For much of the last seven years, Megan Ellis’ life has bounced between the poles of school and work. But now that the cashier and shift manager at Weavers Way Mt. Airy has earned her college degree, she’s looking forward to dialing down and expanding her horizons.

Megan, 21, graduated from Arcadia University last month with a bachelor of arts in criminal justice. She came to the Co-op five and a half years ago as a paid cooperator at the suggestion of her mom, Nancy, who was the prepared foods manager in Mt. Airy. She’d already had some work experience with catering and helping out at the restaurant her parents had owned. 

“I’ve been around food my whole life — I’ve just grown up in the food world,” the Cheltenham native said. “So coming here, everything’s local and organic and fresh and all that, and I loved it, and so I stayed.”

Before long, Mt. Airy Front End Manager Susan McLaughlin asked Megan to be a cashier, and she started working weekends while attending Cheltenham High. After graduation in 2012, she headed to Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.

During her freshman year, Megan felt homesick a lot and came back most weekends. During that time, she’d fill in at the co-op as needed. She left Hofstra at the end of the school year and started at Arcadia the following fall.

Megan said she decided on her major because she “liked learning about the minds of criminals and why they do what they do.” She wrote her senior thesis on the treatment of women in the criminal-justice system, and participated in Inside Out, a partnership between institutions of higher learning and correctional facilities run through Temple University. As part of the program, students and inmates take a class together at the prison. The purpose of Inside Out is to increase the level of understanding between prisoners and civilians and to shed a light on issues of social concern.

For now, Megan has had enough of school, and is working and trying to save money so she can travel. Last spring, she did a semester abroad in Wales and found it to be a life-changing experience. She lived in a house with 10 students from all over the world. 

“I went backpacking on the coast of South Wales,” she recalled. “It was like the most beautiful thing and the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I got to be free, and that’s why I want to travel more. . . . I can do what I want to be doing without ‘you have to be doing this school thing.’ ”

Megan plays guitar, ukulele and piano and sings, but isn’t comfortable with performing. She’s been going to the Philadelphia Folk Festival every year since she was 2 months old, and considers it her favorite place in the world. A couple of years ago, she started hula hooping outdoors to get exercise, and now finds it more of a meditative activity. 

Megan credits Backyard Beans’ Punch in the Face cold-brew coffee with getting her through her Sunday-morning managing shift. She also enjoys dried mango slices and avocados.

More than anything else, she feels that her co-workers have kept her coming back to Weavers Way.

“I love the people that I work with. I love the environment that I work in,” she said. “And it’s changed a lot since I started five years ago. But I was welcomed with such open arms here. It’s like a family. I like being a part of it.”