It did not take long for Megan McCarley to decide what she wanted to do in the future. After participating in choirs starting in second grade, performing in her first show in third grade and taking lessons from a private voice teacher starting in sixth grade, Megan found her passion at a young age.
Beginning this fall, she hopes to pursue her passion through majoring in vocal performance at Samford University in Birmingham, AL.
“My dream would probably be to get discovered and record and make albums,” Megan said. “I would love to do that and maybe on the side lead worship at a huge mega-church.”
Megan recognizes the wide variety of careers that could follow a major in vocal performance. She also sees herself being a music therapist because her two passions are music and helping kids.
Although Megan is going nine hours away to follow her dreams, she won’t forget the family atmosphere of Kirkwood. Aside from her parents and friends, she said she will miss Kirkwood’s small community and the comfort of her home. But, with only about 3,300 undergraduate students, Megan hopes to experience the same feeling away from home.
“It’s kind of like going from one small community to another one,” Cindy McCarley, Megan’s mom, said. “Samford is a pretty small school, and that’s one of the things she always liked about it–that there’s a real sense of community.”
Cindy’s description of the distance from Kirkwood to Samford is “too long.” A nine-hour drive away, Megan’s parents know the transition of her moving out this fall will not be an easy one.
“That’s one of the things I will miss the most,” Cindy said. “This house is going to be so quiet when she’s not upstairs always singing.”
