Destiny and Confidence Lead Sharay Dixon to the Commencement Podium

By: Amanda Agatstein

This May, Sharay Dixon will proudly walk the stage to accept her Bachelor of Science degree in environmental management. It hasn't been a quick or simple journey for the SAIC environmental scientist and meteorologist. Despite facing many obstacles, Sharay completed her degree program, and she’ll share her story with the crowd at Comcast Center on May 17.

Growing up back in Gary, Indiana, wasn't easy. In high school, she grew to love science and math and was eager to attend college, but her parents were not financially prepared to pay for her education. She graduated in the top five percent of her high school class and moved to Washington, D.C., where she joined the Air Force. After an intense boot camp, Sharay emerged stronger than ever. With a high military aptitude test score, she was able to choose a highly technical career field. Her top pick was bio-environmental engineering, followed by meteorology. The Air Force assigned her to meteorology.

After being stationed in Okinawa, Japan in 2001, Sharay enrolled at UMUC, but she soon realized she wasn’t ready to buckle down and study. “I was single and carefree,” says Sharay. “I wasn’t really driven at the time, so I withdrew from the class.”

Sharay then stumbled across more roadblocks to continuing her education. First, her daughter was born, and she became a single parent in a foreign country. Then, her sister passed away at the young age of 27. Sharay gave herself a two-year break from school to recover from the tragic loss and adjust to being a new mom.

By 2003, she was married and caring for her two-year-old daughter. Life was still busy and challenging, but she knew it was time to head back to class again. Sharay was ready to pursue her dream career in the environmental field—environmental engineering. This time, nothing would get in the way of completing her degree.

“From 2003 until now, I've been separated from my family on several occasions because of school and both my husband's and my own deployments,” says Sharay. “But once I started my degree program in 2003, I never stopped.”

Now, as Commencement day draws near, Sharay reflects on how she earned the spot to speak at the ceremony. With little time to prepare before audition day, she decided to go for it anyway—she had nothing to lose.

“I had about a week to come up with a speech but had a heavy workload, deadlines, and family obligations,” says Sharay. “But my speech wasn’t hard to prepare—I had lived it already! Crunch time came on the day of the audition.”

So Sharay arrived at the Inn and Conference Center, ordered a cup of Starbucks, and quickly pulled her speech together. She walked in to audition with just one minute to spare. Sharay feels that fate, along with staying cool and collected while telling her inspiring story helped her nail the audition.

“I am a woman of destiny and I believe that if it's meant to be, then it will be,” she says. “I rarely worry anymore. I’ve had enough worry over the years.”