On this episode Jerrion Steele, a sociology major at Lansing Community College, drops by the studio to share insights into his college journey. Reflecting on the importance of self-motivation and choosing your own path instead of following outside expectations, Jerrion highlights how education can be transformative, how surrounding yourself with supportive people can make a real difference, and that perseverance and sacrifice often go hand in hand with success.

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 to the Student Success Stories podcast, the show where we dive deeper with our LCC students and get to know them a little more. I'm Laz Lane and I'm with my. Co host

Brendan Finnerty.

And today's guest is from Lansing.

He's a high school graduate, currently a sociology major with plans to transfer to msu and he was also nominated for student of the month back in October of 25. Today we get to meet Jerrion Steele. Jerrion, welcome, welcome, welcome.

All right, so starting off, I'm going to ask you a little bit about upbringing or just where you're from. So I'm a Hulk grad as well?

Oh, yeah.

A little, little bit before, a little bit older, but yeah.

What year would that be, Brenda?

2011. So you can guess my age.

Oh, okay.

I was still in school.

Yep, yep.

High school.

But I was still.

Yup, yup, yeah. All right, give us, give us a whole highlight, something that you remember fondly, place you like to hang out. I know for sure.

I, I bring it up to my family a lot just with like kind of talking nostalgia.

So give us a spot, place you like to eat, any kind of thing that Holt highlight, place to go, place to eat, something you remember about being from Holt, something you're proud of.

I feel like in Holt everybody went through that crazy edrew phase.

That's my spot. That was my spot.

That was serious.

Everybody had an edrew phase at some point. Not necessarily through high school, but junior high for facts.

Yup, yup.

That was solid.

Yup.

Places to eat. I feel like hope brings in a lot of restaurants and they lose a lot, but staple, whole staple, Sweet Sensations, ice cream.

Gotta tap with them if you've never eaten.

And to our listeners, I did not prepare him to answer that question.

I didn't even know he was from Hobo. We had a thing.

This is it. This is it. A whole. And now that I have a daughter, we're getting into that next next generational cycle of getting her prepared for edgers.

There we go.

It's a skating rink. I don't know if you.

Yeah, it's a skating rink for those non Holt rams.

So man, that was like, the only skating rink in town for a while. Apple Sportsplex. I don't know if either one of you knew about that.

Hell, yeah. I'm old enough.

The west side YMCA used to be a place called Apple Sportsplex.

Okay.

And it was way bigger, but it was like rollerblading. There was all types of different things that you can do. I don't know what happened.

It was a spot, whatever, hangout spot.

I didn't go to Hope, but I will never forget. I went to Sexton and sophomore year, I played JV football, and we visited Holt.

Okay.

And, you know, we're doing our warmups or whatever, and this story is always funny because the announcer or whoever was there, broadcaster, whoever, he was like, all right, today's matchup is visiting JW Sexton. Big rest versus the whole Rams. I was like, oh, yeah, we lost.

They seriously.

They got too much.

That's like a staple football, for sure.

We.

We. And we lost. I can't remember the score, but I just knew it. I was like, their energy is just unmatched. I don't know. I don't know what it is.

So, yeah, that was. That's for Holt. That's a memory for me.

All right, so Lansing, I know Holt is kind of in there, but as far as Lansing goes, since you grew up here or just in the area, what's your favorite restaurant or go to? Go to, place to eat. If you're just picking up food, what would be the go to if you have one?

If I have one, honestly, Rest in peace. To delucas, man. Delucas is the favorite, but they're still alive. Famous taco. Okay. I don't know what it. Even when people come here from different.

I got family that comes from Detroit a lot, or anybody that comes, that's the spot they gotta hit. Famous taco. Yeah, DeLuca's. It was sir pizza. Honorable mention, but definitely.

Oh, sir pizza's up there too. For sure, for sure, for sure. Yeah.

Yep, yep.

Cool.

Yeah, I got a favorite lantern spot.

DeLuca's was a spot, man. Man. Favorite spot. I don't know. I don't really have a favorite go to. I just like food in general. I don't have a go to.

I don't even know if I have a favorite necessarily. It's just I'm not really the pickiest either.

So I'll just work with whatever, you know, for the most part, there's sometimes I'm like, nah, I can't do that.

But I'd probably say meat Barbecue and old time.

Oh, meat. Meat, yeah.

That's like a treat too, because it's a whole experience. And I mean, we probably only eat there a few times a year. So, like, I'll order double entrees.

