We are thrilled to have Shannon Donnaway as our special guest this week!
Shannon is John’s daughter and Dina’s sister-in-law. In this episode, we engage with Shannon about her successful career as a speech pathologist and fellow podcaster!
Currently, she and her cohost Holley Bronson are in the midst of the second season of their popular podcast, Education RX. While we plan to invite Shannon back to discuss her other life passions, during this episode, you’ll also hear a bit about being a mother of two. Shannon and her husband have created a welcoming home that attracts kids of all ages, and there’s always something exciting happening at their home!
We are inspired by Shannon’s achievements and are thrilled to share her story with our podcast audience. Make sure to check out Education RX on various streaming platforms or find the link in the episode notes.
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Transcript
John Simon Sr. 00:06
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John, Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon, and
John Simon Sr. 00:16
today Shannon donaway is our guest. Shannon is my daughter and Dean is sister in law. Welcome, Shannon,
Shannon Donnaway 00:23
Hi. Thanks for interviewing me and having me today.
Dina Simon 00:26
We're super excited to have you. Yay.
John Simon Sr. 00:30
So Shannon, why don't you begin by telling us a little bit about where you live and a little bit about your family. I
Shannon Donnaway 00:37
live in Durango, Colorado, which is a small town in the southwest corner of Colorado. I live here with my husband and my two kids, who are Simon and Lucy, and they are 21 and 18 years old. My husband is Jonathan, and we interviewed Simon already, so he was awesome. He was our very first podcast guest. Oh, yes, I forgot about that. His was really nice. It's super cute. All of the conversation and stories he told, yeah, it was super fun. And then Lucy jumped in at the end, yes,
John Simon Sr. 01:11
she did, which was really cute. So Shannon, you currently work for the Durango Colorado School District Niner as a speech pathologist, and I think you also work in Aztec occasionally.
Shannon Donnaway 01:23
Yeah, I currently work part time for Durango 9r I work two and a half days a week, and then I work one day a week during the school year in Aztec, New Mexico, which is just like 20 miles south of the state line. And I did work full time up until last year, so this part time is new for me. Good.
John Simon Sr. 01:46
So tell us a little bit about your education and why you decided to get into speech pathology.
Shannon Donnaway 01:52
I went to college in Texas. I went to University of North Texas, and then for a couple years, and then I learned about the field of speech pathology and thought it sounded like a great profession. It would allow me to work in a lot of different areas. I was excited about possibly working in a hospital or a skilled nursing facility or even a school. So there's and even in the corporate world, there's a little bit of speech therapy too. So I had a lot of options. I ended up transferring to Texas Woman's University. I got my undergraduate degree there, and then went to University of Texas Dallas, and got my master's in communication sciences and disorders, and then worked in the Dallas area for a couple years, and then moved to Durango after that, and
John Simon Sr. 02:41
when you were in Durango, you landed a job working on an Indian reservation in Anne of Utah. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Shannon Donnaway 02:49
Yeah, that was how we ended up in Durango. We looked and thought, can we find jobs here? And there was this ad for a speech therapist out on on the Navajo reservation in anneth, Utah, and they were looking for a part time speech therapist, which Anne Utah is actually two hours away from Durango. It's right at the Four Corners area. So I work three days a week out there, and I did that for two years, I think almost two years, maybe not quite, and that was a great place to be. I really enjoyed it, and I learned a lot about Navajo culture and their language and that kind of stuff. So it was a good place to learn a lot, but it's a hard job to do for too long. Yeah,
Dina Simon 03:36
I forgot about that. So was, it was two hours one way, two hours, one way, yeah, so
Shannon Donnaway 03:42
I believe early in the morning I didn't have to be there early. So if I left Durango at 630 I could be there by 830 and then I'd leave there at 330 because it was school hours. Yeah,
Dina Simon 03:53
I knew it was long, but I forgot. I thought at least an hour, but I forgot was two hours. But what like you said? What a cool experience, just to learn about a totally different culture than what you were raised in and working with you, were you with elementary kids at the time? Yeah, it was at a school
Shannon Donnaway 04:09
that was K through eighth grade, and it was a boarding school, so kids stayed there because they do that a lot on the reservation, because they're so spread out. And so it was definitely a learning experience, but it was great. The kids were wonderful, and I got to learn so much. And I used to take Simon out there when he was little, which was fun and cool, like they really enjoyed family. And so taking him out there, they loved to see him, and he got to engage with all the kids and all the families. It was a cool experience.
