Learning new lessons

Wed, Jan 21st 2015, 11:53 AM

All-Bahamas Merit Scholar Shannon Butler is finally in the trenches and loving it.
The second year university student who is in his first year of medicine at St. Andrew's University in Scotland returns to university on Friday to commence the second semester of his first year of medicine, and looking forward to it.
"My lectures are really interesting ... dissection practicals are great ... labs are great," said Shannon, 19. "We have a pretty decent schedule, with a lot of free time to study and consolidate what we're learning in lectures, and we have course work which I love."
The 2013 All-Bahamas Merit Scholarship winner, a graduate of Queen's College (QC), who wants to specialize in cardiothoracic surgery said one semester into the six-year medical program has taught him a lot -- not just about medicine, but about medical school, and how different it is from regular university.
"My workload was probably the equivalent of seven or eight college classes," he said of last semester, which saw him engaged in a little of everything medically from anatomy, to physiology, pathology, hematology, molecular medicine, pharmacology, medical ethics, public health and so much more.
The end result of that first intense medical semester is that Shannon has about 1,000 pages of personal notes from just one semester.
"But it's taught me that it's not just like regular college, and it's not good enough to study every day, which is what I was doing. I had to study as effectively as possible every single day just to keep up with all of the material that I had to cover," he said.
Although Shannon sat end-of-term examinations before the Christmas break, he won't know his results until he returns to university as the papers are marked after they return. But he still feels good about what his results will be.
"I am confident in what I've done," he said. "I did well on my mid-terms ... I got a 90 percent on that which put me in the top 10 percent of the 170 people in my year group, so that went well," said the lone Bahamian in the program.
And he's looking forward to delving into the intensity of the medical program when he returns. He also used time during the break to study and make notes on lectures he didn't get a chance to make last semester. He also read up on the subjects that they are going to cover when he returns. A strong focus for the upcoming semester he said would be the musculoskeletal system including all of the upper and lower limbs.
The year he graduated high school, Shannon amassed $146,000 in scholarships to help fund his education -- the All Bahamas Merit Scholar, a four-year $140,000 scholarship. He was also named the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity's 2013 valedictorian and awarded a $6,000 scholarship.
He also distinguished himself with an impressive academic record having achieved 10 Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) awards with nine A grades and one B grade. The results earned him the award for the best BGCSE results in the country; the best results from an independent school student and the highest award in mathematics.
The son of Peter and Wendy Butler and big brother to Reese, 15, a 10th grade student at QC, Shannon has always said he hopes to be the best role model he can be and show Reese how to be disciplined when it comes to schoolwork and to have fun when it's time.
With Shannon away from home for most of the year, he still takes his sibling responsibilities seriously and talks to Reese about what he's going through. But Shannon admits that he doesn't know if his brother really listens or not.
"I just try to basically tell him what's going to happen in the future, not really advise him, but just to prepare him so he's not shocked by it all. I try to tell him that he has to give his best, buckle down, even though it will be hard definitely, but that it will pass and he will get through it, and the grades at the end of the day will be worth it."
While Shannon says his brother is doing well and getting good grades, he said Reese's personality is different from his and more carefree.
"When I was his age I think I was a bit more focused on my academics than he is right now, but I would not change his personality for the world," he said.
As his Christmas break comes to an end, Shannon, who will always have the title All Bahamas Merit Scholar, the country's premier educational award attached to his name, said he sometimes forgets that he picked up the title.
The All-Bahamas Merit Scholarship is granted by the Lyford Cay Foundation Inc., and awarded to the single most outstanding applicant coming out of high school annually.
"Honestly, sometimes I actually forget, but I think that might be for the best because the pressure can get to you to be honest. To know that so many people are not even counting on you to succeed -- but expecting you to succeed and expecting nothing less. But at the end of the day I just try to do my best and try to be an example for people coming behind me," he said.

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