Just. They've never disappointed, I'll say that.

No, I walk out, out of there in pain.

Yep. In pain.

It's too good, man. It's too good. Yeah.

Good question.

All right, so want to get into a little bit more of your story?

So you had a bit more of a, I guess you could say non traditional pathway, if you want to call a traditional pathway, coming to college right out of high school. So you worked a bit and then stepped into school later.

So tell us about that journey and what led you to becoming a student, you know, later down the road after you'd put some time in. In the workforce.

I didn't realize it wasn't like, high school. And the fact that, like, you got to do it yourself, you got to be prepared. And I did it.

Cause, I mean, I wanted to have a degree, but I think more or less in my mindset was like. Is what I thought I was supposed to do. I thought I was, like, making my parents proud and following the process of life.

Was not prepared in high school. I just didn't take school very seriously, which is crazy. I think about now, like, I was almost delusional at the time.

Like, right up until graduation, I thought I was about to, like, go to MSU and move into the dorms. And I was about to, like, you know, impress somebody and be like a doctor. I was not prepared for that.

Y', all, like, my grades and stuff did not say that. And the teachers and people that I was around at the time tried to prepare me for that.

Like, maybe you should go get a trade or try these different schools. I'm like, nah. Like, they're hating.

Like, I ain't.

I'm not doing that. I'm going to college. Like, you gotta, you know, be ready to go to something like msu. The grades gotta be there.

You know, you gotta have certain habits built. So that wasn't a thing. So we ended up at lcc. My mindset was just like, okay, this is just a stepping stone.

I'm, you know, saving money, and we're just getting started. You still have to be prepared to go to lcc, too.

Oh, yeah.

So I remember, like, first thing I did when I started coming here is I, like, took like 8am classes, you know what I'm saying? I'm about to impress my parents. I've been going to high school, la all this time. I'm about to show them I'm getting up on my own, man.

The whole semester. I came to probably three classes. Not acceptable. My parents were upset, but I couldn't get detention or nothing. So I was like, whatever. We ball.

So that was first semester. I come back second semester. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go to class a little bit later. I'm gonna try some more.

I might have made it to six classes versus a three, but I still wasn't ready. Right at that point, you get on academic probation, things of that, and you start making money. You can do more hours at work.

They can give you a raise now you don't got minor minimum wage or whatever. So at the time, that seemed more important. It took president. Don't do that. If you're listening to this, don't do that.

So we get out of school, we do LCC for like a year. We start working. It's not really getting me where I want to be. You can only, in my opinion. I know other people have found different avenues.

It's a constant debate I have with family and friends that you don't need college. I beg to differ.

For me, I just feel like you get a set of resources and things and a mentality that comes with this that you just might not get from working at. I didn't get from working at McDonald's Speedway Subway. Just didn't happen for me. So we leave. I ended up getting a pretty okay job.

I go to school for, like, medical assistant at the same time. I got a good job. I got hired at the bank. And so I even put the medical assistant thing down after like, two weeks, and I started working at the bank.

And I still do that. That's been like a very good career. Taught me a lot.

But people around me, you know, at the bank, around in Lansing, it's kind of a stepping stone for them. So they come in, they go to school, and a lot of them leave. So I'm like, dang, I want to do what they're doing in the pandemic.

They arguing for more money and stuff like that. They got degrees to fight for them. So I come back to school now. I'm gonna do online classes, right?

I'm just, you know, I'm secretly get a degree and just pop out on there. No, that didn't work either. And I was like, 20, 23. We try that. I'm not an online student myself. I need to be here.

I got to raise my hand, you know, ask questions. So after one semester, I get overwhelmed. I leave school again and I go harder at work. But I always still felt like I was like, missing that thing.

Something that I really. I don't know. I take education seriously. My family does. I just think it's important for many different reasons.

So I just put it in my mind, like, you can go back one day next semester. Next semester, Next semester. Yeah. And before, it was like, I might have been around a lot of people.

Let's say I'm around 20 people a day and three of them are in school. Right. So it was kind of cool. It was kind of a motivation. Got to a point where I was probably around 20 people and 17 of them were in school.

And it just, you know, being around those type of people really affect your mindset. So I just kept telling myself, you gotta go back. You gotta do it, you gotta do it. And I actually got mad. I forgot what I was mad at. Something stupid.

But it's like, I'm gonna show them. I'm gonna get a degree, you know, whatever. I signed up, I came back, I'm in person, and everything just started falling place. So.

