Pacesetter - Spring/Summer 2010 - Alumni Spotlight

Alumni Spotlight: Shawn Thaxton ’07

Childhood call blooms into lifelong mission
by Julie Thompson

When Shawn Thaxton was just a little girl, she told her mom she wanted to be a baby doctor.

Perhaps she didn’t really know what it all meant, but it seemed the seed had been planted in her heart by God. All she had to do was wait a decade or so to see the real plan come to fruition. She followed that initial desire by immersing herself into the medical field as soon as she was able.

At age 16, she got a job at a local nursing home and watched as her calling became more defined. She knew she was meant to be a nurse when ordinary efforts elicited never-ending thankfulness from her patients.

“It took me literally three days to decide that nursing was for me, as I quickly linked my dreams as a child to the impact I had on my patients at the nursing home to my future,” Thaxton said.

She chose Kettering College after learning her mentor from the nursing home got her degree there. At Kettering College, God began to set up the second part of his plan. Thaxton knew she wanted to pursue nursing, but she didn’t know where.

In the Service Learning Honors Program, Thaxton focused on mission work in other countries, traveling to Trinidad and Tobago in 2007 and spending time with one of her mentors, nursing faculty member Paula Reams, then the leader of the honors program.

Upon graduation in December 2007, Thaxton settled on a job at Dayton Children’s Medical Center as a nursing assistant in pre- and post-operative surgery. She chose to stay there because of her love for children and her inability to find work as a labor and delivery nurse in Dayton.

In May 2008, Thaxton tagged along on another mission trip with Kettering College to Belize, and her entire life and career path took a different direction. She realized this was what God had been preparing her for all along. A couple of months later, she quit her job at Dayton Children’s and returned to Belize to volunteer in a hospital.

Thaxton learned more than she expected. She often was one of three people at the hospital each night, including another nurse and a security guard. A doctor was on call but could often be up to 30 miles away. Anything could walk through the doors, and it did.

“I saved patients, I lost patients, I delivered babies, comforted suicidal teenagers, gave anti-venom for snake bites and more,” she said.

Thaxton returned home a year ago to advance her education and help pay for it. She’s back at Dayton Children’s while pursuing her bachelor’s in nursing at Kettering College, and after graduating in December, she plans to start working toward her master’s degree in nursing with a focus on nurse-midwifery.

God’s plan for her life is crystal clear now, Thaxton said, and she’s focused on making it happen. She hopes to return to Belize to start her own birthing clinic or possibly integrate her work into her former job there. For now, she has to bear the homesick feeling she has for the country she once knew so little about.

“I know that as a nurse, I have the honor and privilege of being the hands and feet of Christ, helping and healing all those I serve,” Thaxton said. “I can’t wait to see what God has in store for my future and their future when I return to Belize.”