John Simon Sr. 04:40
I can remember at times when they would invite you and Jonathan and Simon to come out for Thanksgiving, whenever they would do their Turkey, and they just made you a part of the Navajo family for a day.
Shannon Donnaway 04:51
Yeah, they were very welcoming. I had to learn a few rules and make sure I was doing some things right, but they were very nice.
John Simon Sr. 04:59
And. At the time you were working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Yes,
Shannon Donnaway 05:03
yes, I worked as a subcontractor for somebody who had a contract with a Bureau of Indian Education. Wonderful,
John Simon Sr. 05:12
like you said, it was a great experience. And tell us a little bit about the difference between working on the reservation and then working in the town of Aztec, and you did for a while in Farmington also. So now you have a group that are no longer on the reservation,
Shannon Donnaway 05:29
huh? I don't know. There's not a ton of difference. I don't know. I really enjoyed being on the reservation. The only reason I didn't continue doing that was the drive. So working in New Mexico was a shorter drive, but you didn't have quite the community that you did on the reservation. So I think that's a piece that gets lost for certain populations.
John Simon Sr. 05:53
I remember being up there one time after Christmas, and you and Granny went out to the mall over in Farmington, and you ran into a bunch of the Native Americans from Amnesty. They were so excited to see you.
Shannon Donnaway 06:06
Yeah, yeah, that it was just a really different feel being on the reservation and being in Farmington, which is near the reservation, but not quite it was a really cool experience.
John Simon Sr. 06:17
Now, you've also done work in nursing homes. I
Shannon Donnaway 06:21
have. I've worked in skilled nursing facilities, which I actually really enjoy, but it's hard work and it's just a little tricky working again. It's like the time and the effort that goes into that it's, it's not something that's most people sustain for a long period. Yeah, in my field, you do it for a little while, and then you jump into something else, and then, I don't know, a lot of speech therapists could jump back and forth between different locations. Sure,
John Simon Sr. 06:54
it has to be rewarding, working with people that may have had health conditions such as a stroke, and teaching them once again, how to speak and how to eat properly and and just helping them where they can do things on their own. A little bit
Shannon Donnaway 07:08
Sure, and I would say that in every area, whether it's schools or hospitals or skilled nursing facilities like my job is really rewarding, working with students and just or adults gaining skills that they had and lost, or learning new skills, whatever it is, it's very rewarding.
Dina Simon 07:28
Yeah, I can't even imagine Shannon. So just cool. And like you said, because you have moved to different locations, so you've worked with different ages of kids and different situations with adults to seniors, and how rewarding that would be, absolutely and like your dad said, just the ability to help people regain those skills that they had and something had happened to them, that they lost them, and love that, love that. And so you is super rewarding. And as you talked about, like when you were in college, you thought it would be something that would give you that exposure to have a lot of different opportunities, to work with a lot of different walks of life, and it sounds like it's provided you that it
Shannon Donnaway 08:07
has. Yeah, I originally thought I was going to be in acute care rehab is where I wanted to be, and I've never actually worked in that field. It just didn't work out. But I love being in schools and skilled nursing facilities. Both of those two locations have been great, nice, and I would recommend it to others, for sure.
John Simon Sr. 08:27
So you've been in Durango for a little over 20 years now, and do you ever run into any of your students?
Shannon Donnaway 08:33
Yeah, I run into my Durango students all the time now. Yeah, yeah. A lot of students. I do grocery store, I see parents. Durango is a small town.
Dina Simon 08:43
We all know each other, yep, yep, nice. And that's even rewarding too, like it's not the Indian Reservation, but now that you're back in Durango, working in Durango, you have that community of people, sure, yeah, absolutely Nice.
John Simon Sr. 08:57
So you're working two and a half days a week, and you do maybe one day over in Aztec. What do you do with the rest of your time?
Shannon Donnaway 09:09
I manage a zoo in my house a lot of the time. Yes,
Dina Simon 09:12
a zoo of animals and people and chaos. Yes,
Shannon Donnaway 09:17
yes, whether it's kids or I have two dogs and two cats and a busload of 21 year olds coming in, pretty much having dance parties in my house. And it's always non stop here.
John Simon Sr. 09:32
So Dina, about 10 years ago, we were over in Moab, Utah, and we were walking through just one of the little stores over there, and Shannon saw a pair of socks, and she loves wearing different kind of socks, and it had a saying on it. It says, ringmaster of the shit show. And she said, that is my life, yeah, and I bought her those socks, and she really enjoys wearing them. Yes,
Dina Simon 09:58
I think we've seen. A few other things that have that saying for you, Shannon, and we always think about you when we see it.
