Whiz Kid: Youth Cleanup Influences Local Teen's College Major Aspirations

Name: Shawn Mccullough

Age: 18

Community: New Port Richey

Reason for Awesomeness:

While attending Gulf High School, Shawn Mccullough joined the , a neighborhood cleanup group started by fellow students. Now, he’s about to start his first semester as an environmental science major at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

“I didn’t really have any idea what major I wanted to do,” he said. “But then, after volunteering, it really opened my eyes and gave me a new perspective on the environment and how it needs to be helped.”

“Juggalo” is a name for fans of the Insane Clown Posse and other Psychopathic Records artists. The local group was started because the teens were sick of being judged as bad kids. They wanted to prove otherwise.

Mccullough isn’t a juggalo. Only about half the group’s members identify themselves as such, he said. Mccullough, who graduated from Gulf High this month, said he joined the cleanup because his friends were part of the group.

“I thought what they did was really cool, “ he said, “and I thought they made a really big impact on the environment, so that’s why I joined it.” 

Mccullough estimates he has done five or six cleanups since completing the first in 2009. His first was around Gulf High. He and the other members cleaned up trash from the bushes and along the streets. By the time they were done, they would have 8-10 bags of trash. They found condoms, beer bottles, toys and other rubbish.

“Seeing it before and how it was really disgusting and absolutely hideous and then cleaning it up and seeing how nice it looked is what made me really want to go back and do it again.“

He dual enrolled in a Pasco-Hernando Community College class called Intro to Oceanography. Being part of the cleanup crew made him want to take the class, he said.

Now, he wants to do even more. He's enrolled in the environmental science bachelor's of science degree program at FSU and is leaving for the college on June 23.

Mccullough is interested in hydrology and making sure everybody's drinking water isn't contaminated. He wants to work on the water and not in an office.

“I want to use this major to think of ways to efficiently stop pollution or clean up the mess that’s already been made,” he said.

Does he want to concentrate on recycling? Renewable energy?  

“I’m kind of ill informed on the subject a little, but I know I want to do it, so not totally sure on that,” he said. “But I know that I want to get my degree in it, and I know I want to work for somebody to help the environment. “