For Macomb alum Christin Salama of Sterling Heights, the Early College of Macomb (ECM) program provided a perfect chance to get an early start on college and gain experience that will readily translate to future career success.

Originally from Egypt, Salama’s family moved to the United States in 2008, sadly followed the next year by the passing of her mother. She attended Center Line High School and participated in their female soccer team. During her sophomore year, she discovered and applied for ECM.

“I decided to join Early College of Macomb to get an idea of what college life is like,” says Salama. “Being at Macomb the first couple of years was definitely the right choice.”

Advantageous to Salama was the fact that ECM allowed her to earn an associate degree with no out-of-pocket expenses. Books, fees, tuition and resources were all covered through the program. Above all else, Salama appreciated the welcoming atmosphere Macomb’s faculty created. They were always reachable, “willing to help,” and understanding of her needs as a dual-enrolled student.

“They treated me and other early college students the same way,” notes Salama. “Their support was really the main key that encouraged me to be up to their expectations and to meet their standards.”

Through ECM, Salama, whose sights are set on a career in engineering, landed an internship with General Motors in 2017. She was fortunate enough to be able to return in 2018. While there, she learned the processes involved in various specialties and “about different disciplines of engineering.”

Now a transfer student at Wayne State University, Salama recently received the $2,500 Russell J. Ebeid Closing the Gap Scholarship, awarded to Wayne State engineering and business majors from Arab and African American, as well as Latinx backgrounds. The scholarship’s namesake was fueled by a drive to create change through funding the education of engineering and business students.

As with the late philanthropist, Salama also enjoys giving back to the community. In addition to volunteering for church functions, she is involved in the Wayne State chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Among the many activities she helps support is inviting representatives from engineering businesses to speak with students about job opportunities and requirements.

“That is a great way for students to come in and learn more about such companies,” adds Salama, “to give them an idea of what to expect when applying.”

Michigan’s tallest skyscraper carries the mark of two Macomb alums, separated by four decades, two automobile companies and a current of energy-conscious innovations.

The Renaissance Center’s main tower stands 73 floors over Detroit and is illuminated at night by blue LED lighting. Now the headquarters of General Motors, Shane Szeszycki is the lead engineer on a project to retrofit the building’s outdated environmental control systems.

“We are converting the old systems to modern, automated ones,” explains Szeszycki, who is graduating from Macomb’s Climate Control program this winter, after completing his last two general education credits (Spanish) online. “I oversee all the logic programming for equipment, the networking of the computers and controllers, the systems used to monitor energy usage for the whole building and designing systems to create better efficiency.”

Part of a revitalization project for Michigan’s largest city, The Renaissance Center owes its name to Roger Lennert, a Macomb alumnus and marketing executive who died in 2015. Lennert ‘s suggestion was one of more than 140,000 received in a contest sponsored by Ford Motor Company to christen what was intended by its CEO to be the centerpiece of Detroit’s revitalization efforts in the 1970s. Szeszycki’s path to the GMRENCEN, as it is now called, was a bit more intricate.

“I decided to enter the energy management field after a contractor came (to a class at Macomb) and spoke about it,” relates Szeszycki, who graduated from Port Huron High School in 2014. “I was already doing HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) work for two years and enjoyed it. I’ve always had a niche for computers and programming and (energy management) combines the two.”

Working full time and going to school is a challenge faced by many college students. Szesycki credits his determination to necessity and curiosity.

“I grew up with a single mom, and we didn’t have much growing up. I’ve always wanted to find ways to make sure my mom never has to worry again,” relates Szesycki. “I am also very involved with the work because I have a drive to always figure things out and make them better.”

Because of his education and ample experience, Szesycki has been invited to return to Macomb next year to teach a class in its revamped Building Performance and Energy Management program, one of few like it in the state. Following the lead of his own professors, he has accepted.

“The professors in the Climate Control program are relatable because they are either working in their respected fields currently or have for many years,” says Szesycki. “They respected and supported me while I was working and going to school. Not having flexibility like Macomb offered would have crumbled my goals.”

