Real Students of Macomb

Christa Dash attended Michigan State University immediately after graduating from high school but returned home to help care for her ailing mom.  She intended to return to college when time allowed, but it wasn’t until her son encouraged her to join him at Macomb that she enrolled.

“He’s my hero,” says Dash of William, a senior at Oakland University who has an autism spectrum disorder. “He was my inspiration to go back to school.”

Dash will receive an Associate Degree in General Studies in May. Working full time at Montessori Children’s Academy in Clinton Township, she has been taking two, sometimes three classes, each semester.

“The first time walking into class I was petrified.  I thought ‘I’m not smart enough to be here,’” says Dash. “Then I got my first A, and it gave me confidence to continue.  Now the excitement I feel when I go to school is incredible.”

After experiencing a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), or mini-stroke, Dash needs a little more time taking tests than is generally allotted. And her son, who does not drive, sometimes needs a ride to or from his classes at Oakland. “My professors understand,” she says, “and are always willing to work with me.”

Despite the challenges she faces, Dash’s grades have earned her membership in Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges. With the assistance of her Macomb counselor, Patricia Dolengowski, she has charted a path that includes transfer to Oakland or Wayne State University to earn a bachelor’s degree in social work.

“Psychology and sociology classes have been my favorite,” says Dash. “I feel my niche will be in working with children and young adults with an autism spectrum disorder or senior citizens.”

In addition to her son, providing Dash moral support throughout her educational journey have been her colleagues at Montessori, where she has worked for 18 years, and her husband, Michael.

“He’s been very supportive,” says Dash.  “He’ll help around the house so I can do what I have to do.  And what I do on weekends is study.”

Because of her dedication, Dash is likely to graduate with cum laude honors and a transfer scholarship to one of her two university choices.  And when she attends the first day of class, she’s confident she will be prepared not petrified.

“I am thoroughly impressed by the fact that I can go to a community college and my professor has a Ph.D.,” says Dash.  “I am paying a lot less for the same experience I would have gotten if I started at a university.”

Hydrangea Kitchen may sound like an odd name for a restaurant with a menu that leans to the south of the border.  But the hardy blooms with vivid colors are favorites of the mother of the Macomb student who runs it.

“My mom, Malo, did all the decorating, my dad helps manage it and my husband helps me do the shopping,” says Megan Kasprzycki, a culinary arts student set to graduate in May.  “I do all the cooking.  And wash the dishes.”

In 2011, at only 23, she may have seemed young to open up her own restaurant, but the hospitality industry is a part of Kasprzycki’s career DNA.  Dad Randy Villareal manages the Motor City Casino Hotel in Detroit and previously ran the Biltmore in Los Angeles. One brother graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and bartends in Chicago, another is a restaurant manager in Washington and the third is a sommelier in California.  Likewise, husband Peter is a catering manager for Einstein Bagels, as well as his wife’s right-hand man.

“He will close the restaurant when I have to leave early for school,” says Kasprzycki. “It takes a whole team to make this work.”

Kasprzycki starts working solo at 5:30 a.m., assisted by two servers during the breakfast and lunch rushes.  It wasn’t until after she adjusted the restaurant’s hours, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., that Kasprzycki found time to attend culinary classes at Macomb. She started out at Schoolcraft, but it offered few evening classes. At Macomb, she found it wasn’t just the hours that were more accommodating.

Natalie Timmer loves animals, is a bit shy around people and grew up in a family that adopted retired greyhounds and other rescue animals, so becoming a veterinarian made perfect sense, until it didn’t.

“I was in pre-vet at Grand Valley State University when tonsillitis and pneumonia forced me to go home and rest,” says Timmer, who used that time to reconsider her major. “Vet techs spend more time with their patients than vets do – and helping animals is where my heart is. So I decided I wanted to be a vet tech instead.”

Once that difficult decision was made, choosing a college was the easy part for the Troy Athens High School grad.

