In her new job as director of procurement and compliance for the Lowell Regional Transit Authority (), Meaghan O鈥橞rien 鈥�21, 鈥�22 is responsible for purchasing everything from paperclips to buses.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a little daunting when they tell you you鈥檙e going to be buying buses. Everyone has that experience, don鈥檛 they?鈥� the Dracut, Massachusetts, native says with a laugh.
The fact that O鈥橞rien was hired four months shy of completing her MBA from the Manning School of Business speaks to the LRTA鈥檚 confidence in her abilities. It also says a lot about the impression she made in her three years as an office assistant to Dean Sandra Richtermeyer, who recommended O鈥橞rien for the position.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 imagine being the director of anything at 23 years old,鈥� O鈥橞rien says. 鈥淲ithout Dean Richtermeyer鈥檚 support, I wouldn鈥檛 have had the confidence to even apply.鈥�
O鈥橞rien gained a world of confidence in her five years at UML, where her undergraduate concentrations were in marketing and management and where she worked as a research assistant with the Donahue Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know if I鈥檇 graduate college,鈥� says O鈥橞rien, who was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, a group of rare genetic disorders that affect connective tissue, when she was 8 years old.
鈥淎 lot of my organs don鈥檛 function properly,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y adrenal gland stopped working in high school, my thyroid doesn鈥檛 do great, and my stomach is basically paralyzed, so I had a permanent feeding tube put in a couple of years ago.鈥�
While her condition, which has also led to double vision, can make mobility difficult, O鈥橞rien says she was raised to never let it stop her from going places in life.
鈥淢y parents didn鈥檛 want me to sit at home and be the sick kid. They always had the same expectations for me that they did for my sister,鈥� O鈥橞rien says of her younger sibling, Kaleigh, a junior biomedical engineering major at UML.
As a first-year student, O鈥橞rien joined the Donahue Center through the Manning School鈥檚 Business and Entrepreneur Scholars in Training (BEST) program. She stayed on through graduate school as a research assistant, learning how to do comparative market research and developing a greater appreciation for corporate social responsibility.
O鈥橞rien chose to minor in disability studies because 鈥淚 wanted to learn about other peoples鈥� experiences, not just the little shell of my life,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hatever I ended up doing in the future, I knew I wanted to connect somehow to helping people with disabilities.鈥�
She鈥檚 now doing that at the LRTA, which provides a public transportation service that many rely on to lead independent lives.
鈥淚鈥檓 very lucky that my first job out of college is something that really aligns with me,鈥� O鈥橞rien says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great to be part of something that supports the community.鈥�
O鈥橞rien says the support she received at UML 鈥� from the classroom lessons of Asst. Prof. of Management Elana Feldman and adjunct Kevin Willett to the occasional accommodation from Disability Services 鈥� set her on the path to success.
鈥淭he university has impacted me much more than I thought it would,鈥� she says. 鈥�51视频 was probably the best decision I鈥檝e ever made.鈥