When rising First Battalion Commander Lucy McArthur, \u201926, 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. \u201cOn the drive home, I declined every other school and applied to The Citadel,\u201d said McArthur. \u201cThis is what I was supposed to do\u2014I just knew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McArthur, a double major in Intelligence and Security Studies and English, and a member of the Distinguished Scholars Program, certainly made the right choice. \u201cThe DSP is one of the best resources you could have as a student who\u2019s in pursuit of academic excellence and collaboration with others,\u201d said McArthur. \u201cOnce you\u2019re accepted into the program your sophomore year, you begin a multi-year research project that you\u2019ll present senior year. It\u2019s a long-term process, and the college provides you with grants that allow you to travel anywhere in the world to study.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McArthur\u2019s own research has focused on women\u2019s 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. \u201cA lot of the children in the mountain villages can\u2019t afford to go to school,\u201d said McArthur. \u201cI knew that going in, but seeing it firsthand was a different experience altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u201cThe impact that education has had on me is profound,\u201d said McArthur. \u201cTo be able to share that with others is even more so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though McArthur chose the road less traveled the day she happened upon The Citadel\u2019s campus, her passion for music still guides her academic journey. \u201cMusic brings people together under the auspices of mutual interest,\u201d said McArthur. \u201cIt brings people together, and it connects people. As a foreign diplomat, you\u2019re doing the same thing, just in a different facet of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When rising First Battalion Commander Lucy McArthur, \u201926, 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other"],"yoast_head":"\n