Home of: Shane McMillan

RONAN — Shane McMillan’s leaving on a jet plane and he doesn’t know when he’ll be back again.

In a little over a month, he’ll be headed to the Free University in Berlin, Germany, where he’ll study for the next year.

“I wanted to go to Berlin just because Berlin is such a cool city,” McMillan said.

He’s one of five students in the country to receive a Fulbright journalism scholarship, which will allow him to live and study abroad while completing a personal journalism project.

“His Fulbright is certainly the result of a lot of his hard work and his myriad of skills,” Keith Graham, University of Montana photojournalism and multimedia professor, said. 

While attending school in Missoula, the 24-year-old took a class focusing on German writers that either immigrated to Germany or were the children of immigrants. These writers possessed several cultural identities and explored questions like “What is home?” and “Where do I belong?” These questions inspired the subject of McMillan’s documentary film piece, which he will complete while in Germany.   

He’ll call it “A New Lebensraum,” a thought-provoking title which may turn some heads. Lebensraum is a German word meaning “living space” and it is one Hitler used to describe his expansionist policies in Nazi Germany. Rather than the physical or geographical space that Hitler spoke of, McMillan’s project redefines the word to describe a cultural space. 

His project will document multicultural identity in Germany and what the lives of these members of German society are like. McMillan knows there are infinite possibilities for subjects, from Turkish rappers to Yugoslavian artists.

“I want to examine their perspective. What does it mean to be German? How do you define being German?”

McMillan says his interest in multiculturalism started in Ronan. 

“Growing up on the reservation there were people who were multicultural here, and when I first went over there I saw that there were people like that [in Germany] too,” he said.

McMillan isn’t a stranger to living abroad and Germany holds a special place in his heart. After finishing his senior year at Ronan High School in 2004, he moved to Germany where he lived with a German family for seven months and completed a 13th year of school.

McMillan graduated from the University of Montana in Missoula last spring. He double majored in German and Journalism with an option in Photography and minored in International Development Studies. While studying at the Free University, McMillan will major in Sociology and Politics.

Although born in St. Ignatius, McMillan grew up on a 40-acre ranch outside Ronan with his mom, two younger brothers and younger sister. His dad lives in the Ronan/Pablo area as well. McMillan is currently at home on the ranch, spending some time with his family before leaving.  

Graham describes McMillan as a humble, incredibly intelligent young man who enjoys helping other students. 

“He is a caring, compassionate man who happens to be a great photojournalist,” he said.

For now McMillan is excited about going to Berlin and plans to find a job there after his school year to prolong his stay.  He is passionate about his future profession and hopes to be a working photojournalist for at least 15 years. Eventually, he would like to teach journalism in Africa and in America either at the high school or college level.

Graham feels McMillan will be successful no matter where he ends up.

“Great students are great learners and never stop learning, and that’s what I think he’ll be,” Graham said.

“I’ve dreamt up a lot of places I could work, but I’m not sure they’d take me on,” McMillan said.

His future is full of possibilities and although he does not know where his career will take him, McMillan hopes to end up in western Montana and keep calling this area his home.  He says that if he can afford it, he will stay forever.