Shannon Donnaway 10:05
It's pretty much right now, Simon has left for Alaska, but now his really good friend Jack Brown has moved into the house, so he's staying here. And then Lucy is rafting, and she's got her raft crew and friends coming over, and it's just, yeah, it's, I guess, madness and but it's good because it's where all kids want to hang out. So
Dina Simon 10:31
yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome, as
John Simon Sr. 10:34
we know from all the years we spent there and going on a river and rafting. A lot of the people that work for the rafting companies or homeless people almost they they live in vans, and they LIVE with friends and anywhere they can find a place to spend a night, that's what they're willing to do.
Dina Simon 10:51
Nice, I
Shannon Donnaway 10:52
didn't know that. Yeah, people travel from all over to be in Durango and will do almost anything to stay and hang out here for a while. Jonathan and I did,
Dina Simon 11:03
yeah, you got there, loved it, and stayed. And then, oh my gosh, it's not the easiest place to get to, is it? No,
Shannon Donnaway 11:10
no, it's not the easiest place to stay. And yeah, be successful and build a life.
Dina Simon 11:20
You guys have done it. You've built a beautiful life, and your children love it. Simon said very specifically on the podcast that he's traveled the world now, and he loves that he's had that opportunity to do but Durango is home, and Durango is where he wants to be. So I love that you guys found Durango that was just an awesome opportunity. Yeah, and
Shannon Donnaway 11:37
now even Lucy is saying that nice, because she has always been the one i That said, I want to get out. I need to go somewhere bigger and be in a city and experience things. And now she's Oh, Durango is pretty great.
Dina Simon 11:51
Hopefully she's not regretting her college decision. I don't think so. No. Where's Lucy going?
Shannon Donnaway 11:57
Lucy is going to the University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu.
Dina Simon 12:02
We're so excited because we can't wait to go visit I know, yes, it is so I think when your dad was asking also, what do you do in your spare time? I think we'd love to hear about you also having a podcast. We're a family of podcasters now.
Shannon Donnaway 12:19
I do. I have a podcast that I'm doing with a really good friend of mine, Holly Bronson. She's an occupational therapist, so her and I worked together for a long time in the schools, and she recently moved to a different district, and it's her grand idea to start a podcast about education and kind of talk about all of the things that are going on in education, what's good about it, what's not so great about it. What should we change? And then so we spend our time interviewing experts about that have ideas on education and reform and what it should look like, nice and
Dina Simon 13:02
and we laugh because your dad and I, when we started the podcast, I think our very first practice session, he's, did you know Shannon has a podcast? And I was like, I just learned that Shannon had a podcast. We've become fans of your podcast, and it's just super fun that you were out there doing that and started that. What's been your most exciting person that you've brought to the podcast to interview?
Shannon Donnaway 13:24
We've only done two seasons, and so last season, we were able to get a whole bunch of really great experts, and we talked to Dr Passy salberg. Currently, he's working in Australia, but he was the head of the Finnish Education Department, and ran it for years, and he did amazing things in Finland. And so it was really cool to talk to him, because he is the guy in education, like he is who anybody would go to get great resource and information. And so it was just cool to talk to somebody who has done so much and been in so many different countries and learned a lot. So he was really cool.
John Simon Sr. 14:10
So Shannon, looking back on your career, is there someone or something, maybe a leader, that inspired you throughout your career? So far,
Shannon Donnaway 14:18
I have lots of people who have inspired me, specifically in my career. I would say my Cfy supervisor was really great, and she was in Plano, Texas, and so she really inspired me to invest a lot of energy and effort into my students and learn how to be a good therapist. And so professionally, I would say her, and that was my initial person. And now I would say that Holly Bronson is an inspiration to me, because she like pushes me to talk about education more and be involved and want to help change things. Professionally, I would. Say those too.
John Simon Sr. 15:00
So I'll tell a cute story from Shannon's first year of teaching in Plano. It was raining one day and she was running a little bit behind, and she parked in her parking place, and she had her little Volkswagen, and someone else was getting out of their car, and they reprimanded her for parking in the teacher's parking lot. Did realize she was one of the new teachers there.
