Senior Spotlight: Megan Gibson
Get to know Megan Gibson.
Q: What is your major?
A: International relations with an emphasis in Middle Eastern studies.
Q: Hometown?
A: Califon, N.J.
Q: What’s a fun fact about yourself?
A: On long car rides when I was little, I would put my legs on the back of the captain seats in the mini van and I would have them race to reach the floor. I secretly always wanted my left leg to lose because I thought the left side was evil and the right side was holy. I tried not be biased, but I always made the right leg win.
Q: What are your plans after graduation? The ultimate dream?
A: I have plans just to work – I’m not going to specify where yet because that’s still in motion – but my ultimate dream is to work for a nonprofit coordinating relief efforts from the United States, but internationally. I don’t want to live overseas, but I want to have relations internationally particularly in the Middle East. If I could do something where I coordinate efforts here (in the states) and then take a month or so to travel go to the countries I’m helping.
There are different programs and I’ve looked at many of them. I am extremely interested in what they’re doing, but as a coordinator you do so many different things. Being a coordinator requires a level of experience that I don’t quite have yet, so the plan is to work for a few years, let personal things in my life take root and then pursue that kind of career path.
Q: What was your favorite memory from your time at Regent?
A: When I was a life group leader, I go to see a lot of my girls get baptized at Unchapel. It was such a cool experience for me to rejoice with them in their decision to be baptized. Something I’ve loved about Regent is their commitment to love the Lord and commitment to grow students in the Lord. I also have enjoyed being apart of Resident Life at Regent. It has been an amazing time learning how to lead better in leadership positions. I definitely would not be where I am if I hadn’t grown in the leadership roles I’ve had.
Q: How specifically has Regent prepared to be a Christian Leader to Change the World? And how do you want to live that out on day-to-day bases?
A: Regent has done a really good job at making you think. Regent hasn’t forced me into any certain ideology or perspective, but has made me think about what I believe, why I believe it and how I can put that into motion. It has allowed me and pushed me to seek knowledge and seek excellence in that knowledge in order to better the Kingdom of God. For example, when I went to Jordan, it is a Muslim country, so people are going to ask you why you believe the things you believe and you’re going to have dialogue and arguments. I had to figure out the core of why I love Jesus and why I believe in Jesus. With that, Regent really helped me gain background knowledge as well as heart knowledge, so I was able to evangelize simply through dialogue with people.
Regent has also helped me be bold in what I want to declare in my faith, but also knowledgeable about my faith in order to accurately articulate it to people who have no idea about Christianity. It has really helped me see people in a new way because I used to be pretty judgmental. Regent has challenged me to see people through a different lens of love and acceptance rather than judgment. I have learned to be a lot more accepting of ‘different’ and diversity because it adds beautiful colors to the Christian faith. I have learned to be intentional with people and have realized that relationships are so important. You don’t need to build a relationship with everyone, but the ones you do invest in, invest in them wholeheartedly and be Christ-like.
Q: If you could go back and change one thing about your time at Regent, what would it be?
A: I had this goal to sing on the Gospel Choir before I graduated and I don’t think it’s going to happen, which is sad. I would probably go back and make more of an effort to do that, but I wouldn’t change anything huge.
Madeline Ferrante is a staff writer for The Daily Runner.