Category: Alumni

SC4 alumni make an impact on and off SVSU baseball diamond

The season is underway for two St. Clair County Community College alumni as assistant coaches for Saginaw Valley State University’s baseball team.

Dr. Jay Scott and Jason Ball are spending a lot of time on the road keeping up with the team’s 50-game schedule that has already taken them to Atlanta, St. Louis and Nashville, while still returning home for work and family.

Both Scott and Ball credit SC4 as the place where their careers took shape. Scott, 39, who grew up in Burlington, Ontario, is currently an associate professor of biology at SVSU, director of the SVSU Electron Microscopy Facility and assistant baseball coach.

Scott began his collegiate baseball career at SC4 before transferring to SVSU in 2001. He attended SC4 for three semesters and played on the baseball team in the 1999-2000 seasons as a centerfielder and leadoff hitter.

He decided to attend SC4 primarily because of a baseball scholarship, but Scott said the college’s learning environment was particularly appealing.

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Dr. Jay Scott

“SC4 provided a great environment to start my academics,” Scott said. “The transition from high school to college can be overwhelming, but the small campus and class sizes were not a large departure from what I experienced in high school. This created a comfortable, familiar environment where I could focus on the challenges of college academics without struggling to adjust to life outside of the classroom.

“The small class sizes provided an opportunity to for me to grow as a student and as an individual,” he continued. “It allowed me to receive a lot of guidance and mentorship from both academic counselors and professors, and also provided a classroom experience that was engaging and unintimidating.”

During Scott’s tenure at SVSU, he earned first team All-GLIAC honors both seasons and was named the 2001 top offensive player for the Cardinals. He currently holds SVSU baseball single season records in batting average (.463) and on-base percentage (.549)

After graduation, Scott earned a Ph.D. at Queen’s University in Ontario and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of New Mexico and University of Iowa’s Department of Internal Medicine.

“When I think about the influences that have led me to my current career, SC4 started it all,” said Scott, who now lives in Auburn, Michigan. “Ultimately, I chose a career that I love at a smaller institution where undergraduate students are the focus and where professors develop and mentor students on a more personal level.

“My experience as a member of the SC4 baseball team was equally impactful,” he noted. “The experiences I had and the bonds that I developed with my teammates are some of my most cherished memories; however, the greatest impact came from my coaches, Rick Smith, Pete Lacey and Jan Prozorowicz. These coaches taught me the value of hard work, discipline, accountability, and skills that shaped both my abilities on the baseball field and my character.”

Ball, 41, is also an assistant baseball coach at SVSU who works with pitchers and oversees the recruiting process.

A 1995 Sandusky High School graduate, Ball was a left-handed pitcher for two seasons at SC4, where he served as sports editor for the Erie Square Gazette student newspaper.

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Jason Ball

“For being from a small town, I was really lost,” Ball said. “There was no way I was going to walk into a four-year school and survive. If I would have gone away, I don’t know that I would have stayed.

“(SC4) was a great transition for me,” he continued. “It was kind of a middle ground.”

Ball transferred to Central Michigan University and became a volunteer assistant from 1999-2001, when he worked closely with current SVSU head coach Steve Jaksa.

Ball said SC4 is where he made an important connection while doing work-study for his health and science instructor Dick Groch, an SC4 baseball coach from 1965-82 recognized as the scout who signed Derek Jeter to the New York Yankees. Groch also coached U.S. and Canadian teams in the Pan American Games and was a scout and special assistant to the general manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.

After receiving his bachelor’s in journalism from CMU, Ball used that connection to become an associate scout with the Brewers for three years. He has also coached at Essexville Garber and Nouvel Catholic Central and was involved with the Saginaw Bay Riverdawgs travel team.

Ball, who lives in Bay City with wife Jill and children Nathan and Morgan, agreed that SC4 is where it all began.

“It’s where everything started,” Ball said. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for SC4, I don’t know what I’d be doing, but I wouldn’t be where I am now.

“Those two years at SC4 were some of the best experiences ever,” he added. “I met so many people there, and all the connections I made, I still keep in touch with them.”

SC4 education a tradition for the Seppo family

There was no question where Brenda Seppo was going to college after graduating from Port Huron Northern in 1976.

Her parents, W. Helen and the late Harley Smith, both taught classes at St. Clair County Community College.

“Both of my parents taught there, so we had little choice as to where we were going,” said Seppo, 60, of Lakeport. “It was a good choice anyway — a good place to get an education.”

Today, Seppo — who founded the church outreach organization Operation Transformation with her husband, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Seppo — is one of three generations of women in her family to earn an SC4 degree.

Her mother graduated with an associate degree in nursing in the early 1960s and earned her bachelor’s from Michigan State University. She returned to SC4 and taught in the college’s nursing program for 25 years, retiring in 1991.

Seppo received an associate of arts degree in 1977, and her daughter, Rebecca Achatz of Casco, graduated from the nursing program in 2003.

