Nicole Noblet

Student

While she already graduated from Bay College with an associate degree in business administration last spring, Nicole Noblet is still working towards a pair of bachelor’s degrees at Bay. She is planning to get these degrees while staying in the area thanks to a partnership between Bay and another Upper Peninsula college.

Nicole graduated from Gladstone Area High School in 2018. Before coming to Bay, she completed her freshman year of college at the University of Wyoming.

“I changed my major, so I came to Bay,” she said.

Previously, Nicole was majoring in architectural engineering. She decided to shift gears after realizing she wanted to focus on a more math-heavy field.

“Accounting was already my second choice for a major,” she said.

Nicole started taking classes at Bay during the fall 2019 semester. She said the classes she is taking right now are prerequisites for any accounting or business-related four-year degree.

“As of right now, I’m just taking classes until I transfer to Lake Superior State University,” Nicole said.

Studying at Bay College has been a positive change for Nicole so far.

“It’s close to home, and it’s less expensive than a four-year school. Also, I like the class sizes,” she said.

Along with her classes, Nicole has been involved in the Bay College/LSSU Regional Center Business Professionals of America student club while at Bay. Last year, she participated in the BPA State Leadership Conference in Grand Rapids and took third place in two of her events. This year, she is serving as the vice president of the club.

Nicole plans to start taking Lake Superior State University classes through Bay’s LSSU Regional Center in the winter 2021 semester. The partnership between the two colleges started in 1989, when LSSU started providing undergraduate degree completion programs at Bay, and it has continued to expand ever since.

According to Nicole, her associate degree in business administration will serve as a “starting block” as she works towards earning bachelor’s degrees in business administration management and accounting from Lake Superior State University.

“I will be double majoring at LSSU, so I’ll have two bachelor’s degrees when I graduate,” she said.

While she is excited to complete these degrees, Nicole said she does not yet have concrete plans for what will come after that.

“I don’t have anything set in stone yet, because I’ll be graduating in 2023,” she said.

However, she did say she plans to focus more heavily on the accounting side of her education while searching for a career.