Megan Hayes is not like most college students her age. She is 22 years old, majoring in cardiac rehab and will be graduating from WSU in December 2015. Along with school, she works at a daycare and absolutely loves all the kids that go there. She volunteers at the humane society, Feed My Starving Children, Pleasant Valley Church and Winona Health.
We got a chance to chat with Megan and hear about why she loves volunteering as much as she does. She said, “Being a college student that pays for everything, I am unable to donate and invest as much money into organizations as I’d like to be able to. That being said, I decided that I could compromise by investing my time. In terms of where I volunteer, I have a huge spot in my heart for children and their endless amount of curiosity for life. I’m also an avid dog lover, enjoy human interaction, and I love getting to obtain experience throughout the hospital and clinic.”
Megan doesn’t have much free time, but when she does, she said, “You can usually find me snuggled up in ten blankets with a dog and a warm cup of coffee, or surrounded by and laughing with my friends and family! If you can’t find me there, then I’m probably outdoors – maybe even running a 5k or jumping into freezing cold water, depending on the day.” This will be her third year doing the Special Olympics Polar Plunge for a sweet little boy she used to babysit, Jacob. Â
Megan doesn’t have any set plans for the future but she hopes to be doing something she loves, while being surrounded by the ones she loves. She has high hopes to travel throughout her lifetime. Her recent goal is to eat ice cream in all 50 states before she dies. She figured she might as well combine two of her favorite things; ice cream and traveling.
When we asked Megan if she has any words to live by, she said, “Enjoy the journey. I think that it gets so easy to get caught up in the destinations throughout life, that we forget to enjoy the moments around us that got us there. I have often found that some of the most incredible, beautiful moments happen along the way, and it’s so important to just be present, rather than always focused on the future.”
This past summer, Megan got to fulfill a small part of her desire to travel, when she went to England and Ireland for a travel study program. She told us “Their accents were as cute as you can imagine, the grass in Ireland was even greener than you see in pictures, and all of the cliché photographs that people take in London, well, they were worth seeing and taking.” Megan is one of the sweetest girls at Winona State University and we are so glad to have gotten the chance to chat with her and hear about all the amazing things she does for our community.