Meagan Taylor '11, M.Ed. '12
"The profound dedication teachers demonstrate inside and outside of the classroom enable them to support, challenge, and inspire their students, impacting positive change on a personal and societal level." ... Meagan Taylor
BrainTrack, a widely referenced higher education and career website, chose Meagan's essay, for its top award, which included a prize of $1000. Meagan's essay offered creative and helpful guidance for current and future teaching students. Her essay gives advice about studying, entering a teaching program, and preparing for a teaching career. For example she writes:
"The best teachers are expert learners. This does not necessarily mean they are encyclopedic storehouses of knowledge. Rather, they know how to learn. They recognize that learning is a mutable skill and understand that students must develop the ability to learn in order to efficiently master content."
Her complete entry can be read here.
Meagan was the 2011 recipient of the Peter D. and Phyllis S. Pruden Endowed Scholarship to support academically distinguished students in the School of Education, concentrating in elementary education who show steady academic distinction and good character." In his announcement, Dean Thomas J. Ward said: "Meagan has shown a special commitment to service and scholarly learning throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies here at W&M exhibiting a passion for social justice and inequality in education. She has been extremely involved in civic, community and curricular endeavors as a volunteer with Head Start and College Partnership for Adult Learners, an on-campus initiative that provides tutoring for english-learning adults."
Meagan chose education because of her passion for education. She writes, "This passion was inspired in part by my mother, a teacher herself, and burgeoned throughout my undergraduate career in the American Studies department at William and Mary. Throughout my undergraduate journey, I began to understand the potential of education as a powerful vehicle for social change. I began to realize the extent to which educational disparities in early childhood and elementary school perpetuate injustices in our society contoured by race, class, and gender. With this understanding, I decided to dedicate myself to providing a quality education for students of all backgrounds and circumstances."