Dina Simon 15:24
I love it. That's so funny. Yes, because Shannon you, you do always look youthful. You still have not aged, and so you probably looked super young. So I love that. Yeah, I
Shannon Donnaway 15:35
used to get a lot of flack walking around because I work. My first job was at a Senior High School in Plano, and so I was 20. What was I 22 and so I wasn't that much older than some of the students. They were 18. They were 17 and 18. So yeah, I got mistaken quite a few times and asked for passes, and that's so funny. Oh
Dina Simon 16:00
my gosh. And then, didn't your sister in law go into didn't Jonathan's sister go into speech pathology as well? Yeah, so
Shannon Donnaway 16:06
Jessica is seven years younger than me, and she is also speech pathologist. I'm
Dina Simon 16:13
sure that you were some inspiration there for her. Yeah, maybe
Shannon Donnaway 16:16
she, she saw some of the things I was doing. Yeah, nice.
John Simon Sr. 16:21
And she also works at the Durango our school district. She
Dina Simon 16:25
does, yes, so you're working part time now. You've got your baby going off to college. What does the next few years look like for you? Shannon,
Shannon Donnaway 16:35
I don't know. I'm supposed to be a podcast millionaire shortly. I love it. That's what Jonathan says, that we're gonna be podcast millionaires if education RX takes off. No, I don't know. I spend a little bit of time doing that, and I don't know, working, enjoying Durango, paddleboarding, hanging out. Oh, traveling, traveling. Yes,
Dina Simon 17:02
I'll be going back and forth from Hawaii a lot. Yes, nice. Yeah, good. Like Lucy and her friends looking at colleges and trying to figure out. There's so much pressure to have these kids to try and figure out where they're going and what they're going to focus on. So what kind of advice would you give, or are you giving to them at that age as they're exploring?
Shannon Donnaway 17:23
To my kids, I would tell them to go out and experience and have fun and do what they would enjoy doing. Simon is flying helicopters. Isn't currently in Alaska. Lucy is rafting down the Animas River and going to Hawaii soon. So just go and do things and see where you end up. Like there. You don't have to make any plans. You don't have to make any decisions. Just go and experience Yeah, love that.
John Simon Sr. 17:55
I think that's good advice to any young person. I
Dina Simon 17:59
think so too. And again, Simon's episode on our podcast, he's very much appreciated what you and Jonathan did and getting him out to Europe to spend time and just discover himself, and just the power in that, right? We didn't necessarily have those same opportunities when we were younger. They're so much more readily available to our kids and studying abroad and all that kind of stuff. And so definitely taking the advantage of it while they can. Yeah, both Jonathan and I look at each other and go, we didn't even think about these possibilities when we were 18 and 19 years old.
Shannon Donnaway 18:32
We didn't think about, I don't know, traveling the world or flying helicopters, or going, yeah. We just never really thought about it much. We just took the path, I don't know. So
John Simon Sr. 18:46
now you have a chance to live a little vicariously through them.
Dina Simon 18:49
Absolutely. It's really fun. It is fun. It is so fun. And then also to travel yourself, because you guys have done some we should share that. Shannon, since you are. You have so much to bring to our podcast. This is going to be our episode about you and your career, and wanted to learn a little bit more about your podcast, but we sure would love to have you back on and we could talk about your worldly travels, because you've gotten to travel quite a bit over the last couple years. And maybe we could do a remote one sometime with Simon and like with the whole helicopter stuff, and just continue to follow his journey. And super exciting. I think we all have to go to Hawaii on the podcast and go visit Lucy and interview her in person. I
Shannon Donnaway 19:33
think that would be a great plan. And the helicopter like doing something with the helicopter plans, that's a good idea.
Dina Simon 19:40
I think it would be great, great. So John, any other questions for Shannon for today?
John Simon Sr. 19:45
No, I think we had a great time for the last 30 minutes talking about everything that she's accomplished, and I look forward to the next time we have a chance to chat with her a little bit more about what it's like living in a. Resort town and raising children there and just having the great fun that you can have.
Dina Simon 20:06
Yeah, and Shannon, as far as our podcast about inspiration, leadership and building legacies, you also were a catalyst to this because of the book that you got your dad for Christmas a year ago that he had every week he was prompted to write a story, and so just bringing these stories to life, so we definitely will pull some of those stories out. But the book was just gorgeous, and what a gift you gave to all of us in giving that to him, it was super fun.
John Simon Sr. 20:33
And I can honestly say it was fun for me to answer the questions every week and publish the book. It
Shannon Donnaway 20:40
turned out great.
Dina Simon 20:41
It did turn out great, Shannon, we thank you for joining us, and we will have you back on another episode, and we'll put links in the show notes and stuff so people can follow education RX podcast as well. That would be great. Thank you so much for joining us for our episode with Shannon donaway, my sister in law, and John's daughter, we were super excited to bring her to the table, and we are sure you will hear from her again. Please check out her podcast called education. RX. Thank you so much, Shannon for coming and joining us, and as always, I thank my amazing co host, my father in law, John Simon and we look forward to having you tune in to our next podcast. We also wanted to share if you wanted to reach out and connect with us, go to info at Simon Says, inspire.com and share with us any feedback that you have, or if there are any special guests that you would like to suggest we bring on to our podcast. Take care and we thank you for tuning in until next time you.
