Recent Mandel School grad Bridie McDonough passes away

Photo of Bridie McDonough

Bridie (Bridget Mary) McDonough, SAS ‘20, died Nov. 4 following a year-long battle with stage 4 cancer. She was 27.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Bridie graduated third in her high school class and received a full scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a double major in English and Sociology.

After graduation, she spent two years in the Peace Corps, teaching middle school English in Tshibvumo, a small rural South African town near the Zimbabwe border. She found a variety of causes to champion, but perhaps most noteworthy was overseeing the construction, stocking, grand opening and daily operations of her school’s first stand-alone library.

Upon her return to the U.S. she spent a year in AmeriCorps, working with homeless families in Durham, NC. Bridie then applied and was accepted to the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences as one of seven Leadership Fellows, securing another full scholarship to earn her Master of Science in Social Administration (MSSA).

Bridie completed her generalist first year of field education at Catholic Charities in the Refugee and Migration Services and her specialist second year of field education at Baldwin Wallace University’s Counseling Center.

Halfway through the program she learned of her advanced cancer diagnosis but opted to continue her education with minimal disruption. Bridie graduated with a 4.0 GPA in August 2020 and had planned on starting her social work career by helping refugees.

Bridie was bright, steadfast, joyful, and full of integrity and ambition. She is survived by her mother Maggie, sister Eileen and brother Thomas. A celebration of her life will be planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, Bridie asked that donations be made to Carolina Covenant, an aid program that helps students to attend and graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill debt-free.

Her full obituary is available online.