Meg Mercy started her academic journey in the College of Letters & Science in 2004.
Sixteen years later, she will finally finish it, with the help of the College’s 2022–2023 Richard Ralph Winter Phoenix Rising Humanitarian Scholarship.
Mercy completed a single semester of undergraduate studies in 2004 but was unable to continue because of financial insecurity. In the years that followed, Mercy became a mother, experienced poverty and violence, and regained her direction and purpose as a writer, filmmaker, researcher and advocate for those affected by all forms of interpersonal abuse.
“I realized that my specific goals for the remainder of my life were to help bring accountability to those who oppress others, and to help those who are oppressed come to liberation: liberation from the risk of harm, from the absence of recourse, from the lack of resources, and from the physical and emotional tolls of violence and neglect,” says Mercy, “I am a strong believer that everyone has unique gifts and creativity possessed by no one else, and it is one of the greatest tragedies when those gifts are stifled by subjugation, harm, trauma, and oppression.”
In 2023, Mercy will complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. Future plans include a medical degree, researching the effects of living with emotional abuse and its connections to coercive control. Mercy also hopes to found a nonprofit organization built to serve residents of Native American reservations, many of whom have also experienced domestic violence.
The Richard Ralph Winter Phoenix Rising Humanitarian Scholarship, made possible by the generosity of Charles Manthey Winter (’66), recognizes humanitarian achievement and service, encouraging excellence and commitment in the application of humanitarian ideals, and affirming the moral obligation to provide for human welfare. Applications for the $5,000 scholarship, available to enrolled L&S students who have completed their first year and will be enrolled in the 2023-24 academic year, will be accepted through January 18, 2023.
For Mercy, winning the scholarship means the chance to return to a dream deferred.
“I had always felt I had missed so many experiences after leaving school, and now being able to sit in classrooms and learn from passionate professors and researchers has been an unparalleled delight,” she says. “Returning to UW–Madison has been like seeing color for the first time in many years.”