Megan Stiffler ’26, a Westover Honors Fellow from Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, was selected as a national editor for UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity for the 2025-26 academic year.
The double major in English and business administration was one of only 12 national editors chosen, from 71 applicants, by the National Collegiate Honors Council, or NCHC, which is headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
As described on the journal’s website, UReCA is an “online publication led and created by students across all disciplines” that is “dedicated to uplifting students by creating a unique opportunity to highlight their original work in a nationally recognized journal.”
As a national editor, Stiffler will collaborate with undergraduate college and university students worldwide to produce the journal’s 10th anniversary edition, to be released in November.
Afterward, Stiffler’s duties will involve, among other things, soliciting submissions for the 2026 edition and working with production and media teams located at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Graceland University in Iowa, respectively.
“As a national editor, I’ll be responsible for peer-reviewing creative and research submissions that the journal receives,” Stiffler said. “I’ll provide helpful feedback and revision suggestions to authors.”
After graduating next May, Stiffer plans to find work as an editor, possibly for novels or other creative works. She said the experience with UReCA will provide her with “crucial editing experience that is looked for in the industry,” and that it’s already enabled her to “start networking with peers at other universities across the nation, as well as faculty.
“This experience has even opened me to additional avenues I can take with editing, like editing for journals and magazines, instead of just novels.”
In June, Stiffler traveled to Kalispell, Montana, where she met with national editors from across the U.S. and members of the UReCA production and media teams. She learned about the peer-review process and how to use the platform through which creative and research papers are submitted by students around the world.
The group also discussed its vision for forthcoming and future journals.
They went to nearby Glacier National Park, where they hiked and helped staff pick up trash that could have otherwise ended up in the Flathead River and ultimately the Pacific Ocean.
“We also did a session with their artist in residence, Mariah Reading, who paints landscapes of national parks on the trash she finds in national parks, where we painted our own trash that we found,” Stiffler said. “This trip was a really amazing opportunity.”
Stiffler learned about the opportunity to be a national editor from Dr. Beth Savage, former Westover director, who had received an email about it from the NCHC. After submitting a resume and letter of interest, Stiffler was offered a position.
“We’re so proud of Megan for earning this opportunity,” Savage wrote in an email to members of the campus community. “This will be a huge boost to her resume, as she plans to go into publishing after graduation.”
According to Stiffler, the NCHC was looking for “strong applicants with relevant research or editorial experience who could demonstrate sufficient knowledge relevant to their field of study” — skills she acquired as a Westover Honors Fellow.
In addition to writing a thesis over the 2025-26 academic year, Stiffler has taken several required Westover colloquia during her time at Lynchburg. The classes, which are specifically for Lynchburg’s honor students, included a weeklong study abroad to England, in which students studied the novelist Jane Austen and her work, and classes focusing on the Harry Potter novels and the intersection of art and revolution on the African continent.
“The classes in Westover have challenged me and encouraged me to think creatively,” Stiffler said, adding that she also found Dr. Rachel Willis’ Writing the World class “incredibly important to my development as a student because it taught me to be a better researcher and writer.
“My experience in Westover has made me a better and more engaged student who is eager to learn more every day, and I would recommend Westover to any incoming freshman at Lynchburg.”
