Meet Our Alumni

Melissa Arant knew in high school that she wanted to work in an operating room, but she just didn’t see herself behind the scalpel.  During her first year at Macomb, however, the Anchor Bay high school graduate made a timely discovery.

“I’ve always been intrigued by surgery, but I didn’t know I could get a job in surgery without becoming a surgeon,” says Arant. “I was working as a nursing assistant and taking my prereq classes for nursing when my counselor told me about the Surgical Technology Program.”

Arant appreciated the detailed instruction and mentoring she received from Liz Ness, the program’s coordinator and lead faculty member. An internship at a hospital honed Arant’s skills even further.  When she graduated in 2006, she was hired by Bon Secours (now Beaumont) Hospital in Grosse Pointe.

“The surg tech program at Macomb is exceptional, and Liz Ness is awesome” says Arant.  “I was definitely prepared for the job.”

A surgical technologist is a scrubbed, gowned and gloved member of the surgical team, responsible for sterilizing, arranging and handing surgical instruments to the surgeon. Arant enjoyed the diversity and pace of the job, but after a few years began thinking about the next career move.  That’s when she returned to Macomb to earn her nursing degree.

“I’m glad I didn’t go into nursing first because I wouldn’t have gotten such hands-on experience in the operating room,” says Arant, now afternoon charge nurse in the surgical department at Beaumont.  “If it wasn’t for Liz and the surg tech program, I might not be here. I’m responsible for making sure the surgical team has everything they need for the different types of operations.”

The work, Arant says, “is never boring.” And it’s rewarding to know that her attention to detail makes the operating room safe and efficient for both surgeons and patients. Arant’s weekly schedule of three 12-hour shifts complements her husband Jeremy’s as a radiographer, so either mom or dad is home with daughters Lila, 5, and Ava, 2.  And although she has a full-time job and a young family, Arant continues to look for opportunities to advance, recently adding Certified Operating Room Nurse to her credentials.

“I always want to keep moving forward and learning more,” says Arant, who will likely pursue a bachelor’s degree once her daughters are older. “My main job is facilitating the operating room work flow, but if they need a surg tech, because we don’t have enough of them, I gladly fill in.”

Inspiring future leaders toward success

Sarah Zigila has a favorite saying: “Let my haters be my motivators.”

It’s carried the former Macomb student through difficult times when she couldn’t find support for her ambitions, and it’s something she’s shared with countless high school students while working with Winning Futures, a Warren-based non-profit organization that empowers youth to succeed through mentoring, strategic planning, and workforce preparation.

“Even if you don’t have support,” Zigila says, “you can choose your own path.”

Zigila is “an Eastsider through and through” and came to Macomb straight from L’Anse Creuse High School in 2000, but she admittedly “fell off the wagon” during that first year. No one in her family had finished college, and she said it was hard to find the help she needed to continue her education.

But she found a way, returning to get her associate degree from Macomb in 2003 and later earning a bachelor’s in community development from Central Michigan.

“I encourage others often – if you’re confused or unsure, Macomb is a phenomenal school and I strongly recommend it,” Zigila said.

After more than three years at Winning Futures, Zigila is starting a new job as business development executive at Innovative Learning Group in Troy. And this spring, she will earn her master’s degree in training and development from Oakland, proof that persistence pays off.

“It’s something no one can take away from you,” Zigila said. “Other than getting married, it will honestly be one of the happiest days of my life.”

At the nerve center of the nightly news

In his Broadcast Television class at Macomb, Erik Anderson had to produce a 30-minute television show, weekly.  The experience has come in handy working the assignment desk at WXYZ-TV, channel 7.

“If people only knew what it takes to put a news show together,” says Anderson, who earned an associate degree in communications from Macomb in 2004, followed by a bachelor’s degree in the same from Oakland University. “We’re checking out tips, listening to police scanners, sending out crews, and at the end of the day we see the whole puzzle come together and we have a story.”

Anderson was introduced to the broadcast field at South Lake High School, which led to a gig controlling the audio and lighting in its auditorium his senior year.

“But it never seemed like work,” offers Anderson, who went from high school to Specs Howard School of Media Arts, where he earned a one-year certificate.  “After Specs Howard, I knew I needed a degree, and Macomb was my jumping off point for that. At Macomb, I had the chance to explore what I liked about the industry and what I didn’t like.”

While attending Specs and Macomb, Anderson interned at WJR Radio.  A self-described night person, he nevertheless accepted the unpaid internship starting at 5 a.m. He highly recommends that other broadcast-bound students do the same if given the chance. “I learned more in my internship that I ever did in a class,” says Anderson.  “And for those who think they are going to be the next Howard Stern, just keep in mind there is less than a one percent chance of that happening.”

Progressing from internship to part-time producing job, Anderson had hoped to keep advancing toward full-time employment at WJR, but the radio market was entering its grim period and jobs were scarcer than FCC licenses. Applying for a part-time writing position at WXYZ, he was offered a full-time job on the assignment desk instead.  Anderson didn’t hesitate, “Where do I sign?” he asked.