 

After Aysha Abdul Shahid emigrated on her own from Dubai to the U.S. to pursue a college education, she missed her mom’s cooking, familiar surroundings and her native language. But it helped that she found a sense of home at Macomb.

“Macomb has great diversity and culture, which made it easier to adjust,” says Shahid, who graduated last year with an associate degree in business and transferred to Walsh on a full-ride scholarship. “I loved my journey at Macomb. It was my family and my first college.”

While a student at Macomb, Shahid secured a work-study assignment in Macomb’s Business Office, which helped her pay for tuition after her father became ill in Dubai and could no longer assist in paying for her studies. When she received the Shirley Glass Endowed Accounting Scholarship from the Macomb Community College Foundation, a few of the Business Office’s staff accompanied her to the scholarship luncheon.

“My experience at Macomb was a memorable one,” says Shahid. “The faculty and people are amazing.”

Shahid attends Walsh’s campus in Troy, which is near her home. She is on the school’s “fast track” toward a master’s degree in accounting and intends to become a Certified Professional Accountant. In addition to receiving the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation Scholarship to attend Walsh, she was also a speaker/recipient at the college’s leadership Awards Dinner last year. If it wasn’t for her decision to start out at Macomb, however, Shahid isn’t certain she would have been as successful at the private business school.

“Macomb prepared me to manage time and study in groups,” says Shahid. “Macomb not only prepared me for my studies, but also helped me grow as a person.”

Volunteering for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service stands out as one Shahid’s most memorable experiences at Macomb. She also benefitted from the mentoring of Business Office staff and Professors Brian Newman and Randy Gerber, as well as from the wide variety of free learning resources that were available to her.

“I made good connections with my professors,” relates Shahid, “and had access to the library and student center, where I was able to study and find resources to help me succeed in my classes.”

Shahid’s parents still live in Dubai, where they emigrated 30 years ago from Bangladesh. While her dad’s health has improved, plans to visit their daughter in the U.S. this year have been suspended because of COVID-19. But after recently getting engaged, Shahid is excited about the prospect of her wedding, one day, bringing her family together again.

Until then, she appreciates the sense of belonging she has found in pursuit of her education.

“Macomb and Walsh are both great colleges,” says Shahid. “Both have welcomed me with open arms.”

Sarah Howard entered Macomb’s Occupational Therapy Assistant program in 2014 wanting to help patients who lost their ability to perform daily tasks that many of us take for granted. But she never expected to be working in an ICU during a pandemic.

“These patients were so deconditioned that simply moving their arms or lifting their head off a pillow would cause them shortness of breath,” says Howard, a licensed occupational therapy assistant at William Beaumont Hospital in Troy. “It was very eye opening to see how COVID-19 affected these patients. I had never seen anything like it.”

A 2014 Anchor Bay High School graduate, Howard credits her high school health occupation classes for stoking an interest in a health care career. And, she credits Macomb for providing her with the “building blocks” to make it a successful one.

“I can’t say anything but good things about my experience at Macomb,” says Howard, who was offered a position at Beaumont before she completed her associate degree. “I was able to satisfy my classes for the Michigan Transfer Agreement at Macomb while working full time because there were multiple class choices held at times that worked for my schedule.”

From Macomb, Howard transferred to Western Michigan University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Health Care Services in June. She is continuing on to earn a master’s degree in occupational therapy, required to become an occupational therapist in Michigan. 

“I have always been fascinated how someone with a disability, injury or illness was able to do something that I take for granted,” says Howard. “I like that occupational therapy works with individuals across the lifespan. You look at the whole person and help them achieve what makes their life meaningful to them.”

After the first days of the pandemic, Howard had to adapt to new safety protocols. At first, she received instruction in telehealth and coached patients through their therapeutic exercises by phone. When she was allowed to work with patients directly in their hospital rooms again, there were several layers of personal protective equipment to be worn. As COVID cases lessen and restrictions relax on elective surgeries, she now faces an unusually diverse caseload.  

