In this episode, listeners meet Jaree Thompkins, an LCC graduate whose path to higher education was filled with challenges and determination. After stepping away from college for a time, he found the motivation to return to Lansing Community College after being inspired by his family, and his desire to be a role model for his son.

Mentioned This Episode:

Website: Maximizing Academic Growth In College (M.A.G.I.C.) at MSU

Website: Academic Success Coaching at LCC

Welcome to Student Success Stories, hosted by Lansing Community College's Academic Success Coaching team. We believe in working with students to help them identify and utilize their strengths. We empower them to succeed at LCC and accomplish their academic goals. On Success Stories, we dive deeper into the backgrounds and the stories of LCC students and learn how they turn challenges to triumphs.

All right, welcome back to another episode of the Student Success Stories Podcast, the show where we get to know LCC students and hear a little more about their stories and background. I'm your co host Laz Lane and with me is my co host...

Dominique Vaughn.

All right, today's guest hails from Detroit, Michigan.

Initially took some time off, came back to continue his education at LCC and is heading to the University of Arizona to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Master's in Legal Studies. He's a husband and the father of a three year old son. Joining us to tell a little bit more about his story, today's guest is Jaree Thompkins.

Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here.

Glad to have you with us, Jaree. So for me I'm a huge foodie. When I like to visit Detroit, I love to eat.

So you know, light question, start out, what's your favorite place to eat in Detroit or growing up or your favorite food type?

Heavy question. Oh, no pressure.

Heavy question. And obviously the city is known for food. A part of the resurgence in the city has been a lot of new restaurants, a lot of new bars, what have you.

So there's a couple. So a personal favorite of my mother's that we go to often if we're downtown is Jojo Shake Bar.

Not necessarily something that is only in Detroit, but fun place, 90s themed. The ambiance is something that my mom really takes to. So we go down, it's right across the street from Comerica Park. We go down often.

My mom will want to go. So that would be a favorite personal for me. I love cutters. Cutters over in the Eastern Market. Handmade burgers, hand rolled burgers. They are amazing.

They have always have been. Obviously I grew up in the Brewster Projects and the Brewster Homes. So I grew up right across the freeway from the Eastern Market.

So Cutters has been there for a while, had closed for a little bit and then reopened. I've taken my wife there so she can enjoy it for the first time. That was cool for me. So I enjoy cutters. Outside of that, the list Goes on.

I mean, there's a couple of bars that I enjoy going to. Gray Ghost, for example.

There's restaurants that I haven't been to yet, that I want to go to, that have opened, that have been down there, that just haven't been able to go to. There's a couple of speakeasies I've been to. So the list can go forever.

Go on and on.

The list can go.

You gave me two to check off my list, so I'm going to check them out.

Man. I'm always down for a burger.

And then there's another burger joint. Royale with Cheese is actually right down the street from my high school, Detroit School of Arts.

So Royale with Cheese, if you think of Pulp Fiction, when you think of that name, that's exactly what it is. It's plastered on the wall. When you walk in the restaurant, when you get your plate of food, they have like little newspaper clippings and it's so.

But it is delicious. And that is where the, the name came from.

It's from that scene with Travolta where he was talking about being overseas and they call him Burger Royale Cheese.

Cool.

So.

So a theme spot, correct?

Yep.

All right, so again, you're from Detroit, Big city, obviously plenty of different options there as far as colleges. There's Oakland, there's Lawrence Tech, there's Wayne State. Wayne. Yep. There's so many that we can list. What made you choose MSU initially?

Scholarship, to be honest. So there's a few different things. So coming up. I was always like an Ivy League dead set kid.

Like growing up, watching Fresh Prince, seeing Carlton talk about Princeton, talk about like, I always wanted to go Ivy League, always. So in my mind I was going to Harvard or I was going to Northwestern, what have you.

That's where I was initially and so got accepted to a few of those schools. I was accepted to Harvard, I was accepted to Northwestern. I got partial scholarships to go to those schools. I was blessed enough to do that.

But at that time, being able to take care of the rest of the tuition as an out of state student. There are parent plus loans that came in the mail in those packages.

And my mom basically sat me down and was like, this is what the parent plus loan is. This is how much I make. And your little brother is still behind you. I can't afford that.

