Healing the Mind

First-Year Stories: Texas native hopes to use scholarship to work toward psychiatric research

Maegan Short began her Regis University career with flying colors. 

Short finished high school as a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, and she also received a prestigious scholarship in psychology and neuroscience from Regis. But the path to this point hasn’t been an easy one for the first-year student from Frisco, Texas. 

“I’ve struggled a lot with depression and anxiety, and that [affected] my work ethic, my energy and my self-esteem,” Short said. “So academically, that presented … a challenge, of just having the energy and the motivation to get stuff done, and believing that I could be successful.” 

Short credits her work with a psychiatrist as one of the major factors that has helped her work through some of the most difficult moments. Now, she hopes to use her scholarship to work toward medical school, and ultimately, do research as a psychiatrist to help others struggling with mental health. 

To set the foundation for that goal, she plans to double major in psychology and neuroscience. 

“I’m also excited for the classes that aren’t part of my major, just to be well-rounded,” she said. 

Short ended up at Regis after attending a campus tour during a vacation to Colorado in high school. Although her family encouraged her to consider the University of Oklahoma, where she had family nearby, her experience touring Regis made it her first-choice school. 

“I chose Regis [in part] because I really liked their philosophy of taking care of the whole person. ... I came from a really academically competitive high school, so the idea of being in a community where people weren’t dead-set focused on tests and being better than each other really appealed to me.” 

As part of her goal to be well-rounded, Short attended the Regis Outdoor Adventure Program’s (OAP) First Tracks trip, and hopes to get more involved in OAP events. She is also considering involvement in areas such as theater and intramural sports. 

“Really, the people and the community here I feel are going to be great.”