Getting to know President Shannon Video Transcript
[Question 1] - What did you want to be when you grew up?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - I had a lot of influences in my life. It really started when I was a young guy. Five, six years, old, my grandfather, so my mother's dad, sold Insurance. Allstate, you're in good hands. And he was a local hometown insurance man, but one of the joys of his life is he became a private pilot and he bought his own airplane. And so this was a time when this is the mid 70s, nobody had airplanes. And he saved up all his pennies and bought this airplane. And I just love to be with him around this airplane. And if you come into my office today, I invite you to come in, you'll see a classic picture of me and my grandfather in front of that airplane. And so I really wanted to be an astronaut. And I know people say that all the time and we've heard that before, but I really did. I really wanted to. I was I was so incredibly interested in things of space, of airplanes, how airplanes worked and operated. And that was just what fueled me in those early days as a young man. Yeah, absolutely.
[Question 2] - What is your favorite memory of your military service?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - So I grew up in southern New Jersey very close to the Delaware Bay, and in the Delaware Bay there's a tremendous industry in seafood. So there's commercial fishing, there's commercial crabbing and of course it's really on the other side of Maryland, which it's very big in the Chesapeake Bay. So it's kind of that part of the middle Atlantic, and so I worked at a place that made crab pots. And basically they're a metal structure, and it really as you think about who I am, I've always loved to build things. I've always loved to make things. And so that was very at an early age an opportunity for me to make something. And I was in there working and this was, I think I was in the eighth grade and I just had a little job making a couple bucks an hour back in those days. And it was a lot of fun and really influential in kind of who I later became.
[Question 3] - What is your favorite memory of your military service?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - There has been no greater honor in my life than being an American soldier and serving in the United States Army. It has formed me. It has molded me. It is who I am as a human being. It's who I am as an American. It's who I am as a husband and a father. You can ask my kids. But it just was formative in my life. I have so many experiences I could talk about in that way. I would say it this way. The opportunity to lead young women and young men in our Army has been the highlight of my career and has been the highlight of my journey. The ability to be able to form a team, to bring people together from all walks of life, all parts of the country. You show up in the United States Army, and the gal next to you or the guy next to you is from, you know I was from New Jersey, this cat's from California. You're like, whoa, they're from California and this one's from Hawaii. That's different. And this one's from you know Florida. And so to be able to get together with a group of people like that and accomplish something that's tremendously difficult, the Army asks you to do difficult things. And so in that perspective, just the interactions that I had with various soldiers and leaders throughout my career, upwards and downwards. So people who influenced me and led me and people whom I influenced and led is really the highlight. Now on the practical side I got to do a lot of really cool stuff, but the best part of those, the best moments were in those moments where you got to lead and learn and serve.
[Question 4] - Who do you admire most in the world (past or present)?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - I will tell you the person I admire most is my wife. My wife Jessica, who has dealt with me for a long time, has been a true inspiration to me. She is someone who has overcome a lot of adversity in her life. Someone who at the young age of 17 raised her hand and left a small farm town in rural Ohio, enlisted in the United States Air Force, went into the United States Air Force, far from home, and served. Went on to marry me, which I guess that's working out OK so far. And she has become a tremendous mentor to me. She inspires me every day. She's somebody that I trust, of course with my life but with my with my heart and soul. And she's somebody who has become a tremendous mother. And I am really excited about the opportunities the University of North Georgia has to get to know her. She can't wait to be a part of this community and serve here, and I can't wait for everyone in our community to meet her and to get to know her. She's fantastic.
[Question 5] - How do you like to start your day?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - First thing I do, I'm a man of faith and so I have some I have some devotional time where I set my course for the day. So I begin with that first thing in the morning. Exercise is important to me. I have to figure out how to fit that in in everything else that I'm doing these days. So I think it's super important for people. I've gone through spurts in my life where I've been a very avid, insane runner and then spurts where I'm just kind of putting around. I'm in the putting around stage right now. But I would say this, and I think from what I've learned, setting yourself in a focused way every day is so important because the rest of the day you just don't have the time. So whatever that means for you. For me, it's being a person of faith, it's exercise, and then you probably should eat something pretty healthy so that you go out and you can set the stage for the day.