While he misses the technical aspects of his work at WJR, Anderson enjoys the faster pace of a television newsroom, where each day is unpredictable and the next big story might be on the line he just answered.

“The assignment desk is the nerve center,” says Anderson, who sometimes has to huddle with the competition when it comes to calling up the station’s chopper.  “We share one with 2 and 4 and have to vote on whether we want to send it.”

As assignment editor, Anderson interacts regularly with reporters and camera crews, and sometimes the anchors as well.  He works the night desk primarily, from 3:30 to 11 p.m., and is solo after 6 p.m. On occasion, he’s called upon to write a web story or a ticker at the bottom of the screen.

“I’m working in the market I want to be in,” offers Anderson, “And working in the industry I want to be in. And it’s still a lot of fun.”

Alumna pays it forward with teaching career

In eighth grade, a teacher cautioned “think smaller” when Stephanie Messel shared what she hoped would be her life’s work.  She credits a few Macomb faculty, as well as author Stephenie Meyer, for convincing her that there was no limit to what she should dream or could do.

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was in second grade,” says Messel, who earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Wayne State University last year and teaches middle school at My Virtual Academy (MVA). “My learning disabilities left me behind in many areas, but they also helped me succeed in others. Today, I am able to connect to my students on their learning levels because I have been there.”

Students attending MVA often experience difficulty learning in a traditional classroom, as Messel once did.  Assigned early on to special education classes, she worked through her memory and comprehension issues and “grew out of them” by high school.  Still, one learning obstacle still lingered. Enrolling at Macomb, she met with Counselor Patricia Dolengowski and disclosed a debilitating test anxiety. Dolengowski arranged for Messel to take all of her tests at the Learning Center, and soon the education major was outperforming her own, and one former teacher’s, expectations.

“By the time I transferred to Wayne State (at Macomb’s University Center), I no longer needed test-taking accommodations,” says Messel. “Macomb helped me make that transition. I love that school.”

The daughter of two teachers and sister of a John Hopkins professor, Messel also loves teaching.  This year, she is teaching seventh graders math, science, language arts, social studies and history, as well as two electives: journalism and health, which she creatively customized based on the MVA syllabus.

“One of my students asked me if I like my job, because I always sound so happy,” relates Messel, who conducts her classes via computer, Skype and weekly telephone calls to all of her students. “And I do, but I one hundred percent want to experience teaching in a classroom.”

And she is also one hundred percent certain that working at DisneyWorld helped her develop the confidence she needed to teach others.

“What a great experience. That was my living away from home,” says Messel, who spent over a year in the Magic Kingdom, on three different assignments through Macomb’s Career Services.  “It opened me up to different cultures.  I even learned a little bit of Portuguese from one of my roommates.”

Messel also took American Sign Language at Macomb and as many social science and history courses as she could, after discovering in a class on Egypt and from the Twilight books, that she has a passion for  both learning facts and reading fiction. “As long,” she says of the later, “that it has a happy ending.”

And, like her student’s learning issues, happy endings are another thing she knows a little bit about.

“I’m living my dream,” says Messel, who will soon be pursuing a master’s degree in education.  “Macomb helped me prove some people wrong.  You can’t let anyone bring you down. Whatever you want to do, you just have to try.”

Macomb provided soft landing for Disney on Ice star

It couldn’t teach him how to control a jump with his toe pick, but Macomb did make it possible for Daniel Palmeri to triple axel his way around full time-work, school and Olympic-level training as he entered figure skating competitions following six tours with Disney on Ice.

“It worked into my already crazy schedule,” said Palmeri, who continues to train every day but Tuesday and works full time as the skating director at Onyx Ice Arena in Rochester Hills, averaging 10 to 15 hours a day on the ice. “Everyone at Macomb has been so supportive.”

This spring, Palmeri was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in Colorado and earned his second gold medal in the Adult Figure Skating Championship – master’s junior/senior men’s division. Prior to the two golds, the 2015 Macomb graduate won a bronze and silver, respectively, in the 2013 and 2014 U.S. Collegiate Figure Skating Championships.

“It all started when I was six and my parents took us to see Disney on Ice,” relates Palmeri. “I was a big Disney kid growing up and that was our first Disney experience. I didn’t know much about figure skating, I just wanted to be in Disney on Ice.”

And, indeed, he has, performing roles as Pinocchio, Buzz Lightyear, Prince Frog and Jack Skeleton on tours that have taken him to Europe, Asia, and Australia, and across the U.S. Following two months of training and preparation, each tour averaged 12 shows a week and nearly the same number of rehearsals, “to keep the numbers clean.”

“When I got time to do anything touristy, I did,” said Palmeri, who rates Mount Fuji and Seattle among his favorite places. “I’ve gotten to see so many things and do something I love at the same time.”

Palmeri is now attending Wayne State University, where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in public relations, minor in broadcast, preparing for his second career.

But, the 27-year-old said, “I’ll skate until my body doesn’t let me any more.”

