Shane Hoon ’01
Shane Hoon graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001, with a double-major in International Studies and Spanish.
While at UNC, Shane was a member of the APPLES Service Learning program, America Reads, bridge UNC-CH, Campus-Y, Carolina Adventure Club, Center for Global Initiatives, Global Heels, Honor Society, Romance Language and Culture, Sexuality and Gender Alliance, and Tau Sigma National Honor Society.
Upon matriculating to UNC as a transfer student from Minnesota, Shane quickly declared International Studies as his intended major because his objectives were to pursue a deeper foundational understanding of the world through a historical and contextual lens and to learn from some of the most distinguished and qualified faculty in the world.
Shane also participated in the UNC Sevilla, Spain study abroad program, which gave him the opportunity to have a true immersion experience in another culture. Shane had previously lived abroad, but this was his first time living with a host family and assimilating to their cultural norms.
According to Shane,
“This was a tremendous opportunity and a definite highlight of my UNC experience; the friendships I made with other participating students during this program have continued over the years.”
Upon graduation from UNC, Shane moved to Australia to participate with a Global Summit that which included work related to some of the environmental issues that were impacting that country and the greater South Pacific. After his time in Australia and New Zealand, he moved to San Jose, California where he was contracted by San Jose State University, to serve as a consultant in helping the university develop their first global studies and international relations program. He continued to work for SJSU as an adjunct faculty member, co-teaching a course in cross-cultural communication. After California, he then obtained his TEFL and CELTA certification and taught English abroad in Santiago, Chile. He also temporarily lived in Miami, Florida, to where he worked as an instructor at Barry University.
In 2006, Shane enrolled in an interdisciplinary, hybrid Master of Arts program at Georgetown University. He studied culture and identity, and how populations around the world were expressing themselves and their identities through creative technological means and innovations. He studied abroad in China where he researched media and globalization in the East. After obtaining his MA degree, he received numerous opportunities post-graduation, which included working for multiple government agencies, developing cross-cultural competency tool-kits and trainings, mentoring students from around the world through Department of State programs, and even participating with international conferences focused on geo-political events and current situations.
Shane returned to Georgetown as an administrator, which in time, evolved into teaching opportunities as well. In 2014, he decided to pursue his Executive MBA in Leadership through Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, where he was able to once again take his professional and education expertise abroad to South Africa, where he worked as an advisory consultant for the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
“The Global Studies program at UNC was the springboard spring board for launching my education understanding and professional career. My experiences and education while at UNC have helped ground the work that I do even today, especially in terms of my work with culture, diversity and inclusion.
The Global Studies program was instrumental in framing my understanding of the world at the time, and provided me a conceptual model for how to adapt and acculturate amidst global change and evolution… To this day, I utilize the concepts, principles, and strategies that I learned during my education within the Global Studies program to inform and guide my decision-making in my professional roles, and also how I view and approach my interaction with the world.”
Shane currently lives in Denver, Colorado and serves as the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Diversity for the University of Colorado’s College of Nursing. In addition to his serving on multiple boards and local committees, including the Aurora Chamber of Commerce Executive Board for Diversity and Inclusion, he also recently has begun working with a friend and colleague based in Kabul, on a program designed to develop digital media literacy for the youth of Afghanistan. He continues to explore new professional opportunities both domestically and abroad, and has not ruled out the possibility of public office at some point.