So it came down to schools that I could afford to go to on my own. And that list came down to University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota were essentially a top three.

I was downtown with friends when Michigan State won the game in the Final Four.

Gotcha.

And so the way that they stormed Jefferson and were downtown, I looked and I was like, I kind of want to go do that. That looks fun. My high school didn't have sports teams. Detroit School of Arts, if you all know, Aaliyah Aliyah went to that high school.

Our founder believed that students should be able to hone in on their craft and the arts. So we did not have any sports teams whatsoever. So for me, not having to get the homecoming game, that any of that. My sister went to King.

I wasn't a part of that rivalry, had nothing to do with that. So for me, being able to see how big sports was, being able to see that add into how good the academics were, I was like, I want to go there.

So that's what led me to Michigan State. The scholarship obviously made it an easier choice, but, yeah, so that's what led to me choosing Michigan State.

Nice. And MSU is not far either. It's from Detroit. I say Detroit and Lansing. Basically down the street.

Exactly. You know, you a kid growing up in, you know, the projects or you don't. I mean, for me, it was a trek.

Like, you know, I had never been to Michigan State. Closest I had been, I was in student government in high school. So I did come to the state once.

I had been to the Capitol, but other than that, I hadn't been here until I got here for a couple of the summer programs that summer.

Gotcha.

So it was, you know, and my family didn't really visit that often. It was. It was a bunch.

So, yeah.

Yeah. Nice. Okay.

So speaking to that scholarship, in your bio, I noticed that you participated in the Advantage program.

I did.

Created and ran by Eric Thomas. Correct.

Can you elaborate a little bit on that program, how you got involved with it, and essentially how that played into the decision process of going to msu.

So originally, I didn't know about the Advantage. I didn't know about Magic, which is a summer program that students can attend and be a part of before they start their freshman year.

I didn't know about that until I made the decision to go to Michigan State. And then later on in the process, I got invited to. I got a letter about Magic, and so I signed up for Magic, went there, and that's where I met Eric.

For the first time. So Eric came and spoke to us as a part of Magic, and he introduced the Advantage, which was his program.

It's a student run program, but he was with that, and so he invited us to that. And the second I got to campus, I joined the Advantage. So it was a weekly program. It was run by upperclassmen.

And then obviously underclassmen got to be a part of it, working with them as well. But upperclassmen speaking about how to stay true to yourself, how to go through academics, how not to slip.

There were students that had spoken with Eric that had stepped away from school the same as I ended up doing.

But at the time, the goal was to change the percentages of students, especially whether it be first generation, whether it be minority, what have you, to change the percentages for the better of students who did not. Were not retained or did not end up graduating from the. From major universities, predominantly white universities, what have you.

So that was the original idea behind the Advantage.

Okay, gotcha. Really cool.

You had. It sounds like there was a good opportunity there. Did you have, like, a lot of. Were there any, as far as the upperclassmen go? For the most part.

Did you have any, like, anyone take you under your. Their wing? Mentor?

Initially, yes. Okay. Initially, yes. There were a couple that, I mean, I still talk to to this day.

Gotcha.

Initially were connected to me. And I just so happened to listen to the wrong crowd.

Just so happened to, like, go with the upperclassmen that were, you know, on paper, seem like they're cool, they like.

And then you find out they skip a class or two here and there, and you might start doing that and you, you know, so I was too busy listening to the wrong people. And then, you know, I'm a man of faith. God has a way of putting you where you need to be.

And up until that point in my life, I never really struggled when it came to academics. I didn't struggle when it came to figuring it out. I could work or take care of things at home, what have you have extracurriculars.

And then all of a sudden just go asa final. Like, it was never an issue for me until I got to college and I got to college and it hit. So it was okay at first. I started working too many jobs.

I got a relationship. I was, you know, I had an apartment. I was doing my own thing. And then it kind of. It hits, you know, at some point. And so that took effect.

I think that's the learning curve that a lot of us experience, you know, as we Transition into higher education. Speaking of that, too, were there any, like, built in supports for the program within?

There was access if you asked for it.

Okay.

So there was no mandatory. You know, we got tutoring this day. You come here. We got. If you sought it out, it was provided for you, but you had to speak up and do it.

