It is not uncommon for students to find their life partners while at university, but it is a lot less common for a couple to enroll while already married. That’s the story of Megan and Doug Shields of Littlefield Texas, who routinely commute to the WT campus two days a week for the 180-mile round trip. Thankfully, online class options allow them to do the rest from home.
Megan, 28, is double majoring in Management and Marketing, while Doug, 35, is double majoring in Finance and Economics. Planning their course schedules can be a logistical nightmare, since the fields are so disparate. Had they chosen the same major or majors, it would have been much easier, but they both chose to follow their hearts. The availability of required courses either online or on-campus is one thing, but pairing those considerations to minimize total travel is quite another. It is no easy drive to Canyon from Littlefield. They jumped on class registration as soon as they were able to do so, in order to get seats in the classes they needed.
Both have a home-school background, with Doug being the son of missionaries. He spent the better part of 13 years in Papua New Guinea. They were married in 2015, and relocated from Alabama to Littlefield a few years ago, but at the time higher education was not on their radar. Well, for the moment, until a seed sprouted.
“He [Doug] is the one who pushed for school,” Megan said. “I honestly didn’t think I was very capable of doing it. I dragged my feet, but we finally decided we were just going to go for it. We started school at South Plains [College] in 2021.” They earned their Associate’s degrees in December 2023, and emboldened by their accomplishments as well as a couple of classes that required them to tour other campuses, decided to keep going.
A visit to one large university quickly caused them to realize they did not want to sit in classrooms with 250 other students. “That does not sound like where I want to go to school,” Doug added. The impersonal nature of that prospect sent them in search of a university with much smaller classes, where they are held in rooms not auditoriums, where they could get to know their professors and classmates.
They found that at WT. Their campus visit allowed them to sit in on a class, share a meal in the cafeteria, meet a professor, ask questions, and feel the vibe that permeates the Engler College of Business. “Just seeing how the classrooms are smaller, the teachers seemed like they were more interactive, we decided this is where we wanted to come instead,” he reflected.
They had fallen in love…again.
The couple was awarded the Co-Outstanding Undergraduate Award at this Spring’s COB Symposium. But that does not signify the end of their academic training. Megan plans to start the MS-SHRM degree online this fall, while Doug will similarly pursue his online MSFE degree. Megan had originally thought she wanted to pursue her MBA, but decided instead she wanted to be in HR.
Whereas the couple has been enrolled as full-time students during the completion of their BBA degrees, they will now step back a notch and work part-time on their graduate degrees.
Both attribute much of their academic drive to instructors they had at South Plains, people who taught them the basics and opened their eyes to how much more there was to learn. Once at WT, they quickly adapted to upper-level coursework and began setting personal goals, aided and encouraged by our own caring faculty who inspired them to keep reaching.
Megan aspires to go as far as she can in HR, while Doug’s ambitions include becoming a Chief Financial Officer. As for their journey thus far, “The hardest part is just putting one foot in front of the other,” Doug said. “There have been challenges,” Megan mentioned, alluding to matching schedules to avoid four-day commutes.
And just like married couples often finish one another’s sentences, “Doing it together allowed us to push each other,” Doug quickly added. Megan agreed.
The couple is thankful for the personalized attention they have received from both Engler COB professors and staff, allowing them to quickly feel at home even if it was only two days a week. While this Spring’s graduation may signify an ending, it is also another beginning for them as Buffs, two people and two degrees at a time.