How a Blinn College alumna uses her accounting, economics degrees to support the Brazos Valley arts scene

Megan Woytek serves as the operations manager for the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley

July 3, 2024

As the operations manager at the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley, Megan Woytek has found a unique way to blend her professional business and accounting skills with a lifelong passion for the arts.

“I have always appreciated art very deeply, not just visual arts, but also music,” she said. “Music has always been very, very important to me. I have always understood and loved to explore the effects of art on the economy, and how it can be used as a powerful tool when it comes to expanding the cultural landscape of a community and what that does for tourism and increasing economic engagement.”

At the Arts Council, Woytek helps the organization promote exactly those attributes in the Brazos Valley’s thriving arts scene. Originally from Lubbock, Woytek moved to Bryan-College Station and enrolled at the Blinn College-Bryan Campus. There, she was named to the Dean’s Scholars List and discovered her passion for accounting when she signed up for a class taught by George Sonnenberg, whose engaging teaching style introduced her to her own passion for accounting.

Inspired, Woytek pursued her associate degree in accounting. Upon her graduation from Blinn, she transferred to Texas A&M’s Economics Department.

“I am so happy that I took the route of going to Blinn first and getting my associate degree there and then transferring in,” Woytek said. “The accounting degree just worked perfectly for me to transfer into the Economics Department at Texas A&M, and the reason I pursued economics in the first place was definitely due to the influence of my economics professor at Blinn College.

“Bryce Rico really just opened up a whole new world for me in economics. I really did not have an interest at all in that field until I took his class for the first time and I was just captivated by everything. He taught so well and was so passionate about what he did that it just set up the perfect path for me to move on to A&M.”

At Texas A&M, Woytek participated in the Economics Society and the Women in Economics student organizations. She graduated in 2020 with her Bachelor of Science in Economics and a minor in business.

Early last year, Woytek was hired as the operations manager at the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley, a non-profit organization chartered in 1970 to lead local arts advocacy and cultivate a vibrant arts community. In that role, Woytek’s uses her expertise in accounting, business, and economics to support the Arts Council’s mission to promote the arts and make them accessible across the Brazos Valley.

“I loved going to Blinn and I loved going to Texas A&M,” Woytek said. “I love College Station and Bryan and this entire area so much that I decided to stay and see what else I can get out of this great community and, more importantly, what I can provide back. Working here at the Arts Council, I’ve found that there will be great opportunities for me to do so, and I’m excited.”

Blinn offers a variety of accounting and business credentials that prepare students for a wide range of business careers. In addition to its 60-credit-hour Associate of Applied Science in Accounting, Blinn also offers a 30-credit-hour Level-2 Certificate in Accounting and Associate of Science degrees in business and economics. For more information regarding these degree pathways, please visit www.blinn.edu/business-and-mathematics.