In Fierce Pursuit of her Dreams

by Geoff Lopes

Veteran of the United States Coast Guard. Superstar athlete. Aspiring engineer.

Megan Lewis-Taylor has an inspiring résumé — one that distinguishes her from most other undergraduate college students. At twenty-eight years old, she is clear in her objectives and fierce in their pursuit: she wants to play field hockey, and she wants to be an engineer.

After a year of studying engineering at a college in Florida, Lewis-Taylor decided to join the US Coast Guard. She was stationed on a small boat in Marquette, MI, where her main duties were ice rescue, search and rescue, and law enforcement. In her first summer on the job, Lewis-Taylor said she grew up very quickly: “They gave me a million-dollar boat and said, ‘Ok, go save people’s lives!’”

Lewis-Taylor also served in Yorktown, VA and Boston, MA, where she assisted in several historic missions. “I did disaster response after Hurricane Sandy. It was like something out of a zombie apocalypse – there was no food in the grocery stores. Cars were lined up for miles but there was no gas, and we had to sweep the harbor and make sure it was safe before the freighters could deliver supplies.”

Altogether, Lewis-Taylor served 1,650 underway hours and hundreds of missions, and was directly responsible for saving 10 lives.

When it came time to decide if she was going to commit to another four years, Lewis-Taylor chose instead to revisit her dream of studying engineering. “I have a passion for math and science, and I love learning about how things are made,” she explained. So she enrolled at Daniel Webster College in Nashua, NH.

But just two months into her studies, Daniel Webster filed for bankruptcy. Southern New Hampshire University stepped in and assisted with a teach-out, keeping students in program for the academic year, before launching the College of Engineering, Technology, and Aeronautics (CETA) on the main SNHU campus in Manchester. About half of the students currently enrolled in CETA programs are from Daniel Webster, including Lewis-Taylor.

“I’m pursuing my aeronautical and mechanical engineering degree, and I’m playing field hockey here,” she said. “I’m determined to become an engineer, and being in the Coast Guard really proved to me that I can do anything. My ultimate dream is to work at NASA, in space exploration. And no one is going to stop me."