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John, Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon, and
John Simon Sr. 00:16
today Shannon donaway is our guest. Shannon is my daughter and Dean is sister in law. Welcome, Shannon,
Shannon Donnaway 00:23
Hi. Thanks for interviewing me and having me today.
Dina Simon 00:26
We're super excited to have you. Yay.
John Simon Sr. 00:30
So Shannon, why don't you begin by telling us a little bit about where you live and a little bit about your family. I
Shannon Donnaway 00:37
live in Durango, Colorado, which is a small town in the southwest corner of Colorado. I live here with my husband and my two kids, who are Simon and Lucy, and they are 21 and 18 years old. My husband is Jonathan, and we interviewed Simon already, so he was awesome. He was our very first podcast guest. Oh, yes, I forgot about that. His was really nice. It's super cute. All of the conversation and stories he told, yeah, it was super fun. And then Lucy jumped in at the end, yes,
John Simon Sr. 01:11
she did, which was really cute. So Shannon, you currently work for the Durango Colorado School District Niner as a speech pathologist, and I think you also work in Aztec occasionally.
Shannon Donnaway 01:23
Yeah, I currently work part time for Durango 9r I work two and a half days a week, and then I work one day a week during the school year in Aztec, New Mexico, which is just like 20 miles south of the state line. And I did work full time up until last year, so this part time is new for me. Good.
John Simon Sr. 01:46
So tell us a little bit about your education and why you decided to get into speech pathology.
Shannon Donnaway 01:52
I went to college in Texas. I went to University of North Texas, and then for a couple years, and then I learned about the field of speech pathology and thought it sounded like a great profession. It would allow me to work in a lot of different areas. I was excited about possibly working in a hospital or a skilled nursing facility or even a school. So there's and even in the corporate world, there's a little bit of speech therapy too. So I had a lot of options. I ended up transferring to Texas Woman's University. I got my undergraduate degree there, and then went to University of Texas Dallas, and got my master's in communication sciences and disorders, and then worked in the Dallas area for a couple years, and then moved to Durango after that, and
John Simon Sr. 02:41
when you were in Durango, you landed a job working on an Indian reservation in Anne of Utah. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Shannon Donnaway 02:49
Yeah, that was how we ended up in Durango. We looked and thought, can we find jobs here? And there was this ad for a speech therapist out on on the Navajo reservation in anneth, Utah, and they were looking for a part time speech therapist, which Anne Utah is actually two hours away from Durango. It's right at the Four Corners area. So I work three days a week out there, and I did that for two years, I think almost two years, maybe not quite, and that was a great place to be. I really enjoyed it, and I learned a lot about Navajo culture and their language and that kind of stuff. So it was a good place to learn a lot, but it's a hard job to do for too long. Yeah,
Dina Simon 03:36
I forgot about that. So was, it was two hours one way, two hours, one way, yeah, so
Shannon Donnaway 03:42
I believe early in the morning I didn't have to be there early. So if I left Durango at 630 I could be there by 830 and then I'd leave there at 330 because it was school hours. Yeah,
Dina Simon 03:53
I knew it was long, but I forgot. I thought at least an hour, but I forgot was two hours. But what like you said? What a cool experience, just to learn about a totally different culture than what you were raised in and working with you, were you with elementary kids at the time? Yeah, it was at a school
Shannon Donnaway 04:09
that was K through eighth grade, and it was a boarding school, so kids stayed there because they do that a lot on the reservation, because they're so spread out. And so it was definitely a learning experience, but it was great. The kids were wonderful, and I got to learn so much. And I used to take Simon out there when he was little, which was fun and cool, like they really enjoyed family. And so taking him out there, they loved to see him, and he got to engage with all the kids and all the families. It was a cool experience.
John Simon Sr. 04:40
I can remember at times when they would invite you and Jonathan and Simon to come out for Thanksgiving, whenever they would do their Turkey, and they just made you a part of the Navajo family for a day.
Shannon Donnaway 04:51
Yeah, they were very welcoming. I had to learn a few rules and make sure I was doing some things right, but they were very nice.
