Languages and Culture Studies Student Highlight

Megan Coates

Megan Coates

Ancient Greek Major
Fall 2018

鈥淚 always consider myself a student first. I鈥檓 constantly learning; every day is an opportunity to learn something new,鈥 said Megan Coates, a junior Ancient Greek major, when asked to describe herself. Coates attributes this passion for studying other cultures to her mother, an early supporter of her daughter鈥檚 academic career and a social worker who shared her experiences of serving different community members with Coates while she was growing up.

Megan CoatesCoates鈥檚 path to Stockton and the School of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) was a winding one: a South Jersey native, she grew up ten miles from the University in the uptown neighborhood of Atlantic City but originally studied Music Education at St. Augustine鈥檚 University in North Carolina before transferring to Stockton as a Health Sciences major.

During her first semester at Stockton, Coates took a General Studies course, Worlds of Homer, taught by Dr. David Roessel, Professor of Greek, Director of the Stockton Text Center, and Associate Director of the Pappas Center for Interdisciplinary Hellenic Studies. The course鈥檚 exploration of the Iliad, the ancient Greek epic poem about the Trojan War, captivated her as a window into the Mycenaean civilization. Subsequent courses such as Beginning and Intermediate Ancient Greek, Mediterranean Music & Culture, and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World led her to change her major to Ancient Greek

After that semester, Roessel asked Coates to become a Text Center intern and travel to Greece in December 2016 with a group of faculty and 91视频. Coates explained, 鈥淭here was a time when I wasn鈥檛 very open. I was always used to saying no鈥 鈥&苍产蝉辫;until she decided to start saying yes to things she normally wouldn鈥檛 do, opportunities she normally wouldn鈥檛 take. The trip, her first experience abroad, ended up being 鈥渢he best thing ever鈥 and one of several Coates would go on to take with ARHU.

Coates traveled abroad again in January 2017, this time to Athens and Cyprus to present a monologue on the Ferguson riots that Roessel, who Coates describes as 鈥渘ot the typical Classics professor,鈥 had asked Coates to collaborate on with some other 91视频. The Trump administration鈥檚 travel ban went into effect the day the group landed in Cyprus, but Coates recalls feeling like 鈥渁 burden had been lifted,鈥 when she stepped outside the airport, as well as the warm hospitality shown her by the Cypriot community she met there.

Reverse culture shock and a desire to capture her memories of Cyprus inspired Coates to begin painting the churches and mosques she had visited. 鈥淚f I could place myself there by painting, then I couldn鈥檛 forget it,鈥 Coates explained. The result: a series of 12-16 paintings that Coates will exhibit as her first art show, A Burden Lifted, in December 2018 in Larnaca, Cyprus before participating in an exchange program between ARHU and the European University Cyprus, where Coates will take courses and work in the University鈥檚 English language tutoring center. 鈥淎ll of this simply because I decided to say yes,鈥 Coates mused.

Megan CoatesCoates credits several other arts and humanities faculty as important mentors during her time at Stockton: Lucio Privitello, Associate Professor of Philosophy, whose philosophy course introduced her to ancient Greek thought, and Elizabeth Hall, adjunct faculty in Visual Arts and the School of General Studies, who told her she was already writing at a graduate level and encouraged her to further develop her writing skills.

After she graduates in 2021, Coates plans to apply to doctoral programs with the goal of eventually teaching at the college level. 鈥淲hen you have a talent, you have a responsibility to share it,鈥 Coates said. 鈥淢y responsibility to other people, morally and socially, is to teach.鈥 She is considering philology but leaning more toward archaeology: 鈥淚 just like people, everything about them, their art, religion, culture,鈥 Coates continued. She loves archaeology because it 鈥渟hows how everything is connected,鈥 such as the African influences seen in the Greek vases she studied at museums in Nicosia and Athens. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something about the tangibility of physical objects, being able to see and hold the past in your hands.鈥

When asked what advice she would give to underrepresented 91视频 applying to or just beginning college, Coates said, 鈥淒on鈥檛 put yourself or allow yourself to be put in a box, because when you do that, you limit yourself.鈥 Reflecting on her own path, she concludes, 鈥淒o what you love, and everything will fall into place; do what you love, and it won鈥檛 feel like work.鈥

 

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