“Macomb is very well known for putting out some of the best vet techs in the country,” says Timmer. “It’s a difficult program, but if you can stick it out, you will be an incredible vet tech.”

Timmer is now in her second year in the program and, following an internship, was hired by Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners in Auburn Hills. Recently she received a $1,000 scholarship from the Southeast Michigan Veterinary Medical Association (SMVMA) to continue her studies.

“I was ecstatic, I was so thrilled to be recognized,” says Timmer, who along with classmate Kelly Capwell received two of the three scholarships the SMVMA gives out annually.

“One thing that MCC taught me that I believe will make me a better technician is their policy of Outstanding Technical Skills – Outstanding People Skills,” wrote Timmer in the essay she submitted in the scholarship competition. “I learned very quickly that my patients will never come to me without being attached to a person.”

And the animals Timmer is most attached to are the three dogs, one cat and one hamster that she calls her own.

“This is such a great program for a student like me,” says Timmer. “We get first dibs on adopting the animals brought in by the Macomb Animal Shelter.” That’s how two of her dogs, Leopold and Hamilton, and cat, Piper, found their furever home.

“I give a lot of credit to my parents – we’ve always had animals at home and they encouraged me to follow my heart,” offers Timmer. And so, too, she says, have the faculty at Macomb. “They are the reason I will be a successful vet tech.”

“I can’t see myself doing this too long.”

Marcel Van Buren kept having this thought while working as a custodian for Detroit Public Schools. When she was laid off, she decided it was time to finish the business degree she had started 20 years prior, before starting a family made it too hard for her to continue.

“I knew a lot of people who had gone to Macomb and were saying good things about it,” said Van Buren, a Detroit native. “When I went to sign up here, the atmosphere was friendly and everybody wanted to help me.”

Van Buren said it took some time to “get in a groove” after years away from being a student, but she took advantage of Macomb’s free tutoring and other support systems to keep going. She is scheduled to graduate this spring.

“I hope I don’t cry,” she said of receiving her diploma. “It’ll be tears of joy, though.”

Van Buren says she’s been able to apply some of the problem-solving skills she’s learned in her business classes to her new job working for a metal shop that tests parts for an automaker. She hopes to start her own cosmetics company using the skills and connections she’s gained at Macomb.

“I regret dropping out years ago, but I’m glad I came back to finish what I started,” she said. “It’s a good investment of your time going to Macomb.”

Laurent Bingwe grew up in a French-speaking household in Cameroon with seven siblings, studied hard in school as was expected by his parents and has been a vegetarian since he was a child. But his most defining moment came as a teenager when he discovered he had a talent for fixing things, including the family car.

“After graduating from a technical high school, my family wanted me to study in the U.S.,” says Bingwe. “I was interested in getting technical automotive skills, but first I applied at Wayne State University since they had an English program where students all over the world can learn English from scratch.”

Bingwe, who also speaks German and three African dialects, knew he wanted to live in Michigan because, he says, it is home to the “Motor City” and the “Big Three.”  After learning English at Wayne, he began searching for the next step in his journey.

“There were many colleges that offered automotive programs throughout the state. However, I heard many great reviews about Macomb Community College,” says Bingwe, shown here at the South Campus Learning Center where he tutors French students. “I must say it was a very great decision.  The instructors here are more than dedicated.  They always want to see their students succeed.”

Bingwe continues to take automotive courses at Macomb after working as a service technician at a Mercedes Benz dealership as Optional Practice Training under his F1 student visa. He is in the process of receiving a Green Card through a “lottery,” which will allow him to remain in the United States as a permanent resident.

“I am very grateful to my parents for providing me the financial support and encouragement to do this.” says Bingwe, “And as my immigration status evolves, I want to stay and work with the research and development team at Mercedes Benz.”

Cameroon, an African nation bordered by the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahara Desert, is home to savannahs and rainforests, wildlife preserves and national parks, marketplaces and museums.  But its abundance of natural and cultural riches is not what Bingwe misses most.