John Simon Sr. 04:59
And. At the time you were working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Yes,
Shannon Donnaway 05:03
yes, I worked as a subcontractor for somebody who had a contract with a Bureau of Indian Education. Wonderful,
John Simon Sr. 05:12
like you said, it was a great experience. And tell us a little bit about the difference between working on the reservation and then working in the town of Aztec, and you did for a while in Farmington also. So now you have a group that are no longer on the reservation,
Shannon Donnaway 05:29
huh? I don't know. There's not a ton of difference. I don't know. I really enjoyed being on the reservation. The only reason I didn't continue doing that was the drive. So working in New Mexico was a shorter drive, but you didn't have quite the community that you did on the reservation. So I think that's a piece that gets lost for certain populations.
John Simon Sr. 05:53
I remember being up there one time after Christmas, and you and Granny went out to the mall over in Farmington, and you ran into a bunch of the Native Americans from Amnesty. They were so excited to see you.
Shannon Donnaway 06:06
Yeah, yeah, that it was just a really different feel being on the reservation and being in Farmington, which is near the reservation, but not quite it was a really cool experience.
John Simon Sr. 06:17
Now, you've also done work in nursing homes. I
Shannon Donnaway 06:21
have. I've worked in skilled nursing facilities, which I actually really enjoy, but it's hard work and it's just a little tricky working again. It's like the time and the effort that goes into that it's, it's not something that's most people sustain for a long period. Yeah, in my field, you do it for a little while, and then you jump into something else, and then, I don't know, a lot of speech therapists could jump back and forth between different locations. Sure,
John Simon Sr. 06:54
it has to be rewarding, working with people that may have had health conditions such as a stroke, and teaching them once again, how to speak and how to eat properly and and just helping them where they can do things on their own. A little bit
Shannon Donnaway 07:08
Sure, and I would say that in every area, whether it's schools or hospitals or skilled nursing facilities like my job is really rewarding, working with students and just or adults gaining skills that they had and lost, or learning new skills, whatever it is, it's very rewarding.
Dina Simon 07:28
Yeah, I can't even imagine Shannon. So just cool. And like you said, because you have moved to different locations, so you've worked with different ages of kids and different situations with adults to seniors, and how rewarding that would be, absolutely and like your dad said, just the ability to help people regain those skills that they had and something had happened to them, that they lost them, and love that, love that. And so you is super rewarding. And as you talked about, like when you were in college, you thought it would be something that would give you that exposure to have a lot of different opportunities, to work with a lot of different walks of life, and it sounds like it's provided you that it
Shannon Donnaway 08:07
has. Yeah, I originally thought I was going to be in acute care rehab is where I wanted to be, and I've never actually worked in that field. It just didn't work out. But I love being in schools and skilled nursing facilities. Both of those two locations have been great, nice, and I would recommend it to others, for sure.
John Simon Sr. 08:27
So you've been in Durango for a little over 20 years now, and do you ever run into any of your students?
Shannon Donnaway 08:33
Yeah, I run into my Durango students all the time now. Yeah, yeah. A lot of students. I do grocery store, I see parents. Durango is a small town.
Dina Simon 08:43
We all know each other, yep, yep, nice. And that's even rewarding too, like it's not the Indian Reservation, but now that you're back in Durango, working in Durango, you have that community of people, sure, yeah, absolutely Nice.
John Simon Sr. 08:57
So you're working two and a half days a week, and you do maybe one day over in Aztec. What do you do with the rest of your time?
Shannon Donnaway 09:09
I manage a zoo in my house a lot of the time. Yes,
Dina Simon 09:12
a zoo of animals and people and chaos. Yes,
Shannon Donnaway 09:17
yes, whether it's kids or I have two dogs and two cats and a busload of 21 year olds coming in, pretty much having dance parties in my house. And it's always non stop here.
John Simon Sr. 09:32
So Dina, about 10 years ago, we were over in Moab, Utah, and we were walking through just one of the little stores over there, and Shannon saw a pair of socks, and she loves wearing different kind of socks, and it had a saying on it. It says, ringmaster of the shit show. And she said, that is my life, yeah, and I bought her those socks, and she really enjoys wearing them. Yes,
Dina Simon 09:58
I think we've seen. A few other things that have that saying for you, Shannon, and we always think about you when we see it.
Shannon Donnaway 10:05
It's pretty much right now, Simon has left for Alaska, but now his really good friend Jack Brown has moved into the house, so he's staying here. And then Lucy is rafting, and she's got her raft crew and friends coming over, and it's just, yeah, it's, I guess, madness and but it's good because it's where all kids want to hang out. So
Dina Simon 10:31
yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome, as
John Simon Sr. 10:34
we know from all the years we spent there and going on a river and rafting. A lot of the people that work for the rafting companies or homeless people almost they they live in vans, and they LIVE with friends and anywhere they can find a place to spend a night, that's what they're willing to do.
