Student Profile:
Megan Maziar, 18
Galloway School, Senior
Civic engagement matters to Megan Maziar, who recently organized a benefit concert for the Save Darfur Coalition along with Galloway School classmate Katherine McKerrow.
The girls were able to sell more than 2,000 tickets to the concert, mainly because they booked Atlanta-based band Collective Soul as the main attraction March 27. They raised $50,000 to fight the humanitarian crisis that began in Darfur in western Sudan in 2003.
Megan, the daughter of Amy Sue and Neal Maziar of Buckhead, said the money will be used to “support advocacy in the United States as well as to go overseas to help in refugee camps in providing food and medical staff.”
Megan and Katherine organized their first concert during their sophomore year after taking a class called “Facing History” with teacher Lexi Fields, who taught them about the Holocaust and the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda.
“You’d think humans would have learned,” Megan said. “Really, education is the key to stopping a genocide. You have to educate people as to what’s going on and what they can do to help out.”
The first two concerts were held with local bands at the Roxy Theatre, but the girls wanted to go out on a high note during their senior year. They were able to book Collective Soul because Katherine’s father knows the band.
“We just decided we’re going to blow it out of the water and make it huge,” Megan said. “We thought Collective Soul would be the perfect band to draw a crowd, as well as to understand our cause. They welcomed it with open arms.”
Organizing the concert fits with Megan’s other activities. She has helped clean Chastain Park, organized benefit programs for the homeless in Sandy Springs and participated in the Junior Achievement League.
“I love advocacy and community service,” she said.
Her other passions are jazz and ballet dance, which she has done since she was 3 years old. She danced from ages 10 to 18 with the Atlanta Jazz Theater.
“That’s taken up most of my high school time, but I’ve loved it,” she said.
What’s Next:
Megan plans to study business and is waiting to hear whether she has been accepted to the University of Georgia, her first choice. Her second choice is the College of Charleston.