Megan McNally, a senior in Barnard College in New York City, winner of the Jacquie Walker Scholarship, was among the Branch’s many scholarship winners recognized at the annual Potluck Dinner Sept. 14.
The Book Sale Executive Committee selected Megan from among 45 applicants for the one-time award that honors the WIVB-TV anchorwoman who has served as honorary chair of three AAUW Scholarship Book Sales and whose tenure in Buffalo has included a distinguished professional career and remarkable public service. Invited to participate in the selection process, Walker reviewed applications of the 12 finalists selected by the committee and came to the same conclusion as the committee. All agreed that Megan’s academic record and public service achievements are superior; a conclusion not easily reached as the competition attracted a stellar group of students.
Megan, a Williamsville North High School graduate, is an environmental policy major in Barnard, an affiliate of Columbia University, where she was selected one of fifteen students for the college’s Centennial Scholars program. Each of the students was given $4,000 to develop a project, which might include travel, study or research.
Influenced by her experiences as an intern with Buffalo ReUse during the summer of 2008, Megan chose a different path. She and another Centennial Scholar, Whitney Yax of Buffalo, pooled their resources and purchased for $3,500 a house on Eaton St. at a foreclosure auction and began a restoration that became a demonstration process. With the help of friends, family and volunteer craftsmen and contractors the women acquired impressive construction skills. In turn they passed on their new skills through free renovation workshops open to Buffalo residents. The house became headquarters for Buffalo Basics, a program to make do-it-yourselfers out of homeowners in an economically depressed neighborhood. Their goal was to help Buffalo’s residents salvage their housing stock.
Megan’s housing project is the most impressive of the many volunteer activities included in her resume. But, as Walker stated in her evaluation of Megan’s project: “it so clearly demonstrates her dedication to serving others, her community, and the world at large…that I find it very compelling. She is already doing what you would expect to see from a graduate several years after college.”
Judy Clare, a former Book Sale coordinator, was chair of the selection process, receiving and screening close to four dozen applications. Jacquie Walker made the presentation and provided television coverage of the event.
