If you’re reading this, chances are you already know Shannon Stocks. Or if you don’t personally know Shannon, you have just one degree of separation from her.
Since coming to BU in the fall of 2012, Shannon has been part of 15 different student groups to date, and that’s only the amount she can remember off the top of her head. Now weeks away from being a second semester senior, Shannon’s reach has touched countless BU students and members of the Boston community during her time here.
You could say Shannon’s innate desire to meet new people and help others propels her to be involved all over campus. She started her BU experience with FYSOP and continued with the Omega Phi Alpha Chapter, BU’s only community service sorority. She was a former leader of BU Challah for Hunger and now is an active volunteer, and she’s been a part of the CSC’s Alternative Service Breaks (ASB) Program for all spring semesters to date. She was a volunteer her freshman and sophomore years, and most recently, she coordinated an ASB trip to Atlanta, Georgia. She was also a Global Day of Service committee member this past spring. It would be an understatement to say Shannon loves volunteer work.
“I realized I loved service growing up,” said Shannon. “My parents would always bring my brother and me to help in a soup kitchen on Sundays, and when I was in first grade, my mom formed a Girl Scouts chapter where we always did community service.”
The values of volunteer work stuck with Shannon her whole life, and the older she became, the more important service became to her. It was never work; it was always a way to get out of her comfort zone and have a new, rewarding experience. She realized she loved doing service because it brought her closer to people who also loved doing service, and she has found a community with those who feel the same. In high school, she participated in two multi-week service trips, which inspired her to continue volunteering in college.
“When you find something that rewarding and that fun, why wouldn’t you want to do that for the rest of your life?” said Shannon.
Being involved with community service has allowed her to form great relationships. It’s how she’s met some of her closest friends and built her leadership skills. She loves helping others and reaching out to people in need. She acts as a resource on campus and will literally invite anyone to get coffee with her. She’s one of the friendliest and most genuine people on campus. Maybe that’s why she’s acted as a peer mentor for the College of General Studies, BU Hillel and now Sargent College (as well as a Dean’s Host for Sargent).
Shannon is studying speech, language and hearing sciences because she always knew she wanted to be in a profession that helped others. She visited a special education school to shadow the occupational therapy and speech departments and fell in love with speech therapy because it involves working one-on-one with clients recieving services. Shannon just has a flair for building relationships. She has so many different groups of friends she’s met through the years, but she’s not part of a “clique.” She values the close individual bonds she’s formed.
As a peer mentor, she seeks to help lowerclassmen and show them everything there is to BU. She wants to help them avoid making the same mistakes she did, like not knowing about the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association or particular labs. She is especially adamant about having her mentees attend office hours, mostly because she recalls being too afraid to go to them when she was a freshman. Now, Shannon advocates for talking with professors, claiming that the added guidance has significantly improved her grades.
When giving advice to freshman, Shannon always says to get off BU’s campus and explore Boston.
“We’re so lucky to have Boston as our campus, and we should really take advantage of that and get out of the little BU bubble.”
She also says not to worry about what you think other people expect from you.
“You’re an independent person and you can make your own choices. Don’t worry about your friends; do what is right for you. You are your own person.”
And she laughs as she says her mantra: “It’s important to be nice.”
If you’re looking to find her on campus, she’ll probably be studying or conversing in Sargent, Mugar or Hillel. Go up to her and say hi! She’ll absolutely love it.