McKenna Flannigan hails from Kalispell, just a few hours north of Missoula. She graduated with her AA degree from Flathead Valley Community College and transferred to UM to continue her studies. At UM, she quickly realized that she had a passion for linguistics. McKenna then enrolled in UM’s unique 5-year BA/MA program, through which participants can earn their Bachelor’s and Master’s of Arts in Linguistics in only five years. McKenna is currently in her final semester of the BA portion of her program and will be beginning her MA this coming Fall. 

In the midst of her already impressive academic drive, she also works as a research assistant for Dr. Danielle Fahey in the GAB Lab (Grammar of Aphasia and Bilingualism) researching how the brain processes speech in people with unique linguistic profiles. McKenna and Dr. Fahey are currently engaged in a pilot study of second language acquisition—learning a new language past the stage of bilingual acquisition. For this study, volunteers are equipped with a cap that is connected to electrodes which stimulate certain areas of the temporal lobe known to be associated with language to see if the stimulation can help participants learn a second language faster.

After her Master’s is complete here at UM, McKenna wishes to continue her education and enroll in a PhD program which would eventually allow her to achieve her goal of becoming a linguistics professor. Of course, not before using her skills, passion, and education to travel to countries like Germany and Chile to study the languages and attend conferences all over the globe.

McKenna loves her small linguistics cohort here at UM, claiming that her peers are some of the most intelligent, driven, and caring people she has ever had the pleasure to work with, and that, due to the program’s small size, the professors take an active interest in her success. McKenna would like to tell students and people that “Curiosity for the sake of curiosity is totally worthwhile. Allow yourself to be driven by your curiosity.”