What inspires you to remain so engaged with Rice?
I credit my experience at Rice for providing me not only with a degree and an in-class education, but also with the sense of community that led to meaningful leadership experiences. I was never someone who wanted to be in leadership positions just for the sake of the title, but at Rice I ended up becoming so passionate about the community that I was a part of and wanting to make it better that being involved in "leadership roles" felt organic and natural. Rice taught me that if you love a community, that doesn't mean that you don't think it has any flaws, but rather that you want to work to try to make it even better.
How have you grown/changed in your Rice journey since receiving the award?
I would say that I have grown in my appreciation of how amazing the people I met at Rice are. When I was at Rice, I didn't fully comprehend how lucky I was to be around such smart, funny, passionate humans. Since we graduated, I feel like everyone I was close to has done such amazing things and just continue to be engaged and thoughtful in whatever they are doing. I'm engaged to my fiancé Schaefer, who is also a Rice alum, and we can't wait to take a dance floor photo of all of the Rice alums at our wedding with the Rice Texas flag!
Meghan’s advice:
I would advise my fellow young alums to stay involved with Rice in ways that feel authentic to you. There are so many opportunities to connect professionally, socially, and intellectually with Rice that no matter who you are and what your life looks like now, you can find a way to stay involved. For example, once I graduated I got involved with the CSWGS board for a few years, and attended a lot of their events on campus that kept me feeling connected to Rice's community of scholarship. I also always loved lunch hosting while I was at Rice, and so I enjoy continuing to help out the admissions office by volunteering to conduct alumni interviews through RAVA.
What’s next for you?
I am in a fun position as both an alum and a current student at Rice. After working for a few years, I came back to Rice to start working on my Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology in 2018. It has been cool to experience Rice from the graduate student perspective and I love being able to support undergrads in the classroom and in the lab the way that I was supported in my own Rice undergrad journey.