Utah State University, Class of 2000

Of herself, Megan says: 

I hail from a small, mostly agricultural town in the southwestern portion of the state, population about 2000. I'm the fourth of six children and was a reserved and determined tomboy from the beginning. I came to Utah State University on a small scholarship and started out as a double major in journalism and anthropology. I entered the Honors Program from the beginning as a way of enhancing my labor market chances and enhancing my chances of obtaining a PhD, but it became so much more. By my second year . . . I was working in the Honors office and coming into my own as a student and scholar. A combination of a great major department and participation in Honors opened up unique opportunities in independent research and scholarship, and as a result I left Utah State in the winter of 2000 with an Honors degree and my sights solidly focused on a PhD. After working in Boston for a year and a half as a teaching assistant in a low-income school district and as a coordinator at a non-profit health research agency, I landed in Madison, WI pursuing a PhD in sociology, specializing in social inequality and labor, education and family. Once I complete my studies in Madison, I hope to pursue research with policy applications at a research university.