It has become second nature for Cheri Shannon to act first and help others in need.

On Tuesday, Feb. 6, Shannon was driving down Interstate-20 when she noticed a few cars on the side of the road. When she pulled over, she noticed a car had slid into a ditch and the engine was on fire. Shannon started assessing the situation and thinking what to do next.

“I could see a car had gone off the road and down in the ditch and all I could see was taillights,” she explained. “I thought this is not good. I started looking and noticed the car was on fire. You know, I teach my EMT [Emergency Medical Technician] students to wait until the scene is safe, but this man is in the car and it’s on fire. I have to do something.”

Shannon explained two gentlemen on the scene assisted her by pulling the man out of his car and brought her to assess and check on him.

“He [the man in the accident] was really confused about what happened and was so worried about getting to work,” she noted. “I kept telling him ‘I think you’ll be okay.’ He asked me where his car was which I pointed out that it was unfortunately on fire.”

City of Terrell Emergency Management Coordinator Dustin Conner, who responded to the accident and assisted in pulling the man out of his car, shared that saving the occupant of that vehicle would not have been possible without good Samaritans like Shannon stopping to help.

“I did what I had to do,” she noted. “I take care of people. It’s what I’m trained to do and love to do. People think what I did was neat, but I just did what I was supposed to do.”

Shannon currently works at the Trinity Valley Community College -Terrell Health Science Center (HSC) as the instructor for the EMT program and teaches Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) for the Dual-Credit program at the Health Science Academy in Terrell. Currently, she is working on her RN-to-BSN from TVCC and will graduate from the program in Spring 2024. Before teaching at TVCC, she worked as an emergency room nurse for 28 years and worked as a paramedic and flight nurse for over 10 years.

“I never thought I could teach,” Shannon shared. “But I fell in love with it. I mean those high school kids in the [CMA Program at the Health Science Academy] are little sponges and soak in all this information and knowledge. It’s what I like to do!”

Shannon explained she always had an interest in nursing but didn’t become a nurse until later in her life.

“I didn’t become a nurse until I was 35 years old,” Shannon shared. “I went ahead and had my family first. I was working at a paper mill in Forney, and one day I looked at my friend and said, ‘I’ve always wanted to be a nurse’ and she said, ‘Me too!’ and in 30 days we both quit, signed up [for classes] and started our pathway.”

In 30 days, Shannon quit her job and started classes at TVCC to pursue an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing in 1993. She later returned to TVCC to become certified as an EMT-Paramedic.

“I have lots of stories from the emergency room or working in the helicopter to tell my students and they are always interested in hearing them or asking about them,” Shannon said. “There’s a broad spectrum in what you can do in the medical field.”