Majors: Biochemistry, Mathematics
Hometown: Fairbanks, Alaska
Senior Shannyn Bird knows a bit about getting out of her comfort zone.
As a senior in high school she knew that she wanted to find a university with a strong research background and a tight-knit community, and knew she'd have to leave home to find it. Though it was a scary step to take, she packed up and moved more than 3,000 miles away to study at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
"If I had stayed in Fairbanks," Shannyn said. "I would definitely not be the same person I am now."
Shannyn knew she had to set her own path, and that's something she's stuck to throughout her time at the university.
Though she studies biochemistry and math, she isn't applying for a medical school program like most of her classmates. She wants to study law, something she got unique experience in as an Alaska youth court participant. Shannyn spent five years processing and sentencing low-level juvenile misdemeanor cases with other youth attorneys, judges and jurors under the supervision of practicing attorneys. This experience, coupled with the realization that she didn't want to work in a lab, made her decide to pursue a career where she could intersect her strengths.
Shannyn hopes that when she is finished with law school she can pursue both her passions through environmental or scientific policy law. Though it's a different path than most of her classmates, it's her own — and that's one of the most important things she's learned.
From her time at Nebraska, Shannyn has learned to find her own happiness and pave her own way.
"I think that just having that inner sense of self is really important." Shannyn said, "Now I feel that the place I am doesn't determine who I am, I determine my sense of happiness."
