Meagan Taylor (Anthropology) receives Virginia “Jenny” Madden Award

Anthropology Graduate Student, Meagan Taylor, received the University-wide honor, the Virginia “Jenny” Madden Award in recognition of her leadership through service to her program, college, discipline, the University as a whole, and/or the community.

Meagan Taylor entered the Anthropology MA Program in the Spring of 2017 to pursue refugee and immigrant studies as a cultural anthropologist. During her graduate career, she took classes such as Refugees and Mobility, and Volunteerism that further shaped her interests and her understanding of their applications to real world experiences.

Alongside classes, Meagan took an active role on campus and within the community. In her first semester of graduate school, she became the Graduate Network of Arts and Sciences (GNAS) Representative as well as the Secretary of the Anthropology Graduate Student Association (AGSA) where she served as a liaison between the organizations and the graduate students. To complement her academic focus, she volunteered at Americana World Community Center in the after-school program assisting teachers in art and creative writing classes.

In the Spring of 2018, she became the President of AGSA and shortly after that, she started in a new intern role at Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) in Louisville, supporting the Family and Youth Services programs with summer camp and school registration. Within that intern role, she participates in the “In-Project” at Kenwood Elementary where the teachers combine anti-bullying awareness with promoting culture and ethnic diversities among the students. As her time in the program is coming to an end, Meagan is looking into future careers that aid in refugee resettlement and post-resettlement programs and teaching English. She hopes to continue her work in non-profits, providing the holistic and open-minded perspectives she has acquired and developed though her educational career as a cultural anthropologist.