Whitney Massie

Student

Officially, Bay College student Whitney Massie is a liberal arts major. However, she is currently trying to decide between two different fields of study— pre-engineering and mathematics.

Thanks to Bay’s dual enrollment program, Whitney first took classes at Bay while she was still a student at Bark River-Harris Senior High School.

“I kind of just felt out of place with my peers— what they were learning wasn’t really adequate for me. My brothers were dual enrolled, and that inspired me to be more like them and get my education in order,” she said.

According to Whitney, dual enrollment was an enjoyable experience for her.

“I loved going to high school in the morning, and then being able to leave to come here in the afternoons,” she said.

Whitney graduated from high school in 2023 and began studying at Bay as a full-time student during the Fall 2023 semester.

“I was originally going to go to Michigan Tech, but I didn’t have enough money to go, so I went to Bay and got as many scholarships as I could,” she said.

So far, Whitney said she has enjoyed being an “official” Bay student, noting that she has made several friends at the college. Her classes have also been going well, with Linear Algebra being her favorite class of the semester.

“It really challenges you to think outside of normal algebra. I’ve always seen math as little puzzles that you have to solve, and that’s one of my favorite things to do,” she said of this class.

Another highlight of her time at Bay has been her teachers.

“They’ve all been really good and very helpful,” Whitney said.

Along with her classes, Whitney has gotten involved with TRIO. She attended the program’s Night Against Procrastination event during the Fall 2023 semester; in the Winter 2024 semester, she began working as a tutor for math classes below calculus. Additionally, she has gotten TRIO tutoring for her own Calculus 2 class.

Whitney’s interest in mathematics was sparked during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that point, she started studying math independently online.

“For some reason, it just really clicked, and I stayed online until the second half of 10th grade. When I came back, I had already taught myself a lot of Algebra 2,” she said.

On the other hand, she has also been interested in engineering for quite a while.

“I’ve always been a very hands-on person—one of my favorite things to do is taking things apart and putting them together. I like seeing how things are built and how the pieces fit together,” Whitney said.

Regardless of what pathway she ultimately chooses, Whitney aims to pursue a bachelor’s degree at Michigan Tech. From there, she hopes to find work as a high school math teacher or a mechanical engineer. But first, she plans to continue studying at Bay for a while longer.

“I think I’m going to stay at Bay for another year to take some of the harder courses that other people would take at Michigan Tech. The support here is significantly better than it is there,” she said.