When rising First Battalion Commander Lucy McArthur, ’26, first stepped foot on The Citadel campus in her senior year of high school, she knew it was the perfect fit. She had been in Charleston to tour other schools with plans for a degree in music. McArthur ended up on The Citadel campus by chance and never looked back. “On the drive home, I declined every other school and applied to The Citadel,” said McArthur. “This is what I was supposed to do—I just knew.”
McArthur, a double major in Intelligence and Security Studies and English, and a member of the Distinguished Scholars Program, certainly made the right choice. “The DSP is one of the best resources you could have as a student who’s in pursuit of academic excellence and collaboration with others,” said McArthur. “Once you’re accepted into the program your sophomore year, you begin a multi-year research project that you’ll present senior year. It’s a long-term process, and the college provides you with grants that allow you to travel anywhere in the world to study.”
McArthur’s own research has focused on women’s education in different regions of East Africa, a topic she was inspired to pursue after visiting Rwanda with a group of cadets to help restore local bike trails. “A lot of the children in the mountain villages can’t afford to go to school,” said McArthur. “I knew that going in, but seeing it firsthand was a different experience altogether.”
McArthur has been busy: the rising senior has conducted extensive research, both at home and abroad, where she utilized a DSP-sponsored grant to explore the National Archives in the United Kingdom and had the opportunity to learn about foreign diplomacy up close through an internship on Capitol Hill. In collaboration with the Rafiki Foundation, an NGO engaged in educational outreach in Africa, McArthur is spending the summer in Kenya interviewing students and teachers about their experiences. “The impact that education has had on me is profound,” said McArthur. “To be able to share that with others is even more so.”
Though McArthur chose the road less traveled the day she happened upon The Citadel’s campus, her passion for music still guides her academic journey. “Music brings people together under the auspices of mutual interest,” said McArthur. “It brings people together, and it connects people. As a foreign diplomat, you’re doing the same thing, just in a different facet of life.”