{"id":2045,"date":"2018-12-31T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/?p=2045"},"modified":"2023-06-14T11:52:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T18:52:59","slug":"meet-meagan-and-meghan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/meet-meagan-and-meghan\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Meagan and Meghan<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Yen Huynh December 31, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meagan Darrow (pictured left) and Meghan Goldenberger (pictured right) attended Western Washington University(WWU) for undergrad, studying Community Health Education and earning their Bachelor of Science degrees just a few years apart from one another. Goldenberger worked in public health doing substance abuse prevention and education in Skagit County then in healthcare administration in Seattle before landing back in her hometown of Olympia working at TOGETHER! in 2006. After graduating from WWU, Darrow worked as a Nutrition Educator in Title I schools in South King County through Washington State University\u2019s King County Extension Food $ense program. She then moved to work for Tukwila School District writing school health policies then moved on to a nonprofit called Community Schools Collaboration as their Health Director, implementing public health strategies in public schools and communities in South King County. After her husband was transferred to Olympia for his job, she had her first child, and was hired on at<\/span> TOGETHER!<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Darrow knew she wanted to either get a Master\u2019s in Public Health or Nonprofit Administration. She had heard about Evergreen\u2019s Master of Public Administration (MPA) program through information sessions. Meagan also sat in on a class both at Evergreen and the University of Washington Public Health program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having gone through K-12 schooling in Thurston County, Goldenberger knew about Evergreen and grew up swimming there as a child. Evergreen was already a treasure in her family as they initially moved to Olympia from Montana when she was a child so her mom could finish her Bachelors studies at Evergreen, after attending Evergreen in the 70s. Meghan has also taken a digital media course at Evergreen on a summer off between academic years at WWU.<\/span><\/p>\n

Applying for MPA at Evergreen<\/b><\/p>\n

Darrow applied to the program first but deferred initially, and then Goldenberger hired Darrow at TOGETHER! in 2011. As Darrow and another colleague talked about graduate school, a fire was lit for Goldenberger, who applied at the late deadline in 2012. The two found Evergreen\u2019s evening and weekend studies Master of Public Administration program highly attractive for several reasons including accessibility for working people and young parents raising their families, as well as its reputation and great return on investment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two listed the following among some of their favorite experiences in the program:<\/span><\/p>\n