Farmington. The group will give a voice to students when systemwide issues like tuition come up.

He also became USM’s first student body president in 2005.

Politics could be in his future. “Maybe someday I’ll run a larger campaign,” Chaisson said.

He said he’d like to work with the public, maybe in city administration or with an interest group. He’s been accepted into graduate school at Suffolk and George Mason universities to study public policy and political science, but hasn’t decided whether he’ll go.

The deciding factor: “If I can figure out to financially afford it,” he said.

That topic, making college affordable, is what brought him in front of the U.S. Education Secretary in Boston. He was the only person from Maine to talk to Margaret Spellings and her committee.

Chaisson’s father, David, is a longtime employee at Bath Iron Works. His mother, Lillian, is a nurse at Central Maine Medical Center.

He said he remembers watching the news when he was younger and seeing how big issues, like civil rights, affected people he cared about.

“It’s hard not to be passionate about them,” he said.

Last fall, Chaisson spent the semester at the American University in Bulgaria.

“I think you grow a lot more as a person when you go some place like that instead of somewhere like home,” he said.

He went hiking in the mountains one day and fell, bursting his spleen.

“I was two hours from dying, that’s what the doctor told me, and I was signing all this paperwork in Bulargian I couldn’t even read,” Chaisson said.

He woke up with a long scar and no spleen. He smiled even retelling that story. “Considering that, I learned a lot,” he said.