Okay.

That's how we. I hope that answered the question.

That's amazing. I mean, I think this, the follow up to that too, is now that you're in it, you're doing both, you're succeeding in both.

Talk about the balance of that. You know, that's. You got to be on top of both of them.

Right?

So how's that been working?

So I had to be intentional about changing my mindset around school. So school was always something, I think that was secondary for me.

So, like, when I was planning my classes, like I said previously, it would be like, well, I can't do that on Thursdays. Cause I go to. I work on Thursdays. Or, you know, what day is my birthday this semester? It's on a Tuesday. I'm not taking no Tuesday classes.

Like, it's my birthday. Yeah.

Yeah.

I had to put school first. So everybody around me that I realized were successful in school and graduating and just getting a good grade.

They did school first and they planned everything else around it. I was the opposite way. So I did life first and I planned school around life. You can't. For me, life is different for everybody.

But for me, this had to come first. So I had to go talk to my team at work after I got some classes and was just like, hey, I can't work on Tuesdays no more.

You know, I work every Saturday in exchange. That was, you know, big to sacrifice. That's exactly what it was. It was a sacrifice. So I couldn't hang out, you know what I'm saying?

Go to the barbershop after work and be there all day after work or anything like that, or just go grab drinks with my friends or whatever after work. It had to be every Tuesday. I'm locked in. My phone is on DND from when I get up, even before class.

I'm down here in the library just prepping and doing stuff and making sure I'm prepared. And then throughout the week, I had to set up certain times where, like, you know, Thursday nights, I had to lock in as well.

I can't go out on Saturdays anymore because I'm working. So a lot of sacrifices were made. Life looks a little bit different.

But at first it seemed like a sacrifice or it seemed strenuous, like, dang, I'm missing this and that.

But eventually, for me, I started to feel better about myself being more productive once the grades and stuff started rolling in, once I'm in class and I can answer questions and stuff like that.

So I think a big part of what you said, like, it wouldn't necessarily be called a sacrifice. I think what we see in movies or shows, you typically see, like, college students having fun, hanging out, you know, parties, whatever.

Whatever you see or whatever you want to see or be into or whatever, you know, a big part of that is they don't show how much you have to balance. They may show a student. Yeah, that is like stressing over an exam coming up or they failed or they had to drop out, whatever. But there's a lot of.

Even at lcc, a smaller school than msu, clearly. But there's so many different things. I wouldn't call it a sacrifice.

It's more like, you know, what I gotta grind right now, so that way I can have fun later. Whatever you entail as fun, but that's a big part of it.

And I think the other thing is a lot of students, which I've told the students that when you first come here, if you know for sure what you want to do, go for it. But sometimes it takes a matter of you stepping away. And it doesn't matter what age you are, 18, 22, 28, doesn't matter.

Sometimes you have to step away a little bit, and then Realize, okay, these are circumstances I don't want to be in as I move on or as I grow older or whatever. I want more, whether it's money, job benefits, flexibility, time, whatever it may be. And then you come back and that's when you're more focused.

Typically, that's when more students are focused.

Yeah, that's true. The focus is different. I definitely had to make it a priority, but it's working. Yeah.

So right now your major is sociology.

Correct.

And you're changing once you go to msu. Talk about how you thought about both programs, or I guess both schools.

So originally, I mean, I'm from Lansing. I think it's like a dream. Did we all want to do is go to MSU or. Honestly, when I was in school, I also wanted to go to hbcu.

I wanted to go myself, but it just seemed unobtainable. Like I said, I wasn't even prepared to do stuff in my own city, let alone, you know what I mean, run away from home. I just didn't have the tools.

I don't think I took it seriously enough. So I started in nursing. I kind of got in the medical field a little bit. And it just seemed like.

I feel like to do that, I mean, anybody can do anything if they put their mind to it. But, like, to be a great nurse or doctor or whatever, you gotta have, like a passion for it. It has to be something within you.

And I think there's things in me, but maybe not that. You know what I mean? Like, I was ready to do some stuff, but not that. So I went general for a minute.

And for me, I didn't feel like I had an end goal. It didn't feel like there was a purpose. I didn't really know what that meant. So I just started looking up. I'm literally like on TikTok.

I'm YouTube reels or shorts or whatever, like, looking at majors. Like, what do people do if they wanna, you know, do different careers and stuff like that. And sociology was a reoccurring theme.