“SC4 gave me a very good liberal arts background that I have used in many instances in my life,” Seppo said.

Her father taught political science and history at the college for more than 30 years, retiring in 2003, and would often drive to satellite campuses in the thumb to teach night classes.

Seppo said SC4 gave her an excellent start.

“I was a cheerleader for SC4 with the basketball team,” she said. “I was working part time and took classes year-round. I was able to graduate in December and saved myself a semester.”

Seppo then attended Eastern Michigan University, graduating with a bachelor’s in education and social science. After returning to Port Huron, she was a stay-at-home mom, caring for Achatz and the couple’s other two children, Andrea Schultz of St. Clair and Dr. Andrew Seppo of Holland.

“When I had Rebecca, Mom was already up at the hospital with her students when she was born,” Seppo laughed. “Rebecca was actually the demonstration model.”
Seppo wasn’t surprised her daughter followed her grandmother’s footsteps into nursing, which she notes as “one of the things SC4 is most famous for.” Achatz made it through the program in two years, becoming a registered nurse at age 20 and now working for Beacon Health Care.

“Rebecca always wanted to be a nurse probably from junior high on,” she said. “There was really no other way to look at it, because the education there with the nursing program was excellent for the value.”

She added SC4 gives students an opportunity to learn how to tackle college classes while still living close to home.

“They were challenging,” Seppo said. “You have to take basic classes anyway, so why pay two or three times the amount? That’s why we had all three of our kids take some classes here. It’s a good transition, too. You have to learn time management and the class sizes are smaller. Again, it made for really easy transition for all of us.”

Mission Accomplished: Marine City woman completes nursing degree with boost from scholarship

Dec. 13 marked a major achievement for Nikki Leonard, 24, of Marine City. She graduated from the Licensed Practical Nurse program at St. Clair County Community College.

From her earliest years, Nikki says she knew someday she would be a nurse. So, she started taking pre-requisite courses for nursing and then decided to take a break from school before entering the program at SC4. During her break, she decided to test the waters of the medical field and become a certified nurse aide. Following the month-long class, she got a job as a CNA at Medilodge of St. Clair. It was then that life threw her a curveball. Her mother got very sick.

Read more of Nikki’s story from The Keel.

Alumni spotlight: Callie Oppertshauser

Callie Oppertshauser credits much of her success to the time she spent at St. Clair County Community College.

A Port Huron High School graduate, Oppertshauser, 29, participated in dual enrollment through the Blue Water Middle College Academy for an intermediate algebra class her senior year and graduated in 2008 with a 3.2 grade point average.

“It wasn’t good enough to get into any of the colleges I applied for,” she said. “I didn’t think I was ready to go away. I needed that transition period to learn how to study.”

She attended SC4 for just over two years, including summers, before deciding to transfer her 84 credits to Michigan State University to pursue elementary education.

“SC4 really helped me grow,” Oppertshauser said. “The professors were very supportive and cared. That’s why I didn’t transfer sooner, because I was comfortable and was doing well.

“I really learned how to be a student at SC4,” she continued. “If I would have gone away after the first year, I would have come back home. I learned how to manage my time and get all my work done.”

Oppertshauser graduated from MSU in 2014 with a bachelor’s in dietetics but ultimately accepted a full-time marketing position she had applied for a month earlier with Gannett at Port Huron’s Times Herald newspaper.

In January of this year, she accepted a position at the Port Huron Housing Commission as the administrative assistant to Executive Director Jim Dewey.

“I love the people I work with,” she said. “A lot of them have worked there over 10 years. It’s a great culture, and everyone is committed to serving people who need a helping hand. I’m happy to say that we’re able provide those in need with clean and safe housing.”

Outside of her work for the housing commission, Oppertshauser volunteers as a lunch buddy at Port Huron Schools’ Literacy Academy at Cleveland. The program — which is searching for more volunteers to pair with a long waiting list of students — focuses on mentoring children in grades K-5, helping them form a positive attitude toward school.

“I have been a lunch buddy since the beginning of this school year, and I look forward to it every week,” she says. “Being a mentor for a young student is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. Not only am I making a difference in a child’s life, but my lunch buddy is making a difference in mine as well.”

Oppertshauser explained she wanted to return to Port Huron after school to be close to loved ones. “I love Port Huron,” she said. “I love the water, and I really missed that when I was gone in the middle of the state. I have a very supportive family, and I didn’t want to get too far away.”

Oppertshauser isn’t the first in her family to attend SC4. Her mother, Lura, graduated from Port Huron Northern, while her father, Eric, attended Port Huron High School and earned his associate degree at SC4 on his way to becoming a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri. Her sister, Hillary, a 2010 PHHS graduate, went to SC4 before transferring to Macomb Community College for its early childhood daycare program.

“I’m really proud to have attended SC4,” she added. “It’s helped my whole future, leading me to success at Michigan State and ultimately in my career.”