And up until that point, that young Jarre was very. I got this. This is. This is okay, but, you know, this is fine. So I didn't really talk about classes. I didn't. I went, I attended.

So, like, I had those opportunities and I didn't see them through the situation.

Gotcha.

But that's part of that transition, too, where, you know, especially if you go from one city to another, or like you say, you didn't experience the homecoming, things like that. So now you get to, you know, msu or you just get adulthood, college life, young man, you know, all that.

Like, there's a lot of people that go through that same situation where you control yourself, but you don't know how to handle life at the same time.

Correct. You don't know how to balance those things. I was a nerd. I didn't really have the carte blanche with ladies, if you want to go that far.

So all of a sudden, I get to college, you got it going on, so to speak. You're doing all right, you're doing well in classes, and all of a sudden that attention from ladies starts changing.

That coupled with all of a sudden, I'm on scholarship, I had excess money, I'm buying season, I'm going to these games. So there's a lot going on.

And if you're not ready to balance it or you're too cocky or arrogant to recognize that there's things that you should do to change that you can get caught up really quickly.

Oh, definitely. Definitely. Well, with that, what's something people would be surprised to know about you, outside of what you just mentioned?

With the nature of my work and how I am around my friends, around my circle, it will be very easy for someone to think of me as a very extroverted person. I'm actually pretty introverted. Introverted, extrovert.

I got you.

So while I do work in sales, while I do work with maintaining and growing relationships and talking to people and being charismatic and talking to friends and sometimes being seen as the leader of my friends, where I'm putting plans together, Being looked at to kind of figure out what we're doing.

More often than not, I will enjoy at the end of my night, going home, going in my basement, turning on my Xbox, watching my shows, like doing my thing and just to me, right, turn on my vinyl. And I just, I love that I can enjoy. You know, I'll get in my car and drive, just drive. And I, you know, like, my time is perfect.

So I think that it's something to that, right? I think you're, you're a hybrid and I can relate to that a lot too.

And, you know, these are some of the conversations we have where you're in a very personal role, dealing with a lot of people. And sometimes in order to recharge, right. You need that alone time to reset and to reengage.

When you're dealing in a role where you're dealing with so many different people and having so many different conversations on a daily basis.

Yeah, it can tire you out, man. The more. Any customer service, any. I've said this before, having weekends off is nice, correct?

But sometimes they get booked up and you're like, man, I'm tired already. We haven't even, we haven't even gone like truth. You kind of predetermined, like when you plan to leave some of these events.

So my wife, I have people to this day, I have people that are like, I don't understand how you can do what you do, right? So like, I have. I'll be in Detroit. I'll go to Detroit tonight, I'll come back, I'll work tomorrow, I'll go back to Detroit the next night.

Yeah, I was just in Detroit for the draft because I have a lot of in season tickets. So I was there, shoot down, I go see my mom, I go to Fort Field, I drive back home, I get up, I go to work the next day.

People are like, how, how can you do that? I have to be in bed by a certain time. I'm like, you know, I don't work a 40 hour week, right. Because I'm in sales and people ask all that. They don't.

They feel like I'm just, I have this social battery. I'm like, trust me, I recharge it. Trust me, I go home and leave me alone. So, yeah, absolutely.

Definitely another part of your story that I can relate to. Right.

Cause I think a lot of students at some point in the journey, you know, take time away or they have to step back for a personal reason or they just don't have it figured out in their Initial try at college. Right.

What were some of those motivating factors that played into you wanting to return to completing your degree and just, you know, what did that journey look like for you in that 10 year period?

It's been a long journey. So initially made the decision to step away after just straining myself too thin. I was working two jobs. One of those jobs was a landscaping company.

Especially during the winter. I would work 13 hours shoveling snow in condos around the area, what have you, and I would get done. I remember it was one day vividly.

I had a Spanish class. It was an 8am class. I took my Spanish placement test for Michigan State, tested in the second year honors and you can't, you couldn't go backwards.

So like I couldn't take a lower class. And I tried to tell the counselor at the time I can read and interpret, but I haven't spoken in a couple of years.