“I could be treating a critically ill patient that spent days on a ventilator one minute,” relates Howard, “and then be working with a patient that had hip replacement the next.”

The rewards of the job, however, are always the same.

“I get to share a patient’s excitement as they gradually recover their independence, and I encourage them when they don’t see the progress they are making,” says Howard. “I tell them, ‘Look how far you’ve come. Today, you can brush your teeth.’”

When Lucinda Kroll’s father-in-law died of a brain tumor in 2010, she turned the tragedy into a personal mission that led her to Macomb’s nursing program and, ultimately, caring for COVID-19 patients at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital.

“The experience (with her father-in-law) made me think that I would really like helping people,” relates Kroll. “I was able to meet some incredible nurses and knew from that moment, I wanted to be a nurse.”

After graduating from Mount Clemens High School, Kroll took classes at Macomb but had no career in mind. After she and her husband, Michael Kroll, started their family, there was little time left over for other pursuits. Joshua and Miranda, both of whom are now attending Macomb, were in middle school when their grandfather died. That is when Kroll returned to college, graduating with her associate degree in nursing in 2014.

“The Macomb Nursing program was the single most challenging and rewarding moment in my life, and it has given me an incredible career that I am thankful for every day,” says Kroll. “The professors taught us to be good nurses, but also emphasized the integrity that it takes.”

Kroll, certified in chemotherapy, works in the Oncology Unit at Henry Ford and cares for cancer patients, including those in hospice care. It’s a job that can weigh heavy on the heart at times, but Kroll takes comfort in knowing she’s making a difference in their lives.

“I have felt so much love caring for these patients and their families,” says Kroll. “I am very happy to have had this opportunity.”

Pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree at the University of Michigan Flint, Kroll is required to broaden her nursing background and will soon transfer to the Cardiac Telemetry Unit. Last March and April, however, most every unit at the hospital was put in to service caring for COVID-19 patients, many of whom were going into respiratory failure.

“The amount of rapid responses and code blues that first weekend was frightening. I am proud of Henry Ford for mobilizing quickly to protect patients and staff,” relates Kroll, shown far left in the photo. “We worked where we were needed, and every day you were afraid you might get sick or you might bring it home to your family. Knowing you could always count on your fellow nurses made it better. We cried, we laughed, and we did it with integrity because that’s what kind of nurses we are.”

Kroll opted for the DNP course of study that specializes in geriatric care. This is the patient population, relates Kroll, who returns most often to the hospital with the same chronic illness. And therein, she discovered her next mission.

“I would like to help decrease (geriatric) admissions because the more times they are admitted, the more risk they have of infections and a decrease in their functional abilities,” says Kroll, who hopes to eventually teach in a nursing program and share a truth about the profession with those just entering it. “New nurses should never forget that they are essential to the health care team and the glue that keeps it together.”

Mike Fusciardi graduated with an associate degree from Macomb in 2017, completed the Pharmacy Technician Program in December and has been employed at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak since February. None of which may seem remarkable until you consider that ten years ago he was a stroke patient at that same hospital.

For the first decade of this millennium, Fusciardi worked as a supervisor at an Office Max. After that, as he tells it, “I worked at regaining the use of my mind, vision, tactile sensation and speech.”

In 2010, Fusciardi developed intense migraines prior to suffering three strokes. He was left visually impaired and partially paralyzed on the right side, and had difficulty speaking, reading and writing. The source of the migraines and the strokes was diagnosed as a rare autoimmune disease: antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. If left untreated, it causes blood clots to form. Fusiciardi considers himself lucky that his was in the brain.     

“Most men undiagnosed with this end up with the clots in their heart or lungs. You don’t come back from those,” relates Fusciardi. “A brain can rewire with work. And, with a lot of work and many years of study and therapy, I finally reentered the workforce, due in no small part from the help of Macomb Community College.”

