From the Water to the Worksite: Meaghan Volker’s (2008) Next Chapter
Posted on April 15, 2026
“There’s something about rowing that is unlike any other sport,” says Meaghan Volker (Class of 2008). “It’s mindful. I still can’t look at a body of water without thinking, ‘That’d be nice to get out on’.”
Talent-spotted by the Tasmanian Institute of Sport at the same time she started rowing at Friends’ in Year 8, Meghan went on to represent Australia in the Rio Olympics of 2016. But then, when UTAS informed her they would soon stop offering the double degree she’d started (in civil engineering and business administration), she chose study over rowing. She took a job in Launceston with Shaw Contracting “and just fell in love with the industry”. She still rowed, winning the national title in the women’s pair with Sarah Hawe, but when Sarah went on to win the world championships in the Women’s 4, it wasn’t hard for Meaghan to watch, knowing she too could be in that boat. “That’s when I realised: maybe I’m ready to step away. I feel like I’ve done what I needed to do.”
Meaghan had earlier burned out with rowing, enduring persistent health problems through her senior years at Friends’ and then always just being on the cusp of making the Olympics, when she was offered a full scholarship at UCLA in 2012. In the United States, rowing is a Title IX sport – it’s legislated that opportunity in college sports is equal for males and females. “Rowing often has massive teams to balance out the football team,” says Meaghan. Suddenly she was rowing with 40-50 other young women, when before she’d been training alone. “I was in crews, there was competition, there was camaraderie. It was really fun,” she says.
But she says her later decision to step away was not a tough one. As a Contracts and Compliance Manager at Roadways, she uses the same drive she had on the water to get stuff built. “You’ve got to be pretty tenacious to work in construction, especially as a woman in construction,” says Meaghan. “You just have to push through in a challenging project. You have to get it done.”
