Shannon McGaughey

I have a master’s degree in counseling and School Psychology and my emphasis was Student Affairs.  In Student Affairs there is a wide range of areas that you can become a part of, and I chose Housing and Residence Life.  I lived on a college campus small to medium to large sized from 1992 until 2012 as a live on Community Director, Resident Assistant, or a Graduate Assistant Hall Director.  I have worked at 6 different campuses and through joining associations like NASPA (National Association for Student Personnel Administrators) or ACPA (American College Personnel Association) that is how I found out about MSU.  These associations post positions for people that want to stay in the higher education student affairs field.  I applied and came to MSU for the position and never left.  I began as a Community Director here and lived in Case, Wilson, Bryan, and Bailey Halls, and then I transitioned to a Neighborhood Administrative Coordinator and then to HR.  MSU was one of the best places I could have ever asked to work, it has been an amazing experience and I would not trade it for anything else.

I am the oldest of three siblings and my brother is developmentally disabled with Fragile X Syndrome which is the most prevalent inherited form of Autism.  We have been on a journey to educate Kevin from the time he was born too now.  He has an education that is the equivalent of a Harvard education, both in cost and with the best teachers we could find.

We found that Nebraska was a place where education was really the top priority, people who live there pay high taxes and they invest in education.  I never and neither did my siblings ever have a used book in our time being educated there.  We saw Kevin thrive, he learned cursive, how to read and progress to reading the newspaper and have discussions about what he read.  We made it a priority to travel with Kevin, we went everywhere, and they were trips that were with an educational component.  We loved going to the East coast and taking him to Washington, D. C.  He loved learning about the presidents and going to the Smithsonian museums.

I mention this because I am affected by Fragile X as well and my sister is too.  We have learned through time that this is due to my father’s service in Vietnam.  He was there between 1968-1969 and was exposed/sprayed with Agent Orange.  There is confirmed evidence that the second generation after he returned to the United States that those exposed have children with developmental disabilities and physical disabilities too.

It is especially hard for our family, because my father’s cousin who was four years older than him became a chemical engineer.  The company he worked for in Newark, NJ helped develop Agent Orange as per the government coming to the company and saying we need a defoliant for the war.  It pains me that a government official had the audacity to think that developing this chemical would possibly not have long lasting effects on generations of people.  It was not just the people in the war, but several generations following the war.

I am extremely fortunate to be able to have come as far as I have, I am not to have even graduated high school, let alone earned two university degrees.  I was also fortunate to have the Americans with Disabilities Act open possibilities for me while attending school and eventually going to work.  I feel extremely fortunate to have gone as far as I have and so I am so happy to be here and, on the board, to help advocate for all.