So it's difficult, you know, what have you. So I take this class. It was 8am I remember one day vividly, I worked overnight because we had a massive snowstorm. I worked almost 14 hours.

I got done, it was like 7:55. It's like, okay, I'm gonna go, I'm go to class today. I had missed the last three weeks, mind you.

So I show up to class, my boots are still snow, snow riddled sweatpants. I walk in, my professor looks at me, I sat down and that was just.

That happened multiple times through the last semester or two where there were days where I was working so much that I was missing class. Professors would look at me like, where have you been? You know, what have you?

And so it got to a point where I started to think about the ramifications for the future. You fail too many classes or you mess this up. You do that, you walk away from everything. And at that point, I had taken my lsat.

I was planning on going to law school. So you're so far off of that at this point, you're so far off the schools you want to go to.

And the next step, okay, the best bet is just back away, take a break. So it starts with, I'll take a break, step away for a semester. I'll get things right, I'll get my budget right.

And then a semester turns into two years, and then two years turns into two and a half, and then two and a half turns into five. And then it got to a point where for me mentally, I would question myself. I first registered, I think we can probably find it.

Well, a year ago, because I started last January. So it took all of that time. I had gotten up one day and was like, all right, I'm gonna do this.

Got online, enrolled, you know, well, signed up, did the application, did that, and then didn't do. Didn't commit to the next step. And I think part of it was mentally, can I still. Am I sure I can do this?

Questioning, can I do this at the level that I think I can do this at? Can I? So that was part of it, was getting over the mental hurdle for me because I had fallen off of what I pursued for myself.

I've always been big on education. I was the one that spoke into what I wanted to accomplish for myself. I just had family members that pushed me to go after what I wanted to.

I had to accept that I wasn't able to, which took a little bit of time.

I had to accept that I wasn't able to forgive myself for the decisions that I made and the mistakes that came as a result of those decisions, the relationships that had been tarnished from that, the time that I had taken to do that. And then aside from that understanding that I made a promise to myself, obviously, I'm a father now.

Originally, I was thinking about becoming a father. I'm gonna wanna tell my kids, you start what you finish what you start.

And so if you do something and you choose to do this, I don't care if it's basketball. We're going to play that season of basketball. And if you then don't like it, we can reassess, we can figure it out later.

But you're going to finish that because you started it. And then I made my mother a promise and I made my godmother a promise that I would return. They've always been very inspirational to me.

My mother at one point in time was going to go to med school. And before her and my father got divorced, they had some things that that took place that caused her to not be able to do that.

So that entire derail incident caused her to have to raise my brother and I in the projects, as opposed to having a home that my older brother and sister lived in. And it changed our entire story arc. Like, our entire trajectory of life adjusted because of things that happened.

And so it got to a point in life where I sat my mother down and I said, why? What are you doing? Go back to school. And she listened to me at that time.

And now my mother has a bachelor's and has a master's, and my mother is in mental health. She's done.

She's worked on gambling addiction, and she's presented and she's nationally board certified, and she's doing her thing, even with her sarcoidosis, which affects her breathing. And she was just in the hospital, but she still gets up every day and she does what makes her happy.

And so if my mother can do that with everything that she's been through, why can't I keep my promise to her to go back and finish? My godmother's no longer here. My godmother passed away a couple of years ago, but I promised her as well that I would go back.

So not only for myself, but for myself, for my family, for my nephew that's behind me, that's figuring his self out in life. For my son, who's three years old, who doesn't know a man in our family that's graduated college, I'm still the first one to do that.

So outside of everything for me that I love about education, that I have a passion for, I've made a promise to other people that I can go back and do it. So it took for me to accept the decisions that I made and for me to tell myself it's okay and we still have life, right?

God puts breath in my body today to live better than I did yesterday. And so the decisions that I made is what I told my wife we first met. What are the most important things to us that we want to accomplish?

My wife wanted to become a homeowner, which we both agreed that renting wasn't necessarily the best thing to do. She was in a position to buy a home. She had put herself in that position. I want to go back to school. I want to finish school.

My wife is an alum of Lansing Community College. She went. She graduated with business. She's currently an underwriter for her, she's done. She's like, I did that. I got my associates.