The tools that you gain with the sociology major allow you to exist in a lot of different realms. And everything that I even thought about doing in some factor or another sociology could, you know, you could benefit from a sociology degree.

Yeah.

So that's what made the final decision to do that.

But then once I started learning more about the ins and outs of sociology and how it relates to psychology and, you know, the things you learn, I got even more excited about it. So I really feel like I'm doing The right thing right now for me. Gotcha.

So to finish up the question how I decided to go to msu, I looked at a lot of different schools too. And I mean, we're still. I'm still, you know, in some early stages. I still have time. It's not like that won't switch.

But I do think that they have a very good program and a lot of resources that would not only plant me in a great space for when I'm done, but it also will make me the best in my field that I could be as far as sociology goes, if that makes sense. Gotcha.

Gotcha. And what was your major at MSU or what will be?

I actually forgot the name of it. I'm not gonna. But they're like closely in line with the sociology, but basically it's the same thing. Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Okay.

So you have a passion for that field, it seems like.

Yeah, I've grown one. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

And I guess a follow up to that. And it's okay if you don't have this figured out because that's kind of what we've been talking about already is sort of navigating that process.

Yeah.

Any long term goals in mind or a vision that you have this all leading up to?

Yes and no. So I do the job that I work at now. You can. The company is so big that you can go in a lot of different fields. So if I'm.

If everything works out right, I'll stay with the company and just keep moving up there. They have a position where you travel a little bit and you are an auditor or an inspector kind of other like banks and branches.

So a lot of the skills that you learn, again with the sociology degree, the documenting, the analyzing, the delivering that message, the public speaking, they kind of go hand in hand with that. Yeah. So hopefully one day I'll be in that realm of things.

Yeah. Love that. Yeah. And here's a question too. This has kind of been something that I think has been baked into some of what you've already discussed.

So you were nominated for student of the month by your coach. Coach Andrea Terry.

Shout out, shout out, Shout out to Andrea.

Yep, she gets the job done. So just I think it's cool to have somebody believe in you, at least enough to even nominate you for a student of the month.

So I think this is something that has kind of been underlying a little bit of what you've already described with just your support network. But how has other's belief, or even your own self belief Impacted your journey and kind of propelled you into different things or whatever.

Help keep you accountable, propel you towards whatever it is that you've stepped into.

That's a big question. So I'll start with the others belief especially again shout out to Andrea.

Having that person to check in with and believes you and it's helping being instrumental in there.

Not only sometimes in the back of my mind it's like I'm not, I am doing this for me but I'm not the only one involved in this process or this journey. So she comes up in the back of my mind and it's good to have that second person to check in with, you know what I mean?

And, and to have those resources. We can't. I can't do it all on my own. I didn't, I, you know, I didn't. I tried the first two times, it didn't work.

So I think having those people there that impacts you because it, I don't know, it just gives you an extra person to you know like do it. For myself I think I just am always been a little self motivated or like have a self love.

I've always knew what I was capable of even when other people didn't or weren't prepared for me to do certain things or didn't. So I just had to remember the goals outside of any cause. You know, other people come by and they give you advice and tell you well you know, just do.

Like I said in school, they were like, well maybe you should just go get a trade or maybe you should just go do. I had to make a decision of who I was and what I wanted and not veer away from that. If that makes sense. If that answered the question.

So you just having a plan for yourself and making a commitment to not deviate.

I mean we like 10 years later, my 10 year high school reunion just passed and I still have the same goal to make sure I get a degree, make sure that I'm able to go in a workplace and be valuable and things like that. It hasn't changed. It's been a long. The road didn't necessarily look like I wanted it to be but, but where I came in, in that is, I did have a plan.

I don't care if it took me the regular four years, two years or 10 years, we are gonna get this done. So I think you have to be self motivated first. You have to do everything for yourself.

But along the way you do need and you know my family, I told you, I'm the oldest so it'll feel good to take this back to them. If I can do it, y' all can do it.

Yeah, definitely. Self motivation is definitely important. Do you feel like there's ever. And you mentioned. And this was not on the.

The show itself, but before the show, you mentioned that you are the oldest of seven total. Right. Siblings? Yeah. How much pressure is it on you to, you know, obviously you want to lead by example.

You know, everyone's looking up to you, or if anything, they're looking at, okay, what did you do first? There's always pressure from family or peers, from yourself even. Do you have a lot of pressure or. And if you do, how do you handle it?

I definitely do. A lot of it, I've recently realized, was pressure that I placed upon myself.

