Kristopher R. “Ryan” Shannon, a second-year student in the Florida State University College of Medicine, has been named one of only 40 students nationwide to receive a 2012 Tylenol Future Care Scholarship. The scholarship will provide him with $10,000 to continue his studies.
The Tylenol scholarship program is open to students pursuing degrees in health care. Recipients are chosen on the basis of leadership qualities, academic excellence and passion for community involvement.
A native of Lake Butler, Fla., Shannon earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise sciences at Brigham Young University. While at Brigham Young, he also worked as a teaching assistant and taught human anatomy for three years.
Prior to earning his bachelor’s degree, Shannon served a church service mission for two years, living and working in Brazil, the Navajo Indian Reservation and Phoenix.
Among his other experiences before beginning medical school at Florida State were volunteering at a student-run summer camp for children whose parents had cancer; shadowing two surgeons; and working as an emergency department tech, radiology clerk and phlebotomist.
Shannon is quoted saying: “Medicine . . . combined my love for not just the sciences, but more importantly for people. I have learned that a fulfilling life is one spent beyond the needs of oneself, and that in order to experience true joy, one simply has to offer a hand of help to another.”
He selected the Florida State College of Medicine, he said, because of its student-centered curriculum and faculty, and its mission to serve those in need.