Maegan Brejnik (2021)
Two days before graduation, Cornell Tradition alum Maegan Brejnik was offered a one-year position to work for AmeriCorps. “I felt like everyone had it figured out, everyone had a job, and I was scrambling.” Maegan graduated in 2021 from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a major in Environment and Sustainability, a minor in Climate Change, and a concentration in Environmental Justice and Policy Analysis. She had been applying for jobs, but the impact of COVID caused many employers in the environmental field to implement hiring freezes. “It was stressful. I was counting how many job applications I was submitting. And my friends threw me a party once I hit 100. I stopped counting after I reached 120.”
For Maegan, accepting a year-long position with AmeriCorps was a great way to build her skills and try new things. The mission of AmeriCorps is to engage individuals with work programs in a variety of sectors. The agency matched Maegan with Walk Bike Nashville, a nonprofit organization that creates opportunities for people to learn, grow and feel safe while traveling on foot, by bike or by transit in the city. Because the role had a specified end date, she could plan to attend graduate school when her term had completed. She credits her experience gained from the Cornell Tradition for finding ways to make a meaningful experience with Walk Bike Nashville as she was responsible for organizing community meetings and listening to the residents to help develop ways in how they could work together to make the community safer.
During her time at Cornell, Maegan says that the Cornell Tradition helped her to grow as a person. Due to the requirements, she said she had to learn about time management, and in addition to staying involved in a community, looking for ways to help improve the community while she lived there. Maegan was on the Student Advisory Committee (SAC), which gave her the opportunity to learn how to organize and oversee volunteer events. Maegan reflected on how fun volunteering at events was for her and advises current Fellows to sign up to help at events because of the positive outcomes that can happen because of them. “You will meet some other great volunteers. You might have a great time. It might be something you are tangentially interested in, but then you discover it is a passion of yours.”
Maegan also discussed utilizing the resources that Cornell has to offer. “Take advantage of CAPS and mental health services. I think it is so important, just in terms of making sure you're enjoying every bit of Cornell that you can.” She also encourages students to meet with Career Services staff, even if it is simply to receive resume feedback. “Book an appointment and they will help you figure out what career paths might be good for you and help you figure out those options. It's nice just to have someone to bounce ideas off of, so that you aren’t doing it alone in your room and submitting 100 job applications.”
Maegan acknowledged that Cornell can be stressful, and meeting Tradition’s program requirements can feel rather challenging. Maegan provided the reassurance that the values of the Cornell Tradition are what is most important to its fellows, and by upholding those values, it will help to keep them motivated, even when it feels like classes are overwhelming.
Currently, Maegan is a graduate student at Indiana University enrolled in a dual degree program of Public Affairs and Environmental Science. She also works part-time at the Monroe County Planning Department. Maegan invites anyone who is interested in what she has done or what she is currently doing to feel free to contact her via email at mgb233@g.cornell.edu.