Campus Blog

Brooke Pacifico

Brooke Pacifico

Student Stories

When Brooke Pacifico’s large Italian family gathers together, the calendars come out and everyone wants to know where she’ll be performing next. “My family is very supportive of my work and hobbies,” shared Pacifico, a first-year Macomb student and a member of its choral groups Expressions and the Macombers. “They are only partially joking when they say, ‘See you on Broadway.’”

Ivan Thomas

Ivan Thomas

Student Stories

After graduating from Warren Lincoln High School in 2019 and working at MJR Cinema, Ivan Thomas was bored. He had never been out of the states, was clueless about a career and experienced “culture shock” without the routine of high school. “I sat down with myself and asked, ‘What is it that you really like?’” related Thomas. “I like food, and that’s when I knew what I wanted to do.”

Michelle Spencer

Michelle Spencer, Dental Hygiene

Faculty Stories

Michelle Spencer didn’t enjoy going to the dentist when she was growing up. But she has turned her “dental anxiety” into a positive, showing empathy to those she has cared for as a dental hygienist and teaching her students ways to calm their patients as well.

David Valentine

Career options for today’s pharmacy technician

Student Stories

Pharmacy technicians were once limited to counting out prescribed medications and handling sales transactions, but their roles and responsibilities continue to change as the responsibilities of pharmacists grow and expand.

Pepside (Percy) Masanga

Pepside (Percy) Masanga

Student Stories

When Percy (a nickname given to her in elementary school) Masanga began taking classes at Macomb in the fall 2021 semester, she was ill-prepared for the chill that arrived shortly after the autumn equinox. “Where I came from, it is mostly hot and we do not have snow,” said Masanga, who grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Central Africa, which straddles the equator and is home to a tropical rainforest. “To be honest, I am still getting used to the weather and to the wealth.”

Margaret Anderson

Margaret Anderson, Economics

Faculty Stories

When Margaret Anderson attended Macomb in the 1990s, she was a young mother of two facing a likely divorce and in need of a career to support her family. Since then, she has been dedicated to educating women in personal finance so they can confidently pay bills, manage a household budget and save for the future.

Michelle Davidson

Activist and Advocate

Student Stories

I’d been working as a medical assistant for several years when I realized the field wasn’t the right fit for me. As I was looking for another job, I met a social worker. While she talked about her career, I thought to myself, that’s everything I want to do.

Brian Newman

Brian Newman, Accounting

Faculty Stories

As a teenager, Brian Newman balked at learning French, the language his mother grew up speaking in Quebec. After two study abroad trips to France, however, he was finally capable of speaking French to his grandmother when he visited her in Canada.

Tina Allor

Tina Allor, Wellness, Health and Exercise Science

Faculty Stories

Since working in her early 20s as a fitness trainer at a Bally’s resort in Houston, Tina Allor has been blazing a trail in physical education, including the development of Macomb’s Health and Wellness Promotion program in 2019.

Grace Perrin

Grace Perrin

Alumni Stories

While Grace Perrin considers studying Mandarin Chinese in high school time well spent, it was Python, a computer programming language, that opened up a whole new world for the 22-year-old.

VitaMaria Loduca

VitaMaria Loduca

Student Stories

Just as her parents did when they named her, VitaMaria Loduca is approaching her culinary career in ways both traditional and unique. An avid baker since childhood, she cinched a production baking course at Fraser High School before following her siblings to Macomb. She took a few exploratory courses, at the encouragement of her mom, before deciding the Culinary Arts program was the best fit.

Jill Moffatt

Jill Moffatt

Alumni Stories

Jill Moffatt’s last job was registering patients at the front desk of a medical practice. After completing Macomb’s six-month Certified Professional Coder program, she’s now accompanying physicians into the examining rooms with laptop in tow.

Brooke Jankowsky

Brooke Jankowsky

Student Stories

Somehow in between working on her second associate degree, a part-time job at C.J. Barrymore’s, multiple responsibilities with Macomb’s Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) chapter and being a vocal champion for community colleges, Brooke Jankowsky has found time to study piano.

Erin Weimann

Erin Weimann

Alumni Stories

California’s Disneyland has long been billed as the Happiest Place on Earth, but after two internships and two years of seasonal work at Disney World in Florida, Erin Weimann found it to be a universal theme in the Disney enterprise.

Robert James

Robert James, Business

Faculty Stories

Robert James knows entrepreneurship as well as he does hockey; scoring goals in both arenas and loading up on experiences that he shares with students in the classes he teaches at Macomb.

Alyssa Wood

Alyssa Wood

Student Stories

Sometimes in life, the most important decision you can make is either not to do something or, rather, to pivot and go in an entirely new direction. Alyssa Wood, 25 and from Shelby Township, is the perfect example.

Justine Vescio

Justine Vescio

Student Stories

To borrow from Irene Cara, Academy Award-winning singer/songwriter, Justine Vescio intends to dance right through her life. A fitness instructor, dance teacher and weight trainer, the Macomb student is pursuing two (more) degrees at Macomb in Exercise Science, and Health and Wellness Promotion (WHES collectively) while teaching at a fitness center and two dance studios.

Charles Havern

Charles Havern

Alumni Stories

Charlie Havern thought he was sailing toward a career as a restaurant chef when he graduated from Macomb in 2019 with an associate degree in culinary arts and a lasting friendship with Professor Chef Scott O’Farrell. But a job cooking in the galley of a cruise ship with port of calls in the Hawaiian Islands sent him in a completely different direction.

Amy Jackson

Amy Jackson

Student Stories

Amy Jackson has been playing basketball since she was four. But even after setting a record for earning varsity letters (17) at Flat Rock Community High School and being named Female Athlete of the Year 2018-19 by Monroe Evening News, she didn’t think she was good enough of an athlete to make a college team.