Dina Simon 10:51
Nice, I
Shannon Donnaway 10:52
didn't know that. Yeah, people travel from all over to be in Durango and will do almost anything to stay and hang out here for a while. Jonathan and I did,
Dina Simon 11:03
yeah, you got there, loved it, and stayed. And then, oh my gosh, it's not the easiest place to get to, is it? No,
Shannon Donnaway 11:10
no, it's not the easiest place to stay. And yeah, be successful and build a life.
Dina Simon 11:20
You guys have done it. You've built a beautiful life, and your children love it. Simon said very specifically on the podcast that he's traveled the world now, and he loves that he's had that opportunity to do but Durango is home, and Durango is where he wants to be. So I love that you guys found Durango that was just an awesome opportunity. Yeah, and
Shannon Donnaway 11:37
now even Lucy is saying that nice, because she has always been the one i That said, I want to get out. I need to go somewhere bigger and be in a city and experience things. And now she's Oh, Durango is pretty great.
Dina Simon 11:51
Hopefully she's not regretting her college decision. I don't think so. No. Where's Lucy going?
Shannon Donnaway 11:57
Lucy is going to the University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu.
Dina Simon 12:02
We're so excited because we can't wait to go visit I know, yes, it is so I think when your dad was asking also, what do you do in your spare time? I think we'd love to hear about you also having a podcast. We're a family of podcasters now.
Shannon Donnaway 12:19
I do. I have a podcast that I'm doing with a really good friend of mine, Holly Bronson. She's an occupational therapist, so her and I worked together for a long time in the schools, and she recently moved to a different district, and it's her grand idea to start a podcast about education and kind of talk about all of the things that are going on in education, what's good about it, what's not so great about it. What should we change? And then so we spend our time interviewing experts about that have ideas on education and reform and what it should look like, nice and
Dina Simon 13:02
and we laugh because your dad and I, when we started the podcast, I think our very first practice session, he's, did you know Shannon has a podcast? And I was like, I just learned that Shannon had a podcast. We've become fans of your podcast, and it's just super fun that you were out there doing that and started that. What's been your most exciting person that you've brought to the podcast to interview?
Shannon Donnaway 13:24
We've only done two seasons, and so last season, we were able to get a whole bunch of really great experts, and we talked to Dr Passy salberg. Currently, he's working in Australia, but he was the head of the Finnish Education Department, and ran it for years, and he did amazing things in Finland. And so it was really cool to talk to him, because he is the guy in education, like he is who anybody would go to get great resource and information. And so it was just cool to talk to somebody who has done so much and been in so many different countries and learned a lot. So he was really cool.
John Simon Sr. 14:10
So Shannon, looking back on your career, is there someone or something, maybe a leader, that inspired you throughout your career? So far,
Shannon Donnaway 14:18
I have lots of people who have inspired me, specifically in my career. I would say my Cfy supervisor was really great, and she was in Plano, Texas, and so she really inspired me to invest a lot of energy and effort into my students and learn how to be a good therapist. And so professionally, I would say her, and that was my initial person. And now I would say that Holly Bronson is an inspiration to me, because she like pushes me to talk about education more and be involved and want to help change things. Professionally, I would. Say those too.
John Simon Sr. 15:00
So I'll tell a cute story from Shannon's first year of teaching in Plano. It was raining one day and she was running a little bit behind, and she parked in her parking place, and she had her little Volkswagen, and someone else was getting out of their car, and they reprimanded her for parking in the teacher's parking lot. Did realize she was one of the new teachers there.
Dina Simon 15:24
I love it. That's so funny. Yes, because Shannon you, you do always look youthful. You still have not aged, and so you probably looked super young. So I love that. Yeah, I
Shannon Donnaway 15:35
used to get a lot of flack walking around because I work. My first job was at a Senior High School in Plano, and so I was 20. What was I 22 and so I wasn't that much older than some of the students. They were 18. They were 17 and 18. So yeah, I got mistaken quite a few times and asked for passes, and that's so funny. Oh
Dina Simon 16:00
my gosh. And then, didn't your sister in law go into didn't Jonathan's sister go into speech pathology as well? Yeah, so
Shannon Donnaway 16:06
Jessica is seven years younger than me, and she is also speech pathologist. I'm
Dina Simon 16:13
sure that you were some inspiration there for her. Yeah, maybe
Shannon Donnaway 16:16
she, she saw some of the things I was doing. Yeah, nice.
