La Salle Alum Megan McGee Doing in One Year
What Many Students Do in Three
at Penn State’s American Studies Graduate Program 

Megan McGee was one of only two applicants to receive a full scholarship to the American Studies Graduate Program at Penn State’s Capitol campus in Harrisburg. That was good news, but there was one catch: there was no guarantee she’d be funded for a second or even third year. So, McGee, of Enola, Pa., decided to complete her master’s degree in only one academic year.

She has a total of 37 textbooks for this semester alone.

McGee is currently taking 12 credits in her first semester, and will follow that up with 15 in her second. Then during the summer she plans to complete her thesis while also taking one more class.

Although that's quite a bit to handle, McGee thinks her busy undergraduate experience at La Salle University in Philadelphia, where she earned a B.A. in American Studies, prepared her well. Outside of class work, McGee was an active in the University’s theatre company and the student newspaper and yearbook. She was a member of the Honors Program and served as the president of the American Studies Association.
 
"I'm handling my four classes pretty well, and I think I'll be fine," McGee said. "At La Salle, I had so many extra curricular commitments, but now it's just school. Considering graduate work is all I'm doing now, it's pretty manageable for me."

"It's okay being closer to home. I liked Philly because there was more to do and my friends were there. But I also like being closer to my family, and the opportunity Penn State has given me,” said McGee, who was graduated from East Pennsboro Area High School in Enola.
 
"The biggest difference is that while La Salle was very community minded, at Penn State there's more of a focus on the working adult. It's much more about yourself, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm still adjusting to the new mentality."

"So far, I'm enjoying myself," she said. "I like that it's just a few people bouncing ideas off each other and challenging each other."

Considering that only 20 students are brought into Penn State's American Studies program each year, getting accepted is an accomplishment all its own. More than 60 students from around the country applied.  The other recipient of the full scholarship was from Brigham Young University in Utah.

"It's a competitive assistantship that we have," Simon Bronner, Director of Penn State's American Studies Graduate Program, said. "It attracts national interest, and there are several factors that weigh in besides academic statistics, including a broad educational background and the potential for future development as a scholar.”
 
"Megan has been a great fit. She has a good idea of what she wants to do in the field and is obviously very self-directed," he said.
 
 As an undergraduate, McGee discovered her interests were in urban history, pop culture, and the history of the U.S. space program. She plans to gear her work and her master's thesis, and eventually a doctorate, toward these areas.

"I want to go all the way and become a professor," McGee said. "We'll see where I am when I'm done at Penn State. I may take a break and teach at college for a while, but the ultimate goal is the Ph.D."
 
Francis Ryan, Director of La Salle American Studies program at La Salle, thinks McGee is more than capable of going the distance. While he cited her academic success as one indicator (she graduated from La Salle with a GPA of 3.62), Ryan said there are more pertinent reasons to bank on McGee's continued success.
 
"She obviously has the academic skills, but more importantly, she has the personal work ethic that is required to complete a Ph.D. and be a successful professor," he said. "She is incredibly mature and focused and has a great ability to synthesize themes and make connections. She's also sophisticated in her ability to research, a close reader, and her writing is crisp and always well-organized. You really can't say enough."
 
In addition to her coursework, McGee has been helping out with research, archiving and outreach at The Center of Pennsylvania Culture Studies. 

"It's a great part of our program because it gives her some real world experience in our field that she can put on her resume," Bronner said.
 
-- Frank Visco