Cause although your younger siblings and stuff look up to you, they get to a point where you look back and it's like, they don't care what I'm doing. You know what I mean?

It's cool.

If I can come back to them and give them something and be like, yo, this is, you know, So I guess somewhere in the back of their mind, it may always be a blueprint. So, yes, definitely there's pressure, period, in my. Like I said, I want to do good for myself. That's why I go as hard as I go.

But there is some pressure to want to be. I mean, you the oldest. You don't want to be like the slob of the family.

You know, in one fashion or another, you do set the blueprint, whether they realize it or not. You know, my dad used to tell me that, like, see, look, you graduated high school, now everybody graduating high school.

You know, so you working full time now. Everybody working full time. And I'm like, man, they ain't listening to me. Like, you know, they ain't doing what I'm doing, but low key.

So I guess it's a little bit a balance of both, if that makes sense. Right. So there is a lot of pressure. Yes. A lot of it does come from within. You have to be realistic.

I guess the balance is making sure that you're doing your life for you, if that makes sense. And I had to figure that out early. Right. Like with the sports stuff. So of course, I'm the first boy. They wanted me to do some sports stuff.

They dropped me off at a couple practices, but I wasn't going. Like, it wasn't. And so I had to figure out again what I wanted to do first. And that's the balance.

Like, you can't lead other people if you're lost yourself, if that makes sense. So with, you know, having them, some, hopefully I had gave.

Have given them something to look up to, but I had to do that for myself first before I could give it to them. Yeah, that makes sense.

Well, even if it's, you know, if you, if you ever feel like, you know what, I didn't give them much, sometimes that's a lot within itself and you don't realize it. Yeah. When you look up to older people, typically how you should look at it is if they've made mistakes, you learn from those mistakes.

Or in other words, you, you know, they took this pathway. You know what, it went left, it went wrong, whatever. I'm not going that way.

Oh, for sure.

Let me take that experience and go the opposite way. For sure. So even.

I'm not saying that you made a lot of mistakes or anything, but if there's something that, you know, if you don't come back and bring knowledge, wisdom, whatever it is to the table or whatever you want to label it at, and this is for anybody, but they take it as okay, this is all. They take the good and they take the bad and hopefully turn that into good. If that makes sense.

For sure.

Yeah, that's good. I mean, you gotta, you gotta do what you can. I mean, it's your life. Everyone's lives are separate. But you know, it's always that.

That added pressure when. Oh yeah, it's definitely there, but you.

Just gotta find the. You know what I mean? Like.

Like some decisions had to be just made for me, but I still had to do them in a way that even if I'm not doing the same thing as you, even if you wanna be in the same room, you can take the things that I did in this room and apply them elsewhere. Does that make sense? Yep. So that's what I kind of tried to keep in the back of my head.

But I also had to realize, even with me making my own decisions. Cause, you know, I'm not just. My parents probably had a path for me that I didn't follow directly.

There was some pressure on them there to be a good parent. I still, you know, you know, sometimes I bet they just shaking their head and just praying. But the same thing with my siblings.

Like they gonna do what they wanna do, but I.

When they do come to me or they do try to follow me or figure out what I did to get where I'm at, I have to make sure the example that I do set is there. Yeah.

Well, before we wrap up this was this was fun so far. We can keep on going for sure. But one last question for you or, you know, what's one piece of advice that you could share with the listeners?

If you can give any piece of advice to anybody, what would that be?

Figure out what you want to do, not what someone else wants you to do. And find a path that works for you to get it done. You know what I mean?

Commit to it and figure out, like I said, my path to getting a degree has not been the same, the traditional path or maybe what somebody wanted me to do. But I figured out what I wanted to do and I stuck by it and I'm getting it done. I'm gonna get it done. So figure that out.

Just stay true to yourself and stay passionate. Believe in something. Believe in somebody. Pray to something. You know what I mean? Don't just be lost out here.

Yeah. So that works. Well, we appreciate your time and thank you for joining us.

Thank you guys for having me. This has been cool. Hopefully we, you know, I come back.

One day, hey, this is part. We could do a part two. We're not opposed to having, you know, as you progress and move towards graduating and moving towards your educational goals.

Finishing note. Yeah, we can definitely. Why not? I'm not opposed to it, so. Well, thanks again for joining us today on the student success stories show.

If you would like to be a guest, connect with us at success-storiescc.edu. And to listen to this episode, previous shows or other shows, 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.