Macomb’s Special Services counselors, as well as faculty, made sure that Fusciardi had the accommodations and assistance necessary to learn at his own pace.  This allowed him to discover that he had a “predisposition” for chemistry and he soon pegged the University of Alaska for continuing his studies. But first, he reasoned, he needed a regular paycheck and skills that could travel to Fairbanks with him.

“Pharmacy technicians are needed here, and in Alaska,” says Fusciardi. “The externship arranged by Macomb got me a foot in the door at Beaumont and a step closer toward my goals.”

Beside Fusciardi throughout his lengthy rehabilitation were his parents, who, he says, “worked with me tirelessly to relearn everything.” When he started the six-month Pharmacy Technician Program in 2019, he thought he might have difficulty with the math, which had been the hardest to relearn. 

“It turned out to be easy for me because it is a simplification of chemistry math,” relates Fusciardi, “my new discipline.”      

Fusciardi passed his certification exam on the first try, and acknowledges being hired by Beaumont for its hospital pharmacy has special significance. “Working at the hospital that diagnosed and treated my disease and my strokes makes a bookend to my struggle to recuperate. After I have a few years under my belt, I’ll try to get myself to Alaska, a dream of mine,” says Fusciardi. “I will always thank Macomb and the instructors that made it possible for me to have this second lease on life.”

Bryan Farina (shown here at the 61st annual Grammy Awards last year) lives in Chicago, where jazz and politics have left as big of an imprint on its shores as Lake Michigan. And, like his experience as a Macomb student, jazz and politics have left their mark on the alum’s career as well. 

“I was one of the sound engineers for NBC-Chicago on (former President Barack) Obama’s first election night,” relates Farina, who moved to Chicago from Florida, where he was a sound engineer at Walt Disney World, after getting married. His wife Judy, whom he met during a stage production they both worked on, is a music teacher in the city. But as a successful sound engineer whose work has taken him to Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe, Farina’s home base could have been anywhere.

“I’ve worked backstage at the Sydney Opera House and at the Royal Albert Hall,” says Farina. “I have toured with Manhattan Transfer, and still do occasionally.”

After the economic downturn in the late 2000s, however, Farina noticed that tours were shrinking, as were job opportunities for sound engineers. He began exploring other avenues in the industry and discovered that he had the people skills necessary to manage the careers of performers, specifically those carrying on Chicago’s jazz tradition.

“Jazz is my niche, and that’s because all college vocal ensembles perform jazz,” says Farina, who was a member of the Macombers (the college’s by audition only troupe of student performers) for two years. “All the people I hung out with, and still do, listen to jazz. But I try to listen to everything, so I am well informed about the music business.”

After signing up with Rainmaker Music Management, Farina began a new chapter in a career that continues to both surprise and thrill.     

“Audio engineering now falls under the hobby category, and I never saw that happening,” offers Farina, whose clients include Grammy-winning jazz singer and songwriter Kurt Elling. “Kurt was nominated again last year (the 13^th time), and Judy and I got to walk the red carpet at the Grammy’s. The jazz awards are given out during the pre-ceremony, but we stayed for the whole show. It was cool being in that room with all that energy. I was surprised it actually sounded good.”          

It was a high note in his career for Farina, who was “unsure of what I wanted to do,” when he graduated from Sterling Heights High School. “I had a thought it would be in music,” he says, “but it wasn’t until I came to Macomb and started working backstage at the Macomb Center (for the Performing Arts) that it all started to come together.”

That part-time job as a sound engineer soon grew into full time. He was also performing on stage with the Macombers, for which he received a scholarship to help pay for his tuition. He never minded the workload, though, because the opportunity to experience both the front and back of the house simultaneously was transforming. “I realized that I could impact a performance in many different ways,” relates Farina, who transferred from Macomb to Western Michigan University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication and Broadcast Cable Production. “My time at Macomb helped turn me in the direction that has taken me to where I am today.”