{"id":201153,"date":"2018-10-02T13:24:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T17:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=201153"},"modified":"2023-07-11T13:29:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T17:29:12","slug":"where-are-they-now-catching-up-with-hesa-alum-meghan-hanrahan-04-ma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/10\/where-are-they-now-catching-up-with-hesa-alum-meghan-hanrahan-04-ma\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Are They Now? Catching Up With HESA Alum Meghan Hanrahan \u201904 MA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0This story\u00a0originally appeared on the Neag School\u2019s\u00a0Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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Two years into her position as director of UConn\u2019s\u00a0master of science in business analytics and project management (MSBAPM) program<\/a>, HESA alumna Meghan Hanrahan \u201904 MA is thriving. She loves her work, the MSBAPM program\u2019s enrollment is on the rise, and Hanrahan herself was recently featured in\u00a0Hartford Business Journal<\/em>\u2019s 2018\u00a0\u201c40 Under 40\u201d issue<\/a>. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m exactly where I should be,\u201d she says. So how, exactly, did she get here?<\/p>\n

\"Meghan
Meghan Hanrahan \u201904 MA serves as the director of UConn\u2019s master\u2019s degree program in business analytics and project management.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When she graduated in 2004 with an MA in higher education administration (now the HESA program), Hanrahan had already been immersed in the UConn community for a good while, having received her bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in Storrs. Upon graduating, she began a national job search and thought a change of scenery might be nice.<\/p>\n

Then a unique opportunity\u00a0presented itself: The UConn tri-campus School of Business program (which has since disbanded) needed a program coordinator for their new undergraduate business and technology program. Hanrahan recognized that the position would be a special one, especially for a young professional like herself. As the coordinator of a dynamic new program, she would have lots of room for growth, development, and entrepreneurship. She decided she couldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity, and thus began her career.<\/p>\n

For almost 10 years, Hanrahan remained in that same type of role in the School of Business, albeit with a number of changes in position and a great deal of upward mobility. Teaching, advising, managing, serving as a faculty liaison, and working with student and orientation services, she did, as she puts it, \u201ceverything you can imagine from a program-level role.\u201d She was instrumental in many vital projects, such as the signing of articulation agreements with local community colleges to create transfer programs and rolling out the Honors program to UConn regional campuses. Best of all, Hanrahan loved her job. \u201cIt was phenomenal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe HESA program taught me so much about the critical roles that student affairs and services play in an institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Meghan Hanrahan \u201904 MA<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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As she approached her 10-year anniversary working with the School of Business, Hanrahan decided she was ready to take on a new challenge. It was then that the leadership team of UConn\u2019s West Hartford campus (which has since moved to Hartford) pitched her an exciting opportunity as the associate director of business and student services for UConn West Hartford. The position, which Hanrahan describes as a regional-level dean of students position, was exactly what she was looking for. In her two-year tenure in that role, she managed an \u201camazing\u201d team and was able to bring her expertise to new institutional areas such as health services, First Year Experience courses, disability services, and community standards. \u201cIt was always what I\u2019d dreamed of, going deeper into student affairs,\u201d says Hanrahan.\u201cI was inspired by the work of my team, and I loved what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Soon enough, however, opportunity came knocking once again. The School of Business was conducting a national search for a new director of the MSBAPM program, and thanks to the strong relationships Hanrahan had built within the School over her career, the hiring committee thought of her. At first, she was reluctant to apply since she still felt inspired and challenged by her role at UConn West Hartford, but as she learned more about the role, she began to reconsider.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students exiting the Front Street entrance at the UConn Hartford campus this fall. UConn Hartford is in part home to the business analytics and project management program that Hanrahan directs. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time, Hanrahan was serving on a number of committees to find directors of regional campuses, and she had started to notice a trend. People applying for these upper leadership roles had either exclusive undergraduate or exclusive graduate experience, but never both. \u201cThe two things I didn\u2019t have experience with at that time were working with grad students and working with international students,\u201d says Hanrahan. Not only was the MSBAPM a graduate program, but it had a significant international student population. With these factors in mind, Hanrahan intentionally applied for the job. She was selected as the new director, and she remains in that position today.<\/p>\n

Hanrahan admits that her first year as the director was challenging. \u201cIt was an unfamiliar environment,\u201d she says, \u201cI missed my undergrads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of giving up, however, she realized she had to dig deep and figure out how to bring her unique skill-set to the position and \u201cbe a value-add to the institution.\u201d Two years in, she has made a total 180 from that challenging beginning. \u201cI\u2019ve realized that my background is so valuable at the graduate level,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve found my niche, and we\u2019re doing\u00a0great<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving real impact on students is what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When asked what she\u2019s most proud of having accomplished since graduating from UConn, Hanrahan tells a powerful story. Not long ago she ran into a former advisee of hers while Hanrahan was out with her 9-year-old son. With Hanrahan\u2019s support and his own remarkable determination, the advisee had gone from not having completed high school to graduating from UConn. He has a wife and children, a house, and he is currently completing a UConn MBA program. When they saw each other, the advisee turned to Hanrahan\u2019s son and said, \u201cI need to tell you something: Your mother changed my entire life.\u201d She says this moment is one of many that keep her strong when she feels stuck or frustrated.\u00a0\u201cHaving real impact on students is what it\u2019s all about,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Hanrahan says she is grateful to HESA for the deep foundation it gave her in student affairs. \u201cThe HESA program taught me so much about the critical roles that student affairs and services play in an institution,\u201d she says. \u201cHESA gave me the tools to be able to articulate the importance of that role, to advocate for it.\u201d What\u2019s more, Hanrahan is currently working on a research project with three senior faculty members at UConn Hartford. HESA, she says, gave her the educational foundation that makes her research possible.<\/p>\n

Hanrahan\u2019s advice for current HESA students and emerging practitioners can be summed up as follows: Stay relevant, find your mentors (across disciplines), and be open-minded. \u201cEven when things are challenging, figure out how you can learn or gain something from the experience,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything is an opportunity!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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View\u00a0this story as it originally appeared<\/a>\u00a0on the Higher Education and Student Affairs website. Learn more about the Neag School\u2019s HESA program at\u00a0hesa.uconn.edu<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years into her position as director of UConn\u2019s master of science in business analytics and project management (MSBAPM) program, HESA alumna Meghan Hanrahan \u201904 MA is thriving. She loves her work, the MSBAPM program\u2019s enrollment is on the rise, and Hanrahan herself was recently featured in Hartford Business Journal\u2019s 2018 \u201c40 Under 40\u201d issue. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m exactly where I should be,\u201d she says. So how,
\nexactly, did she get here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2427,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-201153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-leadership","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 04:41:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201154,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201153\/revisions\/201154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201153"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=201153"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=201153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}