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Page 4 December 10, 1990
The Clarion
Doc Shaw: home at last
by Matt Jacobs
Clarion Reporter
Fate. Where will it take us and
how will it take us there? Seldom are
the answers to these questions evident to
us, much less directly in front of us.
Such was the case for Dr. Jean Shaw,
professor of biology at Brevard College.
Dr. Shaw, originally from a rural
area between Spartanburg and Greenville
called Motlow Creek Community, has
finally returned to the part of the
country that she proudly calls home
after nearly a 30-year absence.
The events of Dr. Shaw's life have
carried her from Motlow Creek to
Tennessee, Kansas, Mississippi, and
even Mexico and parts of Central
America, but ultimately life has carried
her here to Brevard College.
Dr. Shaw graduated from
Robinsville High School in Motlow
Creek in 1950 at the age of 17. Directly
after high school, she went to Winthrop
College. There she majored in zoology
and chemistry. From Winthrop, she
moved on to the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville and obtained her
master's degree in zoology with a minor
in bacteriology.
After earning her master's degree,
her education was temporarily inter
rupted. She married and moved to
Kansas with her husband who had taken
a teaching position at the University of
Kansas. She had three children there
(with whom she is still very close), but
has since divorced her husband.
While at the University of Kansas
she reachcd another important milestone
in her life. In 1972, Jean Shaw became
Dr. Jean Shaw after obtaining her
doctorate in microbiology.
Dr. Shaw recalls how, at the age of
13, she had a burning desire to spend her
life in Africa as a doctor, helping the
sick and poor. But as she continued her
education she was exposed to the impact
that malaria was having on the people
there. At that point she changed her
focus of study to the more scientific end
of the medical spectrum in order to
study malaria and fmd a cure.
She studied malaria for nearly 10
years, and after her divorce in 1980, she
took a two-year post-doctoral scholar
ship to study the disease with some of
the leading professionals in the field at
the University of Massachusetts.
Unfortunately, due to a family
emergency, she could only use one year
of her scholarship before she was forced
to return home to Kansas.
In the early to mid '80s, Dr. Shaw
took many teaching jobs at schools
such as Tougaloo, 1978-1979, a black
liberal arts college in Madison County
in Jackson, Mississippi. She then
taught at Washburn University in
Topeka, Kansas ('79-'80) , then
University of Massachusetts in Field
Research ('80-'81), and then Rock Hurst
in Kansas City, Missouri ('81-'82).
Following Rock Hurst, she also
taught at Cleveland College for four
years (’82-'86). Though on the surface
this period seemed to be a very
successful time in her life, it was one of
the most emotionally trying periods due
10 several deaths of family members and
others very close to her. It was this
period in her life that ultimately led her
to a three- year trip to Mexico to
examine the events of her life and
basically recharge herself.
Upon her return to the U.S., Dr.
Shaw felt it was time to go back to her
true home, the Southern Appalachians.
She returned to her parents' farm, which
she is currently restoring to self-
sufficiency, and decided to start teaching
again. She contacted many schools in
the area and coincidentally enough, BC
needed someone to teach biology and
anatomy/physiology which is Dr.
Shaw's specialty. In the fall of 1989,
she began her first semester at Brevard
College.
Now, well into her second year at
BC, she seems very content with her sur
roundings. She says that "the people
$
¥
Biology Instructor Dr, Geneva
during a lab.
here are the nicest and the easiest to
work with that I've ever met."
She expressed an interest in seeing
the students take a more active role in
their own education and in seeing them
become more excited about learning in
general. She also said, "I'd like to see
people here love the land and nurture it
back to health." Dr. Shaw is an avid
lover of nature and when asked about
what she likes most about being in
Brevard, she said,"I love being back at
home in the mountains. Whenever I get
down, all I have to do is look up and see
a mountain."
Dr. Shaw enjoys activities such as
hiking and says, "I hike every available
moment; I love to get out on the trail,
it does me more good than anything."
Teaching was not Dr. Shaw's first
choice, but out of necessity it became
her profession and evolved into what is
now one of her greatest loves. She
began to teach as a graduate student in
order to pay for her education and has
been teaching off and on ever since.
The two people who have most
influenced her life and teaching career are
Dr. Margaret Hess, the chairperson of
the biology department at Winthrop
Shaw working with BC students
(Clarion photo by Rachel Moore)
College, and Dr. Arthur Jones, her
biology professor at the University of
Tennessee. Both helped her bridge the
gap in between the biological approach
to life, and creationism. Of Jones she
says, "he first made me think about
biology."
As a professor today, her primary
goal is to leave each student with not
only knowledge but an appreciation for
the subject and the environment in
general. When asked if she has any
advice for her students, she says "Thev
should learn to read with understanding
and learn to explore that knowledge,
using it daily and not disposing of it."
In the future she wants to return to
her grandparents' farm to a self-
sufficient state and a more natural state
than before. She wants to continue to
learn. She also wants to visit Africa and
return to Mexico and parts of South and
Central America, but most importantly
she says, "I'd like to survive with
minimal money and maximal
participation in life."
Through Dr. Shaw, fate has
afforded Brevard College with a gift that
will undoubtedly keep on giving.
Student of the Month: Beth Wood
Soprano Beth Wood performs a solo, accompanied by Greg Morris,
during Parent's Weekend. (Clarion photo by Jock Lauterer)
by Charles Marks
Clarion Reporter
"Have a good time, but take your
studying seriously." This is a piece of
advice Beth Wood offers to Brevard
College students.
The 1989 Lubbock, Texas, High
School graduate decided to come to
Brevard for the music program here and
to live in a small, pretty area.
Beth, whose family has since
moved to Dallas, enjoys horseback
riding, poetry, writing and playing pool.
To relieve stress, Beth takes long drives
on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Beth admires animal rights activist
Richard O'Barry who was a dolphin
trainer in the '70s. O'Barry now runs a
dolphin project to keep dolphins safe
and alive.
She says, "If I could change
anything in the world right now I would
make people treat living things as if
they are precious," and that she believes
all living things are equal.
This year Beth serves as a student
marshal. She is also the poetry editor of
the Clarion and the co-editor of the
Chiaroscuro, the Brevard College
literary magazine.
Beth, who has been involved in
music since she was in kindergarten,
plays the piano, harp and guitar, and is a
member of the Collegiate Singers and
Chamber Chorale.
Beth is switching her major from
music to English. "I just reached a
decision where I thought singing would
be better as a hobby than as a career
goal, " she said. "It seems to me that
when you're a professional musician,
that's all you do, and I want to have
time to do lots of things instead of just
one."
She would like to transfer to
University of Texas in Austin, or the
University of Colorado in Boulder.