Mairéad O'Grady
Class Year: 2010
Current City/State: Somerville, MA
Major: Music and French
Email Address: msogrady88@gmail.com
Why I Wanted to Serve on the Alumni Council:
Being a student in an academic environment again for the first time since 2010 (as a doctoral student at Tufts University) has made me reminisce a lot about my time at Grinnell and everything that those years gave to me: confidence in communication, belief in the value of my ideas, a desire to make the world a better place, and some of the most important relationships in my life. Now, I want to put all of that to use to contribute back to Grinnell and reconnect with a place so important to my personal identity formation.
A Quote I Like:
“Work is love made visible.”
―Kahlil Gibran
A Little Bit About Me:
After 13 years of work in education, spanning Chiang Mai, Thailand to Washington, DC to Johannesburg, South Africa, I have ended up back where I started, in the Boston area, pursuing my PhD in Tufts University's Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development with a focus on adolescent identity development and civic engagement. That will keep me busy until 2028, at which point I'll decide what is next: Back to secondary education? Something else entirely? Close to home, or elsewhere in the world? I'm excited that I will have the chance for new career and life opportunities several decades into my work.
Other Alumni Involvement: Reunion Planning Committee (2014), GRASP Volunteer (2012-2017), Grinnell Corps - Thailand Fellow (2010-2011)