Former star student shines in the classroom

Shannon Pagano’s mother often said her daughter had the soul of a teacher.

Pagano never really believed her, though, until she studied journalism at Southwestern College. Pondering words, photos and page design helped her to realize she had a gift for communication and leadership.

Diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at age three, Pagano’s life has been shaped by restrictive stereotypes the adjunct psychology instructor has battled through.

“I really shed my exterior shell of the stereotypical disabled girl while I was (in the journalism lab) and I also began to shed my skin as the abused housewife,” she said. “I really started to figure out that I meant more, that I was worth more, and that I deserved more than that.”

Pagano confessed that at first her college experience was a way to spend spare time rather than pursue a career.

“The stereotypical disabled girl for me at that time meant that education was just for the purpose of entertainment,” she said. “I had always been told that no disabled person could really succeed professionally.”

Her disability became an afterthought as Pagano rose though the ranks at The Sun to serve three semesters as Editor-in Chief and a year as student president of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

She was a 2005 student of Distinction Award recipient, the first student in a wheelchair ever so honored.

It was at The Sun that she met her future husband, Ken, who was also a former Editor-in-Chief and SODA winner. They were married by the newspaper adviser in the newsroom. Former SWC President Norma Hernandez attended.

While studying journalism Pagano discovered she had skills as an interviewer. She became the paper’s go-to reporter for sensitive interviews and was able to get people to open up about things they had been uncomfortable sharing with anyone.

Pagano eventually realized those skills were essential to a good therapist. She discovered psychology and never went back.

As she began Master’s degree in counseling psychology, her mother was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer.

“I don’t even want to think about who I would be and what my life would be like if I had had any other mother,” she said. “She was nurturing and loving, but also a hard ass. She did not let me make excuses. She did not let me use my disability to get out of anything.”

Her mother pushed her to learn new ways to overcome her disability and find solutions, Pagano said.

“She didn’t let me abuse the system like people sometimes do,” she said. “She made me figure out what I was capable of and I think she did that because she knew that I would be surprised to learn how much I was capable of doing. It was as much my mother’s degree as it was mine.”

Pagano’s teaching style is unconventional. Unable to use PowerPoint, she has created her own lecture style that allows her to use real life examples. Her students seem to love it.

Aleena Bascon, 21, an art major, took Pagano’s Psychology 101 class.

“As a teacher she puts real life lessons in and I think her teaching methods are very great in that way,” said Bascon. “I like the fact that she doesn’t filter herself. A lot of teachers do and they are so structured. She gives us an opportunity to be open and I love that. I love that about her.”

Colleagues have also noticed her methods. Tobeka Robbin, a fellow psychology adjunct, said she admired Pagano’s initiative.

“One of the things I like about her is that she actually came to me and said ‘If you ever need somebody to talk about disability and sexual issues, I would be able to come to your class and talk about it,’” said Robbin. “She made me realize that we don’t cover that much in our textbooks.”

Pagano’s willingness to use herself as an example can often have a strong effect on students attempting to understand their own life problems. She teaches her students how to begin their individual healing processes.

“If your personal story, no matter how painful, would be in anyway beneficial to somebody else, then walking through that pain of retelling your story becomes cathartic,” she said. “It becomes therapeutic for both you and the person who is hearing it.”

Pagano said her mother told her she had the soul of a teacher.

“What she meant by it was that my soul was here to teach and that everything about my being, be it my soul or my physical disability and my limitations due to that disability, serve as a medium through which to teach,” she said “I think she meant you are a teacher spiritually, that my purpose on this planet is that for as long as long as I draw breath I will be teaching others in some way or another.”