Mina P. Shaughnessy - Graduate Education

Graduate Education

Much of Shaughnessy's education and work experience was vital to her future success with open admissions at City College of New York. When she graduated from Northwestern in 1946, she and Priscilla Weaver Brandt headed for New York City to pursue their acting degrees. Shaughnessy soon realized a professional acting career was not in her future and decided to attend graduate school at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

After a year of Bible studies at Wheaton, Shaughnessy returned to New York. Instead of focusing on an acting career, Shaughnessy enrolled in a master’s program at Columbia University where her focus was Seventeenth-Century English Literature. After her graduation in 1951, she ruled out a PhD because of the sheer expense. Her lack of a PhD would haunt her consistently throughout her career.

After receiving her MA, Shaughnessy landed a position as a research assistant with Raymond Fosdick, a prominent attorney who handled much of the Rockefeller Foundation. From 1951 until 1955, Shaughnessy’s assignment would be to assist in writing John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s biography. Though only Fosdick’s name would appear on the eventual biography, Shaughnessy wrote half of the book. With this position, Shaughnessy would hone her research skills as well as rub shoulders with many famous individuals.