Breanne McNally

Student

Motivated by personal life events, Bay College student Breanne McNally has majored in both nursing and criminal justice during her time at the college. She is currently focusing on the latter field with the goal of becoming a police officer once she completes her studies.

Breanne graduated from the Escanaba Public Schools Virtual Career Center in 2017. Shortly after that, she put her education on pause due to complications during her pregnancy.

“I had twin daughters, and almost lost my life and theirs while giving birth. When I came back home after being in the ICU for a couple months, I decided to go to college,” she said.

When she started her higher education at Bay in the fall 2019 semester, she focused on nursing because of this experience. She spent six years as a certified nursing assistant and was even accepted into Bay’s nursing program. Still, she decided to shift gears before entering this program because of something else she went through.

“I got domestically abused by my ex, and that made me want to switch my major to criminal justice. A lot of women get treated badly, and I wanted to help our community more,” Breanne said.

Breanne went on to note that she was especially looking forward to working in this field as a woman.

“People don’t think a woman can do what a man can do, but there are a lot of women who can do more than what a man can do,” she said.

Breanne changed her major to criminal justice shortly before the fall 2022 semester began. While she has just started on this new career pathway, she said things have been going well for her so far.

“I love all my classes, and (Criminal Justice instructor) Sue Sundstrom-Young is amazing. I would highly recommend her to anyone,” she said.

According to Breanne, she is hoping to begin an internship with Escanaba Public Safety this winter before graduating next fall. From there, she aims to earn her AAS degree at Bay, enter the Northern Michigan University Regional Police Academy, and look for work in the local area.

“I’m hoping that when I graduate from Bay and the NMU police academy, I can work for Escanaba Public Safety,” she said.

Breanne said she believes anyone seriously considering taking Bay College classes should do so.

“It might seem scary, but it’s very informative – Bay is definitely the way,” she said.