By Elexis Baltimore, Editor
From Graduate to Business Owner
Welcome back to the McKendree Graduate Series! With the excitement of graduation all around us, we at the McK Review want to showcase the endless possibilities of graduating from McKendree. As graduation steadily approaches, I think it is safe to say that many of us are nervous about what lies after we walk across the stage. However, as these McK Alumni will tell you, everything will be alright! So grab your stress ball and listen to what McK graduate Meghan Dohogne has to say!
As Meghan went through her first year of college, she was unsure exactly what she wanted to do. “I took classes in various disciplines to see what I was most interested in,” Meghan said. “Like most people, I was very interested in many subjects.”
From there, Meghan received her Associate’s in General Studies. It was during this time that Meghan realized she not only enjoyed history, but that it also came very naturally to her. In order to still keep her other interests in line with her goals, she added art and art history minors. During her time at McK, Meghan interned at The Regional Arts Commission in St. Louis. “During this internship, I learned the potential career opportunities of someone in my field,” she said. “It was around that time that I began to shape a clearer understanding about what I wanted to do for a ‘job’.”
In 2014 Meghan graduated McKendree with her Bachelor’s in History and was McK’s first student to graduate with an art history minor. Meghan then moved to pursue her master’s degree at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, where she specialized in art history with an emphasis in modern and contemporary art. “Believe it or not, KC has a booming art scene that is a powerful economic generator,” explained Meghan, “and there are many opportunities for people in this field.” Since graduating Meghan has decided to stay in Kansas City where she and a colleague have collaborated to start their own business: D2 Research.
“Creating a business is an amazing journey. It is different than a typical job because there is no one to hold you accountable except for yourself. It helps to be self-starting and passionate about the type of work you are doing.”
D2 Research is a interdisciplinary research service, which provides individuals, business, organizations, and various other clients with research, collection management, writing, and curation. Meghan and her colleague Poppy DiCandeloro have worked with various institutions around Kansas City to display art exhibitions that are adequately researched. Growing up in a small town, Meghan never dreamed that she would be starting her own business, let alone one in the arts.
“The best advice I can think to pass along is to not really be so concerned about not having it all figured out. Graduating is a HUGE accomplishment and it should be recognized as such. It is important to look ahead and think about your next steps, but if I would have been so rigid in my idea of how I believed I ‘should’ be doing things, I would have never been able to consider other opportunities that happened organically.”
Thanks for sharing this story, Elexis. It’s great to hear what Meghan is doing now. She was one of the students who created the McKendree Recollections book when she was here. She truly “made her mark” at McKendree and now in KC.