Morgan, a 21 year old Senior at Pitzer College located in Los Angeles, CA, recently won the College Prowler $1,000 Contributing Author Scholarship.
Morgan helped author the Pitzer College guidebook and was selected by the editorial board for demonstrating outstanding writing skills, completing the project on time, and collecting multiple surveys from fellow students. If you’re interested in learning a little more about this talented, young writer or want to discover how she became a College Prowler author, then read our brief interview with Morgan below!
How and Why did you choose the college you are attending?
I chose Pitzer because I was looking for a small, liberal arts school where I knew my education would flourish. I knew that I wanted to attend a college with an intimate setting, similar to my high school, where I would be given personal attention from professors and in turn be able to shine in a class with fewer students. I knew that the principles that Pitzer holds in such high regard would help me to develop my own personalized education, which is exactly the kind of unique preparation I wanted from a college.
What aided your college search?
I attended a college preparatory school, and during junior and senior year, my classmates and I took seminars on the college search and application process, led by our College Guidance Counselors. These seminars helped to assist us in choosing the perfect schools and following a strict timeline when applying. I was also lucky enough to have parents who were very involved in helping me with my search and making sure that all the right forms were signed and that I remained on top of my studies during the process.
Has your college experience matched your original incoming expectations?
My college experience at Pitzer has more than lived up to what I expected: I have gained so much in terms of educational experience, but also a great deal outside the classroom as well. Since I started my freshman year at Pitzer over three years ago, I have grown in a way that is difficult to describe in just a few sentences, but I would not change the road I have taken to get to where I am today. It has not always been a smooth road, that’s for sure, but I have always found comfort in the friends I’ve made and a profound happiness in my choice of study (writing). College is what you make of it; I am just grateful that I made the choice that was right for me and that I consider myself having succeeded thus far due in great part to my years at Pitzer College.
Why did you want to become a College Prowler author?
I wanted to become a College Prowler author because I knew that I had a lot to say about my school and I hoped that I would be able to assist prospective students in discovering the truth about college. I am very passionate about Pitzer and I enjoyed being able to speak highly of it as an institution. One of the things that I looked forward to the most when I considered becoming an author was the fact that I would be making a difference in other students’ perspectives of the school; I felt that the image that one gets of a prospective college or university is not always honest because of the mainly logistical information they are given, and I wanted to play a part in relaying students’ candid opinions of the true character of their chosen school.
How did you become a College Prowler author?
I have always been fascinated by the college selection process, having begun innocent searches at the young age of eleven, always knowing that I wanted to go to college. So, when my younger sister (who is currently a senior in high school) began her college search, I wanted to assist her in every way that I could. I remembered using College Prowler when I was searching for potential schools to apply to, so I steered her to the website. Upon closer inspection, I realized that I had the opportunity to become a student author of my school and I applied right away. I received an e-mail a short time after I had applied and the next thing I knew, I was scheduling a phone interview and making arrangements to begin my internship.
What did you enjoy most and least about being an author?
What I enjoyed most about being an author was being given the opportunity to let my voice be the main source of insight for my college’s editorials. I loved being trusted as a veritable author and knowing that my college’s essence rested not only on my shoulders, but on the words that came out of the pen in my hand. I don’t think there was anything that I disliked about being an author, although obtaining the surveys from the students was at times a very difficult task. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing editor, Megan McLachlan, who acted as a wonderful liaison and helped me with anything I needed and answered every question that I had. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of being a contributing author is becoming published and seeing my words online and knowing they will be seen by millions of students!
What advice would you recommend for future authors?
First and foremost, I would recommend future authors to get started on acquiring their student surveys as soon as possible! Fifty may not seem like a big number, but when it comes to college students, asking them to do something that is not required of them is not always the simplest thing to do. Also, make sure to be honest. It is very easy to let school pride get in the way when you are writing your editorials, but prospective students deserve to know the truth about your school. That being said, don’t romanticize something that would disappoint them if they do decide to choose your school.
What is something we’d be surprised to know about you?
You’d be surprised to know that I changed my major at least four times since I started college. I entered thinking I wanted to be Pre-Med, then I thought psychology was actually what I wanted, then, no, Spanish—wait, maybe linguistics? While trying to decide what I wanted to do, however, I always knew that I would at least double major with English because my love for writing was too powerful to ignore. And now nearly four years later, here I am, an English and World Literature: Creative Writing major and a published author.
