While any number of factors can contribute to a student’s success, the one Macomb student Louis Winters, 32, attributes to his own was the college’s CSSK-1200 College Success Skills class. Specifically, he credits the tutoring he received from faculty member Elizabeth Liller.
“Before her class, I was not all that great of a student. I was terrible in high school and did not apply myself,” relates Winters. “Liller taught me to have the desire to achieve success.”
At a younger age, Winters, who resides with his parents, two dogs (Pinches and Kirby) and one cat (Nala), dealt with a closed head injury. But he is proud of the fact that, not only is he enrolled in college, he’s “excelling” with a current grade point average of 3.87. He was also given the opportunity to join the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.
Winters applied to Macomb at the encouragement of family friend Eric Ewald. After Winters created an introspective Facebook post noting how he wished he had gone to college, Ewald responded, “Why don’t you actually do something, instead of just talking about it?” This set the wheels in motion for Winters, who called Macomb to get the process started.
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, many students initially struggled with the adjustment to online learning. But not Winters, who jumped right in to his coursework armed with what he learned in his College Success Skills class. When he transfers, he would like to find a university that offers a fully remote option.
Winters is studying toward an associate degree in Information Technology (IT). In the immediate future, he hopes to find employment through the college’s Federal Work-Study program. But his long-term career goal is to secure an IT-related position. Luckily for Winters, his interests are varied and options plentiful.
“I want to work my way up the IT ladder,” adds Winters, who is interested in specializations that include “programmer, cybersecurity, project manager, network administrator, or possibly even video game design.”
Thanks to the connections Winters has made at Macomb, he knows he will have plenty of help along the way and beyond. He has sought the help of many departments to ensure his continued academic success, whether receiving guidance from Career Services’ Mark Jewett, who he notes “is always willing to help me even when it doesn’t have to do with his department,” the Reading and Writing Studios, which has helped provide clarification on difficult assignments and, of course, Elizabeth Liller.
“I can’t describe how much I love this school,” says Winters. “Every moment of it has been enjoyable. […] I am so glad that I chose Macomb.”