Ask anyone what they were doing on Sept. 11, 2001, and they can instantly recall it. Like so many other Americans, Megan Cartier’s life changed that day.
She remembers it not just as the day terrorists attacked American, but as the day she grew up. She remembers it as the day she became a big sister.
A native of Sandy Hook, N.J., a commuter across the New York Harbor, Cartier spent her pre-9/11 afternoon’s baby sitting and tutoring Jeffery and Peter Cangialosi, the sons of Cantor Fitzgerald employee Stephen Cangialosi.
When he was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, Cartier, 16 at the time, became a big sister to the boys, helping them and their mother Karen through the tragedy of losing Stephen.
“I remember thinking, ‘I can’t just be a baby sitter anymore,'” recalls Cartier. Going one step further, she has since dedicated her life to helping as many other people as she can.
Now a third-year marketing major at DU, Cartier, 20, has continued her dedication to others in her life as the vice president of the AUSA Senate. She also serves as the president of the Residence Hall Association.
But in spite of her role at the epicenter of student activities on campus and her success in last year’s Senate election, she asserts, “I’m not a politician.” Cartier and running mate Aaron Schwarzberg, the current AUSA president, promised while campaigning to unite student groups and improve diversity and diverse group interaction on campus. She pledges, “We will make due on our promises.”
In many ways, she already has. Due in part to her leadership, the Senate has centralized its communication with every major group across campus. They have created group chair positions, including the Campus Climate Chair, which focuses specifically on diversity and diverse group interaction, the first position of its kind in U.S. colleges. She credits Schwarzberg and the AUSA Senators for their support of her proactive mission to improve and unite DU.
Largely in reaction to last year’s poor diversity ranking by the Princeton Review Cartier started a diversity group that left her feeling that her cause was not heard.
“It was hard as a regular student to start such a large group,” she said. To remedy that problem, she wants to make it possible for any student to have a recognized voice. “I want to listen to the student body,” she declares. “If someone steps up and says they want something and has support, [the student government] will help them.”
Cartier has helped to improve communication and community on campus by supporting not only the group chair positions, but also by focusing her efforts on the Festival of Nations, the recent Greek Week, as well as more collaboration among student groups.
One of her remaining goals for DU is to boost school spirit by increasing student involvement and attendance at sporting and cultural events. She said that students can now attend every home game of every sport but hockey and basketball for free with a student ID, a departure from past years when students had to pay to support Pioneer sports.
Cartier also has at least one remaining personal goal: to continue to help people. Adhering to the promise she made after 9/11, she is part of the ROTC program at CU-Boulder, and she will serve in the Air Force for at least four years after her graduation in 2007. Schwarzberg calls her “a great leader,” but that’s not lip service.
Long before she came to DU, she says her family taught her what a great leader is, with all of them holding some sort of leadership position. Cartier’s father, Edward, is a senior vice President of a software company. Her mother Patricia Cartier, is the principal of a high school, overseeing some 2,000 people, and her older brother, Eric, is an investment banker and former student leader.
In 10 years, if she’s no longer in the Air Force, she sees herself working for Saatchi and Saatchi, a large marketing firm in New York City, and hopefully married to her long-time boyfriend, Christopher Dellin.
In 20 years?
“I’ll be the president of the PTA,” she smiles, half-jokingly, half- seriously.
Fun facts about Megan Cartier:*Spent summer vacation at bootcamp in Fla.*Favorite color: Green*Favorite Word: Ponder*Best thing to do in life: Volunteer*Worse things: Be selfish*Favorite historical figure: Eleanor Roosevelt*What she wants God to say her at after passing through the pearly gates: “Good Job”
