Shelby Dixon has had a successful career in the healthcare industry, working for a local organization for almost 20 years. Her experiences at Virginia Peninsula Community College, then Thomas Nelson Community College, were instrumental.
“It definitely built my confidence,” she said of her time at the College. “I come from a very small town. My family background, many of them did not go to college.”
One who did, though, was an aunt who has been a registered nurse for more than 30 years. She offered advice and told Dixon she could do it.
“And so I did,” Dixon said. “So that’s pretty much what kind of encouraged me.”
After graduating from high school in North Carolina, she took classes in her hometown at Lenoir Community College in 1986-87 but didn’t finish a degree program. Nearly two decades later, she decided to try again. She had since moved to Virginia with her family and was working in customer service for Spiegel catalog when she enrolled in VPCC in 2004.
“I always kind of saw myself in an administrative office field,” she said.
She earned an Associate of Applied Science in Administrative Support Technology, graduating cum laude, in December 2006 and walked in the graduation ceremony in 2007. Soon after enrolling at VPCC, she became jobless when Spiegel closed its local office. However, even before graduating from VPCC, she found employment with a local healthcare provider in 2005.
“I’ve been in the healthcare field ever since the layoff with the Spiegel teleservices,” she said.
And she has been in Hampton Roads ever since, except for a two-year span when she moved back to North Carolina to care for her mother. However, she remained in the healthcare field during that time.
While she started in an administrative capacity, she now is in talent acquisition, and enjoys her job and the profession.
“The field gives me the opportunity to give back to my community,” she said, adding she helps recruit healthcare workers to care for the organization’s patients. “I find that to be very rewarding.”
Her duties called for a return to VPCC’s Hampton Campus recently for a job fair.
“When I came to do the event … I realized that I had not been back on the campus for some time, and so I was very honored to be able to come back,” she said. “It just brought back more memories.”
Dixon, who lives in Yorktown, earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Saint Leo University in 2014. She is a mother of three who recently became an empty-nester. She enjoyed her time at VPCC.
“I will always have regard for previously TNCC, currently VPCC,” she said. “I would definitely recommend VPCC. I haven’t been here in a while, but it still feels familiar when I come back, for some reason. That’s good. That’s good.”