Having grown up in Michigan’s east side, I feel like it is pretty customary to ask, “Michigan or Michigan State?” This question usually sparks some friendly banter, but for some, it determines whether you’re allowed back into someone’s home…yikes. However, in my family, no one really had a die-hard allegiance to either of the opposing schools. It wasn’t until one of my sisters decided to go to MSU that I actually saw how incredible the Spartan community is and started to fall for the large and dreamy campus (it also helped that green is my favorite color). Since then, I knew whatever I ended up doing, I was going to find a way to do it at Michigan State.
I have always been a creative person. I have danced my whole life, and since I was a little girl, I loved drawing, painting, and anything arts-and-crafts. Although I’ve moved on from the construction paper ice cream cones, I now find myself constantly DIY-ing funky thrift finds for decor, and I’m hoping to learn the basics of a sewing machine to upcycle some oldies!
But for the longest time, I thought I couldn’t make a career out of my creativity; that pursuing art was too risky and I needed to go a different route. Then, in my junior year of highschool, I rekindled that lost passion and was uplifted by tons of support that gave me the confidence to pursue what truly makes me happy.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The following summer after receiving my acceptance letter, I was sent an invitation to join a program, Citizen Scholars. It seemed almost too perfect of a fit: serve the community, smaller classes, meet others within CAL, support for study abroad (seriously though—this one sold me), and more. I decided to apply and immediately felt the warmest welcome from the crew.
The program officially began for me during the spring 2021 semester, so with a prior semester of Zoom university under my belt, I felt more comfortable and was excited to be in a smaller group of people who were all in CAL. All the freshmen in the program take AL 491, an intro class that lays the foundation of the program for new members. I learned so much valuable information from an array of credible people and got to participate in some really eye-opening discussions.
Even through my screen, I felt that I was a part of a real and welcoming group of people. Personal experiences were shared based on the topics each week, which only made me feel more comfortable in an already awkwardly digitized situation.
Within the structure of the course, we were broken up into smaller groups with an older Citizen Scholar who served as our mentor. I remember in one of our early meetings, the topic was passion projects. My mentor described to us that with whatever sort of passion we have, the Citizen Scholar program could help us carry out any sort of ideas we had. This was one of those moments where I felt I was truly in the right place. It reminded me of the encouragement I received that led me to entirely change my career path. I am thankful to be a part of a community that stirs the passions of others and is dedicated to nurturing them through support and collaboration.
And finally, while I would love to get into how hard the past, dare I say “unprecedented,” year has been, I think we all have that understanding drilled into our heads by now. The only thing I can do at this moment is reflect on what I gained the past year, and I believe for me, this program was a big one. In hopes of the future, I look forward to the better remainder of my time at MSU and in Citizen Scholars, wishing it to be full of community, growth, service, and a far lower screen time average than what it currently has been.
Melissa is now beginning her second year with CS, writing this post immediately upon completing her first year. Content was revised for clarity.