The Community Foundation is pleased to announce Megan Shagena and her family as the latest Come Home recipient. She was offered a $15,000 award this spring.

Megan, her husband and their three kids recently moved back to Port Huron from Cheyenne, Wyoming, where Brady was stationed as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch officer for the Air Force.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to come back to our home and continue to serve,” Megan said. “So far in our lives, we have been unable to give a similar childhood experience to the ones my husband and I had growing up.”

Launched in 2016, a “come home award” is essentially a talent retention program that pays students on the back-end of their college career, after they have completed a degree in a STEAM related field, but only if they agree to move back home and work within the St. Clair County.

Megan works as the assistant director at Bright Beginnings Child Care. She previously worked remotely as Bright Beginnings’ social media manager, and as a photographer. 

She earned her degree in elementary education from Eastern Michigan University.

After moving around the country as part of Brady’s Air Force service, the couple began to miss home. They returned to the area after putting in a transfer request to Selfridge Air National Guard Base. 

“Receiving the Come Home Award will alleviate payments on debt that we share responsibility, and allow us to live in St. Clair County rather than Macomb County,” Megan said. She also hopes this will one day allow her to expand Bright Beginnings and address the increasing need for quality daycare in the county.

The Come Home program is currently seeking applicants interested in living in the City of Port Huron, the City of St. Clair or surrounding area, or working as non-physician staff at McLaren Port Huron Hospital.

Learn more here.