Megan Clendenon

About Megan Clendenon

Megan C. is obsessed with Cincinnati-style chili, Louisville basketball, and Scandinavian crime fiction. She has lived in six different states and held 12 different jobs since beginning her undergraduate degree at Carleton College in 2008. The wanderlust abated somewhat in recent years, as Megan settled in Texas from 2013 to 2016 to finish a master’s degree in geosciences, write a thesis on the future horrors that stem from climate change, and get married. During her free time, you will find Megan sitting on the couch, cheering for her Louisville Cardinals, planning future adventures abroad, and snuggling with her dog, Tiger. She currently lives outside of Washington D.C.

Everything You Need to Know about Voting in the Upcoming Election — This year, Election Day falls on Tuesday, November 6. Though the next presidential election won’t happen until 2020, this year’s election is a midterm election, making it quite important. In fact, this year, every single seat in the House of Representatives (and there are 435) is up for grabs, as […]

Everything You Need to Know about Voting in the Upcoming Election

This entry was posted in Lifestyle on October 3, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

What You’ll Learn from Taking the SAT or ACT the First Time — No one wants to sit in a classroom for four hours on a Saturday to take a standardized test. Unfortunately, as a high school student, you’ll probably have to do it at least once. While some colleges are going completely test-optional—meaning that you can submit SAT or ACT scores if […]

What You’ll Learn from Taking the SAT or ACT the First Time

This entry was posted in Study Skills on September 17, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

What Lessons Can Lord of the Rings Teach Us? — The Lord of the Rings series is not only a literary masterpiece written by J. R. R. Tolkien, but a set of three more-than-feature-length films (not to mention the three-part Hobbit series). The films led to the development of posters, board games, figurines, and other memorabilia; I’m not too ashamed to admit that I […]

What Lessons Can “The Lord of the Rings” Teach Us?

This entry was posted in Growth on September 10, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

The Importance of Failure — Do you remember the first time you failed a test? Got a low grade on a paper? Struck out in tee ball? Let a goal sneak past you in soccer, hockey, or lacrosse? I don’t remember the specifics of all my failures (which is a huge blessing), but I remember […]

The Importance of Failure

This entry was posted in Growth on September 3, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

How to Be a Better Listener — The experience is probably depressingly common: You’re scrolling through Instagram or watching a show on Netflix when your roommate asks you a question. If you’re considerate, you’ll look up from your phone or pause your show before answering. Many people, though, keep scrolling or watching and multitask while having conversations—and […]

How to Be a Better Listener

This entry was posted in Growth on August 27, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

Why You Should Learn Public Speaking — When I was a senior in high school, I took a public speaking class. In it, we were all required to memorize a song by The Beatles and deliver it as a speech. Most of the class chose “Come Together,” which was arguably quite hard to deliver because the lyrics, […]

Why You Should Learn to Be Good (Decent) at Public Speaking

This entry was posted in Study Skills on August 20, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

Understanding 529 Savings Plans — Note: We usually write to students and for students, but sometimes there’s a topic that is important enough to involve parents, and this blog post is going to cover one of those topics. That’s not to say that this topic isn’t of interest to students, because it is something that […]

Understanding 529 Savings Plans

This entry was posted in Money and Financial Aid on August 13, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

Seven Electives Everyone Should Take in College — Colleges have different policies for when students are allowed to declare their majors, but often it’s not until sophomore year. This gives you plenty of time to take electives, get prerequisite classes out of the way, and explore topics you wouldn’t otherwise consider before you get bogged down in the […]

Seven Electives Everyone Should Take in College

This entry was posted in Study Skills on August 6, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

What to Do If Your Debit or Credit Card Is Compromised — A few years ago, I went through a phase where I was on the phone with the bank every couple of months to report credit card fraud. Sometimes the bank would send me a text about questionable charges. Sometimes I would notice something fishy when I went to pay my […]

What to Do If Your Debit or Credit Card Is Compromised

This entry was posted in Money and Financial Aid on July 30, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

Techniques to Help You Make Smart Purchasing Decisions — When it comes to making purchases, many of us are guilty of buying things that we don’t really want, don’t really need, or won’t really use. It’s easy to let your closet grow so much that you couldn’t possibly wear everything in a year, or your DVD collection to balloon […]

Techniques to Help You Make Smart Purchasing Decisions

This entry was posted in Money and Financial Aid on July 23, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

How to Maximize Your European Vacation — When you can afford to do so, traveling to a foreign country is an amazing and rewarding experience. I’ve had the travel itch for as long as I can remember and every year, I act on it. From Australia to Estonia to Sweden to New Zealand, I’ve made it my […]

How to Maximize Your European Vacation

This entry was posted in Travel on July 16, 2018 by Megan Clendenon

10 Lesser-Known National Parks to Visit this Summer — Having earned two degrees in geosciences, you can say that I have a bit of a soft spot for the great outdoors, particularly mountains, rivers, and caves. I worked for the National Park Service (at Fossil Butte National Monument, about three hours south of Jackson Hole, WY) and spent my […]

10 Lesser-Known National Parks to Visit this Summer

This entry was posted in Travel on July 9, 2018 by Megan Clendenon