EVERETT – She’s an individualist and a born leader.
Meagan Reed just graduated from a small liberal arts college where the military is frowned upon, if not spurned.
She wants to be a lawyer and soon will start classes at one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools, Yale University.
Reed, 22, a Bothell High School graduate, won’t be making a six-figure salary when she completes courses at Yale. And she might have to dampen some of her individualistic tendencies, at least for the first four years after she graduates from law school.
She will start her career as a U.S. Marine Corps lawyer, earning a fraction of what she would make in private practice. She also will be taking orders from people of higher rank.
Reed, who attended the Marines officer candidate school in Quantico, Va., over the past two summers, was sworn in Saturday as a Marine second lieutenant.
The ceremony was set aboard the USS Shoup, a guided-missile destroyer stationed at Naval Station Everett.
Selection of the Shoup for the ceremony was a matter of symbolism, she said. The ship was named after Medal of Honor recipient Gen. David Shoup, who earned distinction in the battle of Tarawa during World War II.
She was sworn in by retired Vice Adm. Staser Holcomb, a friend of her father, Mike Reed of Bothell.
Her mother, Melissa Bruski, and stepfather, Thomas Bruski, also live in Bothell. Thomas Bruski is a Mill Creek police officer.
The Marines will get a bright lawyer.
She graduated in May summa cum laude from Whitman College in Walla Walla, posting only one B grade on a calculus course she took in her freshman year.
She graduated with a mixed emphasis on philosophy, politics and economics. There was no need for taking the calculus “except I wanted to prove to myself I could do it,” she said.
Reed’s hobbies include reading, running and playing the piano. Her favorite political theorist is Thomas Hobbs, and her top philosopher is Aristotle.
She’s held a job during her studies, saving money for her Yale experience.
She’ll also have to rely on loans to pay for the expensive law school, she said. She was accepted to a number of other law schools, including Harvard, Stanford and Columbia.
She began thinking about law in her sophomore year of college.
“I’m interested in constitutional law, and I hope (someday) to work in the public sector – maybe for the government,” Reed said.
Why start out in the Marines?
“I guess you could call it a sense of public duty,” she said.
There are a variety of things she could do for the Marine judge advocate general, everything from environmental law to prosecution or defense work.
There’s a good chance she will be in a courtroom somewhere, gaining experience during her four-year commitment to the Marines.
“I’m just interested in learning what I can,” she said.
As a born leader, she should make a good officer. But what about her individualistic bent and having to take orders?
“That’s the part I’m still working on,” she said.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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