In 2016 Meg Hancock was the Paducah Bank Teen of the Year. Her comments four years ago included her belief that a curious mind was what had driven her to become so involved in her school and community. "Part of the reason I like getting involved in so many things is that I just always want to learn more," Hancock said her senior year at Paducah Tilghman High School. "It's like, if I want to know more about law, I'm going to do mock trial. I wanted to learn to communicate effectively, so I joined the speech team. There is some competitiveness to it, but mostly it's a sense of curiosity."

Through her exploration of everything from politics and public policy to calculus and history, Hancock developed a real love for the humanities in high school. Art, literature, philosophy, history - she loved it all. That dedication to both art and academics led to her acceptance at Duke University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude this year.

Meg graduated with a major in English, High Distinction, and minors in Theater Studies and German. She earned High Distinction in English with her honors thesis entitled “Bullets in the Dining Room Table: Reckoning with the South and its Burdens in Faulkner, O’Connor, and Morrison.”

She was awarded the John M. Clum Distinguished Theater Studies Award, given by faculty to one graduating senior who made extraordinary contributions to the Duke Theatre Department. While at Duke, Meg served as an ambassador for the English department, as dramaturg for the Theater department, as director of the “All of the Above” monologue show, as associate editor of “The Archive” literary magazine, as Directing Liaison on the executive board of Duke Players, and as tournament chair of Duke Mock Trial. She was also a columnist for the Duke newspaper, The Chronicle.

Meg will be attending Vanderbilt Law School in the fall as a Chancellor’s Law Scholar. Meg is the daughter of Sid and Justin Hancock of Paducah.