米根·罗奇喜欢滑雪.

As she sits in the 体育传播中心 on a Wednesday afternoon, the first of her final two semesters slowly winding down – she’ll hate that I mentioned that – a young man, 看起来像个新生, 拿着信封走进房间. He silently hands it over to Meaghan, who opens it and begins counting money. “谢谢，杰克，”当“杰克”转身离开时，她说. The rest of us sitting alongside her in the Center are curious, maybe even a little suspicious as to why Meaghan is being handed wads of cash a few times a day. 她笑着说:“什么? 是为了加拿大.”

As a devoted member of Marist’s ski-team, Meaghan has found a side passion. Not a hustle; the money is for trip expenses, she swears. 她喜欢他们每年去加拿大探险, where the team can lodge and hit the slopes without the cares of school in their minds. But the passion she sees leading her into the future is for sports, specifically sports journalism. While sports broadcasting may have had more accessible “female role models,她回忆道。, 梅根从未看到自己站在麦克风后面. 我想这就是我们相处得这么好的原因.

“I’ve always liked writing and have found a natural talent there. 多年来, my family and friends have asked me to proofread and edit different things they’ve written, and I’ve found that not only am I good at finding ways to make other people’s writing better, 但我也很喜欢,”她说。. “我自称是一个完美主义者和语法势利者, 大家都知道, so I love taking something that’s good and making it as best as it can be.”

作为一个孩子，梅根想成为一名作家. 她, 不像很多人，但很像我自己, 是一个大读者, 希望有一天, she would “be able to say [she] wrote a whole book that people wanted to read and would enjoy as much as I would.虽然她的欲望从那以后发生了轻微的转变, she still loves the idea of writing something that is meaningful. “这一点没有改变.”

The Roche’s ties to the Hudson Valley have always kept Meaghan relatively aware of Marist. “I’ve been familiar with the area my whole life… it holds a special place in my heart.我的额头皱了起来. “我知道你在想什么，”她说. “真的? 波基普西? 是的，我喜欢这里.” It has been clear for some time that Meaghan belonged at Marist, specifically in the school’s 体育传播中心. Her love for the school came long before her enrollment.

“这是我参观过的第一所大学, and I first saw the “old” Marist – the Marist before the dining hall ‘looked like Hogwarts” and the rotunda wasn’t nearly as impressive – back when I tagged along on my older brother’s college tours when I was just a freshman in high school. 从那天起, I silently and selfishly hoped he wouldn’t choose to go to Marist because I wanted to go there and I didn’t want to go to the same college as him,”她说。.

After holding out hope on what was not an uncommon sentiment for a younger sibling, she got her wish. Even before arriving, Meaghan knew that this was her school. 事实上，这里就是她的家. 机会无穷无尽, 就像老话说的那样, 梅根亲眼目睹了这一切, 甚至在到达之前.

“在我高中的最后一年，, I got an email from Strudler inviting me to come to one of the 体育传播中心’s Speaker Series events, 体育记者杰里米·沙普. The event fell on a holiday off from school, so I came up to tour and sit in on his talk,”她说。. “Marist was already my number one school; there wasn’t much left that the campus itself needed to prove to me. But what stood out to me the most was how well spoken and interested the students were that asked questions of Schaap. 我想成为他们中的一员.”

现在，她是. Through Strudler-led projects like the school’s popular speaker series, 以及目前的项目，如中心球场, Meaghan has not only bolstered a resume capable of seeing her employed wherever she’d dream to be, 但她已经磨练了自己的专注力. 运动一直是她生活的动力, from her unfortunate love for the 纽约 Yankees to her desire to produce meaningful work on the sports side of journalism.

When Center Field first began publishing, Meaghan was immediately named Executive Editor. 同时, 当时, not having a relationship aside from “fellow classmate” with co-founders Matt Rzodkiewicz and Marco Schaden, 他们很快成为了她最亲密的朋友. 随着时间的推移，梅根的地位继续攀升. 此后，她一直担任副总编辑, and will be the site’s EIC starting in January of 2019. 一开始并不是这样的.

“I get an email from the department about Center Field, and I go to the first meeting and sign up for what I’m interested in, but I asked the kids who seemed to be in charge if they needed someone to be an editor. They didn’t really seem to have a solid answer for me,” she says, just citing a classic Marco moment. 几个星期过去了, 我什么都没听到, 直到有一天我遇到了利安德·舍拉肯斯, the department’s interim director and faculty advisor for Center Field] on the way to class. He asked if I had gotten involved and I told him I had expressed interest in editing, 我是写作中心的校对员, 我很擅长, 我喜欢它. He passes on my info; I get an email from Marco later that day asking me to come to their meeting. I walked in there thinking I would just help out with copyediting the stories. I walked out of there with the title “Executive Editor.两个学期之后, 中心是我的第二个家, 我的《bet亚洲365欢迎投注》的合作编辑是我的第二个家人.”

After our Monday afternoon Magazine Writing class last semester, Meaghan and I would typically veer toward Donnelly Hall, 希望排队的人少点，喝点新鲜咖啡. 但梅根不这么认为. 她 is, as her 推特 bio states, “one of those weird journalists that doesn’t like coffee.“但不管怎样，我们还是要长途跋涉. 她 may get a bag of chips, or she may just be along for the ride. The one thing I notice on these walks that never falters is Meaghan’s demeanor when we enter the building. 她似乎很生气, as she shields her eyes from the clock by the entrance, 一个在倒计时毕业的日子. “Don’t tell me; I don’t want to know,” she exclaims. 害怕，我顺从了. 虽然我不知道她为什么这么担心. 她比我认识的任何人都有光明的未来.

作者:Will Bjarnar '20