Shannon’s Soapbox: Meet the Associate Editor
Most of you know who I am. My name is Shannon Taylor and, as of this week, I have taken a new position as Associate Editor of the Martin Post. I have been in the news industry for almost three years now, but I have been writing in one capacity or another for as long as I can remember.
I graduated from the University of Tennessee in Martin with a BA in English and, during that time, I was able to attend many conferences and publish a lot of my writing. I graduated Magna Cum Laude and was a part of numerous clubs and organizations during my time there including Sigma Tau Delta-an English Honor Society, Psi Chi-a Psychology Honor Society, Gamma Beta Phi-a National Honor Society and Phi Kappa Phi-a National Honor Society.
While I attended UTM I worked for three years at the campus writing center: The Hortense-Parrish Writing Center where she worked as a writing tutor.
At UTM I was an officer of Author’s Anonymous, a club dedicated to writing of all kinds, an officer of BeanSwitch, the campus journal, the publicity coordinator for Sigma Tau Delta, an English honor society and I was also on the marketing committee, events committee and materials committee for the writing center.
While at UTM I was published in BeanSwitch’s 2018, 2019, and 2020 editions. I presented at the Interdisciplinary Student Writing Conference in 2018, at the Southwestern Writing Center Association in 2018, at the Southeastern Writing Conference in 2018, at TuColla in 2018, at SWCA in 2019, at the Sigma Tau Delta Conference in 2019 and 2020 and I also presented at several roundtable events the writing center held from 2017-2020.
While at UTM I was on the Chancellors roll every semester I attended until I graduated and was inducted into Psi Chi, the psychology honor society, Phi Eta Sigma, a national honor society, Gamma Beta Phi, a honors and service society, Phi Kappa Phi, an honor society for those in the top 10% of their class, and Sigma Tau Delta, an English honor society.
I received the Kelle Jones Scholarship in 2017, 2019 and 2020. In 2020 I won the John E. McCluskey Undergraduate Scholarly Essay Award for 1st place and the Robert G. Cowzer Poetry Award for 1st place. I was also nominated to The National Society of Leadership and Success in 2020.
Upon graduation I was accepted into the accelerated Masters/Doctorates program in English Literature and Pedagogy at Murray State where I completed my master’s and I am currently working on finishing my Doctorates as well as obtaining a master’s in journalism. While there I was accepted into Omicron Delta Kappa, a National Leadership Society for obtaining a 4.0 GPA in a master’s program and leadership in the community. I love learning and that has been my number one reason for continuing my education.
I will graduate from the MA-DA program in 2027 and my plan is to continue learning—you can never have enough education and knowledge—and to continue being an advocate for people in the community because this is where I live and I want this to be a safe place for everyone in it.
Shannon@magicvalleypublishing.com