“It wasn’t easy to leave family and friends behind and move into a different life setting,” he says.  “But my experience at Macomb has been very positive.  I have met amazing people, including staff and teachers, and made many new friends.  These people have helped me reach my goals.”

The first member of her family to travel outside the U.S., Alaiziah Caddell boarded the flight to Kenya last summer with a few fears she wanted to overcome and an unwavering belief that the trip would change her life.  That she often uses the word “joy” to describe the experience suggests that she wasn’t disappointed.

“I was surprised what the media doesn’t show about the most beautiful places of Africa,” says Caddell, a Macomb social work major . “And, the joy and welcoming spirit you get from everyone is one of the things I enjoyed most.”

The study abroad trip to Kenya, an African country with dramatic landscapes and great poverty, was organized by Rochelle Zaranek, Macomb social work professor. Students stayed in dormitories and assisted volunteers and staff at three orphanages that shelter and educate children who have lost their parents to violent deaths or disease, or whose parents are without the means to take care of them.

“Just to see how joyful and optimistic about life these children are even though faced with adversities and tragedies was incredibly uplifting,” says Caddell, shown here with children at one of the orphanages. “It shifted my thinking about most things that I have worried about in my life.”

The students from Macomb engaged their young charges in play and helped document their stories, the latter sometimes bringing tears to the volunteers’ eyes. But the mood was quickly lightened when the children took to a makeshift stage to entertain their guests with songs and skits.

“The children in each (orphanage) were very talented,” relates Caddell. “Their voices were angelic. I never felt so much joy in my life as I did when seeing their faces light up and their beautiful smiles.”

In addition to three credits in directed study, Caddell also gained the confidence to climb up an untrailed mountain despite a fear of heights and to continue on her chosen career path.

“My interest was first sparked as a child volunteering with my mom at women’s shelters, but once getting to Macomb my desire to be a social worker strengthened. Professor Zaranek was my first professor at Macomb and she has been a joy during my journey,” says Caddell, who intends to transfer to Wayne State and earn bachelor and master degrees in social work. “I hope to become a social justice advocate in Michigan, but I also have the desire to work in the international social work field, especially after my experience in Kenya.”

Tim Masters couldn’t even read yet when he started daydreaming about the astronaut life and he still remembers when his elementary school hosted Jerry Linenger, Eastpointe native and veteran of two space shuttle missions.  But the Macomb electric vehicle development student never thought he’d get as close to NASA as he did last month.

Masters was one of 300 community college students across the country accepted into the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars Program. After a five-week, interactive online course of study that covered NASA and the international space station, he and his fellow scholars spent four days in October at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Although Masters didn’t get a chance to meet another astronaut, he did interact with NASA engineers, toured the facilities and worked on a team building a robotic land rover.

“We discovered a new appreciation for just how important testing is to design,” says Masters.  “Nothing ever works right the first time.”

Before Michigan Works! brought him to Macomb, Masters installed restaurant equipment and worked sixty-hour weeks.  After earning a certificate in electric vehicle development technology from Macomb, he’s now a high-voltage battery pack test technician with Aerotek, on assignment at Ford’s Fuel Cell Center in Dearborn.

“I can’t hold the program in any higher regard.  It was life-changing,” says Masters, who is pursuing his associate degree.  “I almost certainly would be still working miserable jobs and I wouldn’t have gotten such enthusiastic instruction, which really stoked my interest in electronics.”

Masters’ interest in space travel was stoked by the Space Shuttle Operator’s Manual. He started looking at the photographs when he was 5, progressing on to the instructions after his parents replaced his dog-eared copy with a new one.  At Marshall, Masters was at the site where all of the shuttles’ propulsion systems were designed, developed and tested, before making their way to Cape Canaveral.

“The experience was amazing, awesome,” says Masters, backrow, second from the left in the photo. “And what I’ve learned about electric vehicle design and operation really came in handy.”