Discovering design made all the difference

If not for an immediate dislike of technical drawing and an ongoing relationship with Macomb, Cheryl Sacrates may never have discovered that happiness, as Charles Schultz once assured us, is a warm puppy, or two or three or more.

“I started (at Macomb) in 1991 when I was still in high school,” relates Sacrates, who was offered a partial scholarship as one of the top 50 seniors in her Roseville High School class. “I was going to be an architect but I found that instead of doing the mathematical calculations, I just wanted to make things look pretty.”

That was the first clue that she would be better suited for a career in graphic design, but, at the time, she didn’t know a thing about it. After earning an associate degree in general studies and stepping hesitantly into an unsatisfying career in accounts payable, Sacrates returned to Macomb and its Career Services Department for help researching and assessing her career options. She then entered the Media and Communication Arts (MACA) program and earned subsequent degrees in Web Design and Digital Design and Layout.

“It’s an amazing program with wonderful instructors,” relates Sacrates, communications coordinator for Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills. “Just last month, I called Frank Lombardo (her former photography instructor) and asked him to recommend a camera for our department to buy.”

Sacrates joined Leader Dogs in 2011 on a part time basis. Three months before she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Oakland University in 2013, she was offered full time and accepted it enthusiastically.

“I love my job, it’s always changing,” says Sacrates. “I might work on a newsletter this week and an advertisement next week. I get to go on photo shoots to help set up dogs/puppies for shots I take myself.”

Sacrates also appreciates the casual dress code at Leader Dogs and the shared commitment to the organization’s mission, both of which she attributes for the “high morale” that characterizes her work environment. And she never minds taking her work home with her.

“I have raised three Future Leader Dogs and will pick up my fourth on June 10, a male golden retriever,” relates Sacrates. “I get them at seven weeks old and return them for formal training when they are 12-15 months old. Yes, it’s hard to turn them in.”

There was one, however, that Sacrates didn’t have to say goodbye to after all. Aizyn, a two-year-old golden retriever, was “career changed” after a few months of training. She is now a certified therapy dog, as well as a permanent member of Sacrates’ family, and she and her mistress visit Beaumont Hospital every other week to the delight of patients and staff. Aizyn also gets to accompany Sacrates to work, as does any Future Leader Dog in the latter’s care.

“How many people,” asks Sacrates, “get to bring their dogs to work?”

A fringe benefit, acknowledges the lifelong animal lover, not extended to most architects or accountants.

“I could never have gotten the job I have now without the MACA program. It taught me everything I needed to know as far as design goes,” says Sacrates. “Now, I get to enjoy my job every day instead of dreading going to work. I am extremely lucky to have found a career that makes me happy!”

Macomb alumnus starring in “Hockey, The Musical!”

In his second-grade Christmas pageant, Greg Trzaskoma was the only kid who didn’t need a microphone. That booming voice and personality would do him well after coming to the conclusion, while selling television sets at Montgomery Ward, that he wanted to be an actor.

“So I went back to Macomb,” says Trzaskoma, who had briefly attended here after high school with less than stellar results, “But something changed in me and I loved it.”

Perhaps it was because he had found his calling.

Trzaskoma took acting classes and won lead roles in Macomb theater department productions of Jesus Christ Superstar (Pontius Pilate) and Grease (Teen Angel). He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre from the University of Detroit (Mercy) and Master of Arts in Theatre from Wayne State University, followed by awards and critics’ praise while performing at the Hilberry Theatre, Jewish Ensemble Theatre, Planet Ant Theatre and other local venues. And, then, there was that gig with the Pistons in the early 2000s.

“After years of Shakespeare, Sophocles and Moliere,” mused Trzaskoma, at the time, “I am the ‘O’ guy.”

That’s “O” as in the red one Detroit Pistons’ guard Jerry Stackhouse painted on Trzaskoma’s stomach as part of a popular series of television commercials that paired him with local blues legend Thornetta Davis. Now, the University of Detroit Mercy and Macomb theater instructor and founder/director of the Warren Civic Theatre is starring in the much heralded Hockey, The Musical!, written by Mitch Albom, Detroit sports-journalist and bestselling author.

“He’s very hands-on,” says Trzaskoma of Albom. “His brother, Peter, is directing it but he was in England during the auditions, so Mitch ran auditions here and Peter watched and directed via Skype. Very 21st century.

However, Hockey – The Musical!, thinks Trzaskoma, is timeless.

“It should be called Detroit and Red Wing Hockey – The Musical,” muses Trzaskoma, shown here on stage at The City Theatre. “It’s very Detroit-centric with many references to our city and special appearances by celebrities and Wing greats like Steve Yzerman via video clips. But Mitch has done a nice job making it not too inside. Non-hockey fans seem to be enjoying the heck out of it as well.”

So much so, in fact, that the musical’s run at The City Theatre in Detroit, which began in May, has been extended by three weeks – through July 10. Albom calls his first musical, “Spamalot with hockey sticks.” While Trzaskoma, who plays the dual roles of Stanley/Terry, says that unlike Albom’s previous work, “There’s no message, no deep theme. Just laugh.”