I don't need any more. For me, it was. This is what I wanted. Yeah, I need to go back because Michigan State wants to see that I can do this still.

I need to show myself that I can still do this. So I'm go back to school. And so we went through some things, had some career changes. We had some life events.

And through all of that, we got to a point where my wife looked at me and said, okay, the budget's right. You can go Back to school, done. And the second she said that last year, it was December. So cool. And I registered and the rest is history.

And here I am getting ready to graduate from lcc.

So that's an amazing testimony to perseverance, overcoming challenges and just general self awareness to put yourself in this position to this point. So, you know, kudos to you.

Thank you. I mean, it's really a thank you to my circle. I have friends that you know.

One of my best friends from Michigan State, he went back to school and finished. He's currently an engineer. He's a Michigan State engineer, which we all know is a great program. We were in school.

He's been a hockey player his whole life. One day he had a migraine that lasted a couple days. So he just so happened to go to the hospital.

Next thing you know, we get a phone call that he's getting ready to go in for emergency brain surgery because he had a clot. And so if he didn't go to the hospital, he probably wouldn't be here today. That he has some setbacks.

He had to step away from school and go back and fight his way back. But he did that back then and he's working today. He's one of my best friends. He was a groomsman in my wedding.

So I thank him for showing me that it's okay to push through. I have a little sister who a few years ago I didn't know her and today she's my little sister, if somebody asks me.

But I met her and she's gone through some things in her life and she's been thrown some haymakers. Life has thrown her some, some, some Anthony Joshua's, some Deontay Wilder, like life has thrown some things at her and she persevered.

And she's an alum of Michigan State University. She finished school and now she's putting the pieces in her life together to shape her life the way she wants.

And so if those people around me, people in my circle, can persevere and push through. I've already spoken about my mother. Why can't I do the same thing?

Yeah.

So, Yeah, I work 50, 60 hours a week. Sure, I'm a father, I'm a husband, but when the day's done, you know, Laz and I spoke.

I had a semester just a year ago, right, where I took on a little too much. I traveled about every two weeks and I failed a class here at Lansing Community College. The same thing could have happened psychologically.

I could have questioned it. I could have. But it is what it is, I understood that. I accepted. I took on too many classes, probably. I worked a little bit too much, probably.

But at the end of the day, is this something that I can overcome and push past? Yes, absolutely. And here I am probably not going table getting ready to four point this entire semester. So we'll see.

Yeah, yeah. And it's good to have that support system for one.

But then also, like you say, your son, your nephew, people that look up to you, you know, you're always going to have, especially as a man, as a male figure, you're always going to have somebody, a friend, a younger cousin. Usually it's a family member, somebody looking up to you. So it's good that you're pushing through just all your obstacles and everything. So.

And congrats, by the way.

Appreciate it.

And the support system. Iron sharpens iron.

Correct.

So, all right, before we wrap up, one last question for you. What's one piece of advice you want to share with current or future LCC students?

Trust yourself and always forward. That is a saying that I keep in my household. I call it the Thompkins mantra, if you will. Always forward.

No matter what happens, no matter what life throws at you, life is going to have curveballs. There's going to be adjustments. People are dealing right now with rising gas prices or groceries being more expensive.

But somehow you find a way, right? Somehow you find a way forward. Because if you give up, then what? If you say, no more, then what? Then what's going to happen?

So always push forward and just have faith in yourself. No matter what. Some people around you might say, some people around you might do. If you believe that you should be doing something different.

Don't be afraid to walk that walk.

Yeah. Well, you heard it, folks. You heard it. Good testimony. Again, good story. Jerre. We appreciate your time, man. This was. This was a good one.

We can always do a part two,.

So I'll be happy to do a part two. I appreciate you all having me here, so no problem. I'm just appreciative for the opportunity.

Yeah, for sure. All right. And thank you listeners for tuning in to this episode.

If you want to listen to any previous episodes or other shows that LCC offers, go to lccconnect.com.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to Student Success Stories. To listen to this episode or previous episodes of Success Stories, visit LCCConnect.com. We want to connect with you and learn about your successes. So if you or any other LCC student wants to share their story, connect with us at Success-Stories at LCC.edu. Everyone has a success story. Let's hear yours.