“Reaching Your Dream” series tells stories of Northwestern alums who found their dream careers thanks to Chicago Field Studies (CFS), an academic internship program that matches over 500 students every year with over 250 employer partners. CFS participants receive guidance on choosing internships based on their passions and values, navigating applying and interviewing, and succeeding in the professional world. While interning, students process their experiences in weekly CFS seminars, where they reflect on the place of work in their lives and the role of their industry in society.
By Nina Wieda
Megan Trout is a Senior Associate Brand Manager at Tyson Foods and a graduate of Harvard Business School. Her success in business administration seems so organic now. Yet, in 2008, as a Northwestern senior majoring in International Studies and Spanish, Megan wasn’t sure how to launch her career in business until she got accepted into Chicago Field Studies.
A daughter of a teacher and a school administrator, Megan grew up on the campus of Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school in Minnesota. She loved the Gothic Revival architecture of the historic school and the feel of the tight-knit campus community. When choosing her college, Megan looked for a similarly beautiful campus with a distinct culture and personality. She found it at Northwestern.
Her mother taught Spanish and ignited Megan’s passion for the language and for Spanish-speaking countries. After high school, Megan lived in Paraguay for a year. As a college junior, she spent a year in Madrid. During her first semester in Spain, Megan held an internship helping refugees adjust to their new life. She learned a lot about cross-cultural communication and became comfortable working with people from all over the world. At the age of 21, she was already a cosmopolitan, multi-lingual citizen of the world. It was time to translate her skills and passions into a career.
“I experienced a quarter-life crisis,” Megan laughs. Despite her near-native Spanish skills, she did not want to become a teacher. The financial crisis of 2008 was ravaging the country, leaving college seniors unsure about their work prospects. Megan knew that she wanted to try out a fast-paced job where she could apply her interpersonal and leadership skills. She applied for the business track in Chicago Field Studies.
“I was so nervous about not qualifying for the business track that I submitted my application the moment they started accepting them,” Megan recalls. She was unsure that she would get a chance to intern when competing with economics majors. After the supportive advising from the program’s Associate Director Karen Allen, though, Megan aced her interviews. “Some interviewers looked at me with surprise,” Megan recalls. “They seemed to be asking, given your Spanish major and your experience resettling refugees, are you sure you want to apply for business positions?” Megan helped her interviewers see that the skills she developed in her non-profit work and international travels were applicable and useful in business. She received multiple offers and chose to intern at the Chicago headquarters of Starcom Entertainment, an entertainment media marketing agency.
Starcom Entertainment was a stimulating environment that confirmed Megan’s decision to establish herself in business. Megan enjoyed meeting representatives of various TV channels who came to showcase their line-ups for the following season. One of those encounters left Megan with a life-long friend: a massive toy lion from the Discovery Channel. “I remember taking him back home to Evanston on the El and people looking at us with a lot of confusion. He is a very large lion!” Megan laughs. Megan’s family and friends got to know her new pet as Leo the Attack Guard Lion. Over a decade later, he is still keeping her company in her Chicago home.
The business path proved to be Megan’s calling. At Harvard Business School, she excelled in projects where she could draw on her international and inter-cultural competency. At Tyson Foods, she enjoys working with a cross-functional team of professionals and creating products that she actually sees on the shelf. “I’m the hub of the wheel for my team. All the inputs go through me.” Megan lights up when describing the process of navigating between a food scientist, a sensory insights specialist, and a packaging engineer, among others. “Food is important to people. People connect to it in emotional ways,” Megan smiles. “It’s fun to have my family call from Minnesota and tell me that they just prepared dinner utilizing a meal kit that I helped develop.”
Although she sometimes works on multiple products at a time and gets really busy, Megan finds the time to support her alma mater and Chicago Field Studies, in particular. During her recent guest lecture in Business Field Studies, Megan encouraged students to embrace the power to tell their own stories. “Tell the world where you came from, where you want to go, and why it all ties together. Rely on your emotional intelligence. I was able to pivot from a Spanish major and non-profit experience to a career in business because I took charge of my own story.” Megan will continue to build her story to take her to exciting places. I hope that her experience empowers her fellow alums to tell their own stories and reach for their dreams.