Graduate Spotlight: Shannon McCarroll

Shannon McCarroll graduates this year with her Bachelor’s in Sociology from Lehman College, and next year she will begin on her Master’s in Organizational Leadership. Growing up, Shannon never thought she would go to college: “My mom always encouraged us to get blue-collar jobs with pensions and long-term plans,” she remembers. That’s what Shannon did for most of her life, working eight years in construction and another seventeen as a postal worker. But at age 45, Shannon ended up on Federal probation.

“If I was going to be offered the opportunity NOT to be incarcerated, then I wanted to live in my purpose.” 

“I lived in Georgia when I was called for sentencing,” Shannon says. “In Georgia, it’s hard to rebuild your life after contact with the criminal justice system. So I moved back to New York in 2017. I was talking one day about my hopes to go to college, when a woman overheard me, told me to call CCF, and gave me their number.” 

“CCF was a godsend,” Shannon reminisces. “When I first came to CCF, I kept thinking about going back to school as a way to prove my family wrong - they thought I fell and couldn’t get back up. But at CCF, there were so many women like me, women who weren’t just fighting to survive - they wanted to thrive and be better. and they didn’t just want to be better, they wanted to help others.

CCF changed my whole attitude to be more about my own future and less about proving others wrong. Your attitude is the paintbrush of your life. When my attitude changed, my whole life changed.”

With CCF’s guidance, Shannon began her studies.

“I started studying sociology [and] my concentration became urban sociology and criminology. I wanted to learn how we can overcome obstacles to make us better. I wanted to know - how does the world see us? I wanted to learn the functions of society, and I realized that some of those functions were made for us to fail, especially minorities. Once you seriously realize that, you can let go of oppression.”

As an eager and dedicated student, Shannon was hungry to learn more. “In a methodology class, I learned about racial biases in early childhood teachers. At the time, Mayor de Blasio was starting to create the Pre-K for All program, so I wrote him a letter.” Shannon wanted the mayor to consider the effects of these biases in developing his program, and her advocacy work grew from there. She studied other types of racial disparities, like sanitation service inequities in communities of color and the “pushout,” or “adultification” of girls  of color, discouraging them from continuing their schooling. 

All of these experiences drove Shannon more toward her purpose, which she describes as “to inspire, transform, and motivationally speak to people like me.” Shannon joined CCF’s advocacy training program, Women Influencing Systems & History (WISH), where she learned to tell her personal story - then, she began counseling middle school girls at MS 424 and 331 using those newfound skills. Earlier this year, Shannon  not only joined CCF’s  Career Advancement Program (CAP) “to take my skills to the next level,” but also tapped into her own network to connect CCF to NYC Health + Hospitals (Queens), helping current and prospective CAP participants get direct access to career opportunities in information technology, administration, and health care.

Thinking about her own future, Shannon says “My dream is to lead an organization like CCF, focused on prevention of criminal justice involvement. I’m going to continue with my motivational speaking and recovery coaching, and I’m going to continue my education.” And Shannon has a message for other women thinking about their own futures:

“We all have a story to tell and we all get the opportunity to change that story at any time. If you are looking for a foundation, a support group, a place that will not only push you but walk with you, go to CCF. The fellowship is real here. CCF is about the endgame, and the endgame is helping you find YOUR purpose and YOUR form of success.”

Shannon with her parents as a child.

Shannon today, looking toward the future.