[Question 6] - What is the last book you read?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - So I am a nerd. I am a certified nerd, so I do on occasion like to read books that are focused on areas of science. Right now I am heavily studying a space called biomimicry, which I'm very fascinated with. And so there's several books in that space that I'm reading right now, and so what that is is the ability to draw inspiration from life. Biomimicry. Bios, life, mimicry, mimesis, and so mimesis means imitation. Life. Imitation. We struggle in our world today with a lot of very hard, technical challenges, things with energy. We talk about sustainability. We talk about climate, climate challenges. We talk about things relative to transportation. And one of the areas that I'm very interested in we talk about how do we protect soldiers and first responders in the environments that they serve? And so right now I'm super fired up about biomimicry.
[Question 7] - If you could choose one superhero power, what would it be and why?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - This one's hard. I would have to say the ability to be able to show people what their future looks like. Show them their potential. You know imagine if you had a superpower, you know we're in the business of changing lives at the University of North Georgia. We're in the business of inspiring people, and we serve young people that are fresh out of high school. We serve adult learners, and many times I think what we struggle with in our world today is you just can't see yourself in that. You can't see yourself in that moment. We talk about talking to our alumni and hearing their experiences and using those to talk to our students and say, "Hey here's a place that you could go." But imagine if you were able to talk to a student say, "Hey Greg, what are you interested in?" And you say, "Well, Mike, I'm really interested in the arts. The arts are a passion I'm really interested in that." And then you had a superpower to be able to take a conversation, "This is what you could do professionally with that. This is the legacy that you could have for yourself. This is the legacy that you could create for your family. And this is the impact you could have on your community." Man, that would be awesome. Let me say one more thing on this kind of hot topic of superheroes because I think it's really important and it was recent and I do want to share this as you get to know me. Heroes wear uniforms. Heroes walk in the classrooms every day. Heroes walk into hospitals. Heroes serve their communities with the work that they get to do. Sometimes a hero is an artist. Sometimes a hero is someone through their artwork has a dramatic impact on the life of somebody. And so I want to encourage everyone, yes, it would be very cool to have a cape and be Superman or Wonder Woman, but I would tell you that the work that most of you do, you don't even realize that you are a superhero by the work you do.
[Question 8] - What are your initial impressions of UNG?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - This community is special. This community is rich in its spirit and what it believes in and who this community is. And I'm talking about the community of the University of North Georgia. When I meet people today, they are, particularly our alumni, come from all different portions of the history of our university. And I have been so impressed with the passion, the intensity and the way these people are serving their communities. And they're doing it right here in Georgia, and many of them are also doing it around the country. We have, of course, through our Corps of Cadets, we have many people who have gone into service and are in other places, but we have a lot of our graduates that stay right here in Georgia. And I'm so proud of that. We serve our state. We deliver every day in hospitals, in schools, in businesses all across this land. And I have been just so richly blessed by the interactions of these folks and what they have done and are willing to do.
[Question 8] - What do you see ahead for UNG?
[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of UNG] - I see bold forward. Bold forward. I see an opportunity for the University of North Georgia to boldly go forward. Tremendous work has occurred here at this place over decades, over the last several years. And my predecessors have done a tremendous job of leading through a lot of adversity. The adversity brought on by the changes in higher education, the adversity brought on by the pandemic, and the headwinds that we have been sailing through. But as I see where we are today, we have an opportunity to boldly move forward at the University of North Georgia. We have an opportunity to impact more lives. We have the ability to impact our five communities that we get to be a part of. And I am tremendously proud of the the fact that the strength of the University of North Georgia is these five communities that we get to be in and serve in. That's what I'm the most excited about, and that's what I think we have such an opportunity for in the next couple of years. To really take our institution forward, to serve more, to do more, to elevate the work that's already here. We're delivering here. We're delivering the goods, and I can't wait to work with my colleagues here. We have fantastic people at the University of North Georgia, to get together to lock arms and to boldly move forward. So I would leave you with that. Bold forward is what I see, and we're going to do great things here. And I just can't wait to get going.