Kanesia Shaw believes in hard work and determination to reach your goals, and her perseverance showed in December when she became the first student to graduate from the Baptist Health Sciences University’ new Biomedical Sciences department.
Not only did she graduate with a 3.97 GPA, Shaw also received the College Board of Directors Award during the graduation ceremony. The award recognizes BCHS graduates who have demonstrated “outstanding academic performance, leadership skills, commitment to community service, commitment to Christian principles, and potential for leadership in the health care professions.”
Shaw was extremely grateful to have her hard work recognized.
“Baptist is not an easy school, and I worked hard for that,” she said.
When she first began her studies at BCHS, Shaw was in the nursing program. With only a year to go before graduating, she realized that nursing just wasn’t for her.
“I realized that I wasn’t going to be a good fit as a nurse,” Shaw said. “You can’t just go into school saying you’ve had a dream since you were younger. You need to know what you are getting into.”
When she began doing her clinicals, Shaw saw that her heart just was not in it.
“Once you get the paperwork for nursing and you’re up late doing everything, you have to look yourself in the mirror and say ‘I really want this badly.’ Unfortunately I didn’t want it that badly, so I walked away.”
Shaw wanted something different from her degree, one tailored toward the health sciences.
“They added another dimension to our health care studies to show people that there are other things you can do in the health care field, you don’t have to be a nurse or a respiratory therapist. It makes the school more diverse.”
One piece of advice Shaw offers to current and future students is to job shadow or intern as much as possible, especially if they are unsure of what they want out of their education.
“The more people you shadow and see in their natural environment, the more you can talk to them and learn to do that job,” she says. “You can kind of get an idea of what you’re getting yourself into.”
Shaw says the new department is very different from the nursing school.
“They’re trying to tailor your thinking so that you think more like a scientist and have this background knowledge where even if you decided to pursue something different, you still have background knowledge about it,” she says of the biomedical sciences classes. “It’s building a foundation for your future.”
No matter what challenges she faced at school, Shaw met them with resilience.
“I’m not going to complain about how hard school is,” she says. “I’m going to show up, do my work, and get out of here.”
Her attitude toward education and knowledge is passionate, and she wants other students to try their hardest, no matter what their background may be.
“Regardless of your background, you can succeed,” she says.