Junior, Legal, Historical, and and Environmental Studies through the Interdisciplinary Studies Program

While at UMBC, Shannon worked to encourage others to oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by staffing a petition signing and as a phone bank caller. Subsequently, she attended the Arctic Refuge Action Day in Washington DC. These experiences inspired her to become an environmentalist.

As an Interdisciplinary Studies major, Shannon is able to combine her interests in science and public policy by integrating environmental science, political science, and history. "From colonization to the present, the Chesapeake Bay has undergone a transformation from the pristine estuarine system originally discovered by John Smith to the current degraded state of the Bay." Her capstone project will investigage how science and public policy joined forces in an effort to halt the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay.

Last summer, Shannon interned with the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Attorney General, in the Mediation Unit. She mediated written consumer complaints about a variety of issues, was assigned her own cases and was responsible for analyzing the information, developing mediation strategies, and communicating with businesses, consumers and other parties in an effort to reach a resolution to those complaints.

Shannon is the philanthropy chair for her sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha. They host a number of fundraisers for the Special Olympics and the S. June Smith Center. Shannon is dedicated to community service, and has volunteered at a local elementary school, as a Big Sister in the Big Brother Big Sister Program and at the Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore.

"My motto for life has been involvement. I hate standing in the background, not participating. This has led me towards involvement at UMBC and in the community."