“My voice matters.” – Emi Mae Harmon, 2024 Meg Petersen Endowed Scholarship recipient
A native of Bristol, New Hampshire, Emi Mae Harmon, ’27, has always counted writing among her academic strengths. At PSU, she says she has been learning how to polish her writing and to break habits that have been holding her back as a writer. She loves being able to focus on English, surrounded by “thoughtful and creative” people who share her love of writing and whose presence and engagement impact her own work. Emi sees deep and important connections between the various functions of writing – communication, storytelling, idea-sharing – and humanity at large.
Emi is also a member of the Honors Program at PSU and has enjoyed attending various scholarly and social events with that group. The art history class she took this last year “really inspired me to consider minoring in it, as I feel like art history and visual analysis can go hand in hand with writing.”
At Newfound Regional High School, Emi was the student of Crystal (Lavoie) Bonin, who graduated from PSU in 2004. “I loved having her as a teacher,” says Emi; Crystal found Emi’s work and ideas “impressive” in the “massive, chaotic mythology class” she taught.
Emi looks forward to continuing to improve her writing and sharing it with others. She finds that keeping up with her own writing projects while also staying on top of school work can be challenging at times, but says that “the support and encouragement from others at Plymouth in academic, personal, and financial matters . . . really helps me to feel like my voice matters, and that I have such a great support system backing me up as I am only just getting started.”
The purpose of The Meg Petersen Endowed Scholarship is to provide scholarships for deserving students at Plymouth State University who are seeking a bachelor’s degree in English education or a writing-related discipline and who demonstrate financial need. In providing support for this purpose, the donors hope to encourage graduates to enter their chosen professions with a strong sense of writing as a priority for academic and career success. To contribute to the endowment for this scholarship, click HERE.
A lifelong teacher, writer, and poet, Meg Petersen was a passionate and award-winning professor of English Education at PSU for thirty years. She was bilingual, publishing and teaching in both English and Spanish, and embraced a transnational identity. As a two-time Fulbright Scholar (2008 & 2015) Meg worked with colleagues and educators in the Dominican Republic on teaching writing in Dominican schools. This work, coupled with her involvement with the National Writing Project, led to the creation of the Proyecto de Escritura Nacional (PEN), the Dominican site of NWP in 2016. Meg passed away in 2023.
To learn more about Plymouth State’s English program, please reach out! You can find us here at the Ellen Reeder, on the PSU website, on LinkedIn, and at our Facebook page.
