“EACH CHILD THAT HAS AN AFFLICTION THAT I CAN’T HELP WITH — THAT’S JUST MORE
FIRE IN MY BELLY TO GO DO SOMETHING MORE.”
—Christian Shannon
having right away while also gaining
the experience behind the scenes of
seeing treatments going on for all these
different afflictions.”
When Shannon first heard of the
STEM Path to the MBA, he knew it was
something he wanted to pursue.
“It’s important for doctors to
understand the economic implications of
what they're doing, so having an MBA as
well as a bachelor’s in engineering just
seems like the best possible combination
of things,” he says. “Because it gives you
a creative mind from engineering while
the MBA makes you practical. It provides
you with the knowledge to run your own
practice if you want to.”
So what has Shannon learned from
these kids?
“For me it's been a great deal of
humility, always staying positive. So if
you're at school and something doesn't
go right — maybe it involves failing a
test, you bombed a quiz, mom and dad
are fighting kind of thing — that's nothing
compared to what these kids have been
going through. They’re able to smile
during what they are going through.
Compare that to a bad day you might have
had. This has taught me to shake things
off, to get back up and get going because
if they are able to do it, so should you,”
Shannon says with conviction.
Shannon says spending his summer
at camp with these kids is the best thing
that he could possibly do with his time,
and he’s sure that it has changed his life
for the better.
“I wonder that these kids might be
stronger than I could ever be in my
life,” Shannon says. “And again that is
just more motivation and passion to
go forth and get the necessary tools
to go back to help them fight their
afflictions and maybe in the long run see
cancer eradicated.”
With an already full plate, Shannon
will spend the summer of 2015 in Ireland
as an activity director at a cancer and
blood-diseases camp that serves more
than a dozen countries.
Shannon at Marr's Spring park on UA campus between classes
