McGowan Finds Herself at STLCC, Prepared to Bring Love to the World

May 14, 2026

Posted by STLCC in Programs and Pathways 

The Lulu McGowan who started at St. Louis Community College does not resemble the person who graduates from the College this week.

Gone is the timid, unsure teenager. In her place stands a confident, self-assured, independent woman with a personal philosophy that defines her approach to what she does and what she wants to accomplish.

Change hardly captures the difference in McGowan since she started STLCC in 2022.

“It's jaw dropping,” she said. “I've heard it from other people. From my mom, from my best friend, from my siblings. ‘Wow! You look so different. You feel so different.’”

McGowan’s transformation will be on display at STLCC Commencement, where she will serve as this year’s student commencement speaker. Every spring, each campus nominates a graduating student for the honor. This year, STLCC-Forest Park’s nominee was chosen.

McGowan will graduate with an associate degree in general transfer studies and plans to transfer to a four-year school. She has dozens of options. Fordham University remains her top choice, but she wants to see which school can offer the lowest tuition payments before she makes her decision.

She plans to work toward a bachelor’s degree in international studies and, from there, try to make her stamp on the world.

But on her terms.

Learning to Choose Her Own Path

The idea of making an independent decision about her future once seemed almost foreign to McGowan. When she graduated high school, she felt pressure from other people. Some of it was positive. Some of it was negative. Either way, it shaped many of her major decisions when she first entered STLCC.

What will this person think? How will this reflect on me? What if my boyfriend disapproves?

“I think when I came in, my idea of myself was constructed mostly off of what people told me about myself,” she said. “When you're told that you're special or that you're going to change the world, or that you're wise beyond your years, people say it with the intention of encouraging and inspiring you.

“But what that can do to a 17-year-old girl is put all of this undefined pressure to amount to something that isn't your own dream. And not only is it not your own dream, but it's not even really being defined by other people. They're just telling you that you're going to change the world somehow, and it's up to you to figure out why and how and when.”

Her transformation began during her first semester at the College, which she chose for its affordability. Classes and professors pushed her to think about what she wanted and how she wanted to get there.

When she became interested in multicultural communication, McGowan said instructors in seemingly unrelated subjects helped her understand how those ideas connected.

Then came Phi Theta Kappa.

Finding Leadership Through Phi Theta Kappa

Encouraged by Sandra Arumugam-Osburn, EdD, faculty advisor for the Phi Theta Kappa chapter at STLCC-Forest Park, McGowan joined the honor society in the fall of her third semester. By her sixth semester, in March 2025, she was elected international president of the group.

“Lulu really wanted the full PTK experience,” said Arumugam-Osburn, who also serves as a communication professor at Forest Park. “At each stage of her involvement, she was always asking what other possibilities were available, which led to leadership positions with our chapter, region and internationally. She has demonstrated that the community college can indeed provide a strong academic experience and the opportunity for personal and professional growth.”

Phi Theta Kappa has around 230,000 students at two-year institutions throughout the United States, including several U.S. territories and Europe. There are PTK chapters at all four STLCC campuses.

PTK recognizes the academic achievement of students and provides opportunities for them to grow as scholars and leaders. It also supports the continued success of top community college students while working to strengthen community colleges.

With PTK, McGowan found community and purpose. She also found herself.

Building Confidence and Community

The experience helped McGowan pull away from a relationship she said had been confining since she was 16 years old. For the first time, she felt capable of making decisions on her own.

She now has a trusted “personal board of directors” that includes her parents, siblings, boyfriend and best friend. They provide different perspectives, but in the end, her choices are her choices.

“Lulu's work ethic is an easy attribute to admire,” said Elizabeth McGowan, Lulu’s mother. “But it’s her dedication to exploring her personal interests and the vibrant creativity that lives within her that I most admire. She has an artist's sensibility in the truest sense of the term, and curiosity is her most constant companion as she navigates life.”

Lulu McGowan had the credits to graduate in 2025, but delayed graduation so she could serve as PTK president. She took six hours during the fall and spring semesters this school year to remain eligible for the society, taking classes in ceramics, drawing and Japanese.

As president, she led a group of executive officers to establish and execute goals for the 2025-2026 academic year. She also attended workshops, went to regional meetings and gave a keynote speech at Catalyst, the end-of-year international conference for PTK.

Learning to Bend Without Breaking

Keynote speeches are often designed to inspire the audience, and McGowan wanted to do that. But she did not want to be typical.

And she wasn’t.

Part of her 15- to 20-minute presentation drew on her experience in ceramics class. With clay in hand, she talked about its two properties: malleability and plasticity. Then she connected them to life.

“I used it as a metaphor,” McGowan said. “A lot of college students live where sometimes we need to hammer ourselves into specific shapes. But sometimes we need to bend a little bit more.”

That was how McGowan approached her presidency. Instead of forcing herself into what she thought the role should be, she allowed the role to define itself. In many ways, it helped define her.

She told the Catalyst crowd that as much as she had learned during her presidency, she knew there was much more to understand.

“Not once in that speech did I say that I ever figured it out,” McGowan said. “So, I think that made a lot of people feel good about the points in their life that they were in.”

Preparing for What Comes Next

McGowan does not have a specific career or role in mind as she moves forward with her education and life. She knows she wants to learn how to make strong connections with people and help bring the world a bit closer.

That could happen in a conversation with one person or in a speech in front of thousands.

The seed was planted in a course she took with Arumugam-Osburn called Communication Between Cultures. One of the many things McGowan took from the class was that everyone comes from a different viewpoint. Learning to communicate, work and reach goals with other people takes understanding.

McGowan stressed that intercultural communication does not only mean communication between people from different nations or ethnic backgrounds. It can also include age differences, different views of authority, beliefs about individualism and collectivism and many other parts of life.

She said that even when she hangs out with her sister, Eve Frances, who is just three years younger, she has to use those skills. Though they grew up in the same household with basically the same rules, each of them brings a different perspective and approach.

Knowing how to work with other people is essential for McGowan.

“I want to give the world love,” she said. “I want to give the world joy. I want to give the world relief from all of the horrible things that we see every single day. And I think that love and that joy can be found in very simple things.”

“I think about the fruits of the spirit and how you connect with other people through joy and love and gentleness and patience,” she continued, “and how that not only serves God, but how that brings you closer to other people and to your community.”