John Simon Sr. 16:21
And she also works at the Durango our school district. She
Dina Simon 16:25
does, yes, so you're working part time now. You've got your baby going off to college. What does the next few years look like for you? Shannon,
Shannon Donnaway 16:35
I don't know. I'm supposed to be a podcast millionaire shortly. I love it. That's what Jonathan says, that we're gonna be podcast millionaires if education RX takes off. No, I don't know. I spend a little bit of time doing that, and I don't know, working, enjoying Durango, paddleboarding, hanging out. Oh, traveling, traveling. Yes,
Dina Simon 17:02
I'll be going back and forth from Hawaii a lot. Yes, nice. Yeah, good. Like Lucy and her friends looking at colleges and trying to figure out. There's so much pressure to have these kids to try and figure out where they're going and what they're going to focus on. So what kind of advice would you give, or are you giving to them at that age as they're exploring?
Shannon Donnaway 17:23
To my kids, I would tell them to go out and experience and have fun and do what they would enjoy doing. Simon is flying helicopters. Isn't currently in Alaska. Lucy is rafting down the Animas River and going to Hawaii soon. So just go and do things and see where you end up. Like there. You don't have to make any plans. You don't have to make any decisions. Just go and experience Yeah, love that.
John Simon Sr. 17:55
I think that's good advice to any young person. I
Dina Simon 17:59
think so too. And again, Simon's episode on our podcast, he's very much appreciated what you and Jonathan did and getting him out to Europe to spend time and just discover himself, and just the power in that, right? We didn't necessarily have those same opportunities when we were younger. They're so much more readily available to our kids and studying abroad and all that kind of stuff. And so definitely taking the advantage of it while they can. Yeah, both Jonathan and I look at each other and go, we didn't even think about these possibilities when we were 18 and 19 years old.
Shannon Donnaway 18:32
We didn't think about, I don't know, traveling the world or flying helicopters, or going, yeah. We just never really thought about it much. We just took the path, I don't know. So
John Simon Sr. 18:46
now you have a chance to live a little vicariously through them.
Dina Simon 18:49
Absolutely. It's really fun. It is fun. It is so fun. And then also to travel yourself, because you guys have done some we should share that. Shannon, since you are. You have so much to bring to our podcast. This is going to be our episode about you and your career, and wanted to learn a little bit more about your podcast, but we sure would love to have you back on and we could talk about your worldly travels, because you've gotten to travel quite a bit over the last couple years. And maybe we could do a remote one sometime with Simon and like with the whole helicopter stuff, and just continue to follow his journey. And super exciting. I think we all have to go to Hawaii on the podcast and go visit Lucy and interview her in person. I
Shannon Donnaway 19:33
think that would be a great plan. And the helicopter like doing something with the helicopter plans, that's a good idea.
Dina Simon 19:40
I think it would be great, great. So John, any other questions for Shannon for today?
John Simon Sr. 19:45
No, I think we had a great time for the last 30 minutes talking about everything that she's accomplished, and I look forward to the next time we have a chance to chat with her a little bit more about what it's like living in a. Resort town and raising children there and just having the great fun that you can have.
Dina Simon 20:06
Yeah, and Shannon, as far as our podcast about inspiration, leadership and building legacies, you also were a catalyst to this because of the book that you got your dad for Christmas a year ago that he had every week he was prompted to write a story, and so just bringing these stories to life, so we definitely will pull some of those stories out. But the book was just gorgeous, and what a gift you gave to all of us in giving that to him, it was super fun.
John Simon Sr. 20:33
And I can honestly say it was fun for me to answer the questions every week and publish the book. It
Shannon Donnaway 20:40
turned out great.
Dina Simon 20:41
It did turn out great, Shannon, we thank you for joining us, and we will have you back on another episode, and we'll put links in the show notes and stuff so people can follow education RX podcast as well. That would be great. Thank you so much for joining us for our episode with Shannon donaway, my sister in law, and John's daughter, we were super excited to bring her to the table, and we are sure you will hear from her again. Please check out her podcast called education. RX. Thank you so much, Shannon for coming and joining us, and as always, I thank my amazing co host, my father in law, John Simon and we look forward to having you tune in to our next podcast. We also wanted to share if you wanted to reach out and connect with us, go to info at Simon Says, inspire.com and share with us any feedback that you have, or if there are any special guests that you would like to suggest we bring on to our podcast. Take care